[tornado]

1 week after purchasing my Mini S, I took it into the dealer to have the alarm installed, rubber floor mats added and the headlights aimed. Let me preface my following comments with the fact that I have never liked any dealer service (mainly VW & Ford) in the past. My first BMW service wasn't much different.

I try to arrange for Saturday visit by calling during the week...after 5 messages left, they finally call me 4:30 pm Friday afternoon and say I can bring it in next day. Fine. I show up at the very posh service reception area where a conceirge is supposed to meet me at the car. After standing around for 10 min., a BMW pulls up and out of nowhere a service man rushes up to the BMW driver. Hmm, seems Mini drivers are invisible. Another 10 min., and I finally locate a guy to talk to. "No problem Sir, we'll get your alarm, floor mats and headlights seen to...will take about 2 hours." 2 hours later I walk up to the same guy and he says they're just finishing up and washing the car. "Oh, and the headlights have day time running lights...you need to switch them on to low beams for night driving." I respond "I know that, that's why I stated the LOW BEAMS were not aimed correctly; I could only see 40 ft down the road at night". He scurries off saying they'll have look. 30 min. later I return to his desk to find out all is done. The rubber mats are in place, the alarm is installed the headlights have been adjusted. "Great, can you explain to me how the alarm works, what it sounds like etc?". He tells me he doesn't know. "Is there some documentation about it I can read?". He says no and tells me to speak to my salesman about it. So I decided it's time to get out of there and head home (2 hours away!). Half way home I notice my day time running lights don't seem to be on. I try the low beams...they flicker briefly and go off. Now I'm getting annoyed. I realize I'll have to go at least another week before I can bring the car back...so no night driving until then. Drive the rest of the way home in a grumpy mode. When I pull into the garage, I give the lights another try...voila! They now appear to work just fine. I did stop for a lunch on the way back, so perhaps the system needed a complete shutdown and restart before the lamps would work again. You think the service folks could have advised me of this. What if it had been night time?

Mike.