[Tom F.]

Just wanted to start a Tate thread. I put a deposit down on an S April 20th and after they got the (June?) allocations last week they "expect" that I will get an August build date.

Dealt with John Dugan, the manager, at first, once I was committed he passed me on to Scott. Both seem on the up and up.

[jim]

Are they offering MSRP?

[Tom F.]

MSRP plus $200 floor mats.

I think that out-of-state buyers (that will not become service customers) for pre-spec cars were having to fork over for a 6 CD unit, but I don't know if that will apply to cars that are ordered.

[Tom F.]

I suppose that I should have asked for written confirmation each time changes were made, but the fact remains that Tate did not make one of the two changes I requested.

I could not check on this on the Owners Lounge because I cannot get the details screen under my Mini.

The original order was
EB/W
Sport
Cold
Sunroof
Lapis leather

When my sister got her Cooper and raved about the automatic a/c, and I started worrying about parking dings, I asked them to add:
Premium
Reverse Alarm

The salesman, Scott, verbally confirmed the addition.

Then, after all the discussions about wheel size, ride, and the heavy weight of the 17" wheels, I deleted the sport package, and added back in fogs, xenon,strip and DSC,
so I would get the 16" wheels.

This second change was incorporated.

My car is now 150 status, and so its to late to correct this problem.

Word to the wise: get a paper confirmation of your changes...

[Tom F.]

I guess I would give this a 4.5 on a 1-5 scale.

Car was ready when we arrived, though the prep work was a little sloppy- there were some spots of cosmoline or whatever the goop they put on to protect the paint left on the car.

Scott did a good job of demo'ing the features of the car, though by the time we headed home it was dark and I really would have liked to know that the dome light also had two focused reading lights available as well...map reading by the dome light caused a bit of night blindness that could have been avoided if we had known about the reading lights.

Biggest demerit was for lack of follow through on a question the following am. I could not find the inside trunklid release ring based on the picture in the manual, and Scott said he had never seen it- suggested I call the service department Tuesday..I would have appreciated it more if he would have made the effort to call the service department, and then called me...

Tom F.

[jlivingood]

Has anyone who took delivery from this dealership been able to get comfort opening enabled?

Thanks
Jason

[CubeFarmGopher]

I originally posted this over on Roadfly, and someone mentioned that I should post it over here also. For information, the rep I have dealt with is Matt Cole. I have never spoken with John, the sales manager, outside of when I first walked into the dealer and he directed me to Matt.

The Story:
When I put in the contract on the car with Tate Mini last April, everything was fine, but then, there was nothing really difficult about it. I knew what I wanted and it was just a matter of them writing it down and taking my check.

Since the build process has started, I've realized that I am not just one step ahead of them in knowing the status of my car, but I'm a whole freakin' lap. When it was unloaded from the Haul Triton, I called my rep and told him that according to AskMini it was scheduled to be there on the 4th of January, and I was going out of town that weekend, so I'd really appreciate it if there was anything he could do. He said to me: "I'll try and see what I can do to get it here for you by then". After it sat at the port for a couple of days, and became evident it wouldn't make it on the 4th, I asked him if there is anything he can do to get it by the 10th for my wife's birthday, again he said: "I'll see what I can do." When talking to him today, he told me that it hasn't left the VPC yet, when I know that it was released to transport yesterday, and made it onto a truck this morning (courtesy of AskMini). At last, he admits to me that the only information they have on my car is what is printed out every morning, and they don't have any contacts or communication with anyone else.

Last week, my wife and I go into the dealer to have her car appraised and start some of the financial paperwork in preparation for the Mini arriving last weekend. That is when the wheels really started to come off the cart.

First of all, the rep takes her car up to the BMW showroom to have one of their guys appraise it. When the appraiser comes back, he walks up to the rep, right in front of us, and says they need to step outside to talk. When the rep comes back, he tells us that they can't give us an answer until the next day b/c the used car sales manager would be the one to determine the price. Now, why could the appraiser not say that to us, or tell him in front of us. Why did it have to be some big production with him coming to get the rep and them walking outside?

So, we fill out the credit apps and all the paperwork, and give it to the rep who gives it to the sales manager who says he can't give us any results until the next day (understandable since it was around 7pm), which happens to be the sales rep's day off. So we should find out the following day, Friday.

Friday comes and the rep calls me to tell me that they'll give me 1/2 of my buyout figure, and then can't tell me whether or not they'll give me the financing until I decide what I'm going to do with my car. I know for a fact that all they do is run the app and get the Beacon score then tell me that they can or can't do it, regardless of the final numbers. During this, I've already had financing lined up from my Credit Union, and I'm just waiting on the final numbers to have them cut me a check, if needed.

Finally, yesterday I talked to the rep and told him that I wanted to have the contract written such that they pay the remaining lease payments and turn the car back over, and I'll write them a check covering the payments, so that it all goes under one sale contract. I get the call, from my rep, this morning that all they're willing to do, trade-in wise, is give me the value that they appraised the car at and nothing else (so much for service). He, then asks me if I've gotten an interest rate from another lender that they need to match, and when I ask him what rate they'll give me, he says that they haven't run my app yet (*6 DAYS LATER*), so he doesn't know.

This whole experience, that started out rather pleasantly, has just become a wholly frustrating joke. One of the key aspects of customer service is satisfying the customer through 100% of the process. The group over at Tate may be able to get 90% there without any problems, but they have serious issues with that last 10%.

If you've read this far, I appreciate your patience and thank you for letting me rant.

CFG
'03 MCS BRG/B PP/SP/CWP/Nav

[deirdre]

I posted this in the MINI.com Owner's Lounge.

Also, I was charged $1,000 for rally lights - one of 3 dealer packages, a canvas bag of junk (cute junk but still stuff like a pen for this money) for $500, rally lights for $1K, or the 6 disk for $1K...anyway:

"Just wanted to post about my experience to save some folks a headache. Most everyone in here must have already placed their order, but if friends are interested in your car, as every one of mine has been, you might save them these problems.

We bought our beloved MINI from the dealership in Annapolis, MD. If you have a choice, as we did with the Sterling, VA location, I would seriously suggest exploring it.

We ordered our car in June. It arrived promptly in October. We went to the dealership and went through the purchasing process. Small complaints are that we weren't offered little things like the free CD or told about the options like daytime running lights, or hatch pop. We loaded our car, spent quite a lot, and still felt rushed and uncared for, but were thrilled to have our new car after many months. Maybe they count on this, but as importnat as aftercare is in the auto market...

Anyway, the dealership offered to register our car. We agreed. 6 weeks into our 8 weeks of temporary tags, I called the dealership to find out where our plates were. I was told that they were unable to register the car because one of us had a VA license (where the car lives) and one of us a DC license. The VA license was fine, the DC license was a problem. I spoke with the titling office which confirmed this but also told me that they had told our rep in the dealership this immediately (back in October). Now, we had only two weeks to register our car.

Having to go to the dreaded DMV would have been bad enough but we were waiting for a FedEx from the dealership with our Certificate of Origin which never arrived. Apparently, the rep hadn't checked her voice mail and retrieved our new address. She'd sent it to our old address and FedEx had left it there without a signature. It was lost.

By now, we could no longer drive the new car. Our temporary tags had expired. After a couple of weeks and many phone calls, we received a duplicate Certificate of Origin from the dealership. In the meantime, we had gone to the DMV (3 hour wait!) and converted the DC license to a VA license, so they could have registered the car for us. We asked the dealership to do this. They refused!!

We took it to the DMV where they pointed out that the dealership had neglected to attach the $700+ check required for registration which we'd paid them. Uh huh...So, after a 2nd three hour wait, we went home very dejected and called the dealership.

Eventually, we got the check, but only after we couldn't drive the car for a solid month. Here's what I'm thinking:

1. The dealership should have known immediately that they couldn't register the car for the DC license and had us do it.

2. When the titling office told our rep that she couldn't do it, our rep should have called us immediately. Instead, she never called. I had to call her looking for our plates which would never have come.

3. Our rep should check her voicemail. Not sending the paperwork to the right address put us into a period where we could no longer drive the beloved car.

4. They should have registered the car for us when they received duplicate paperwork and we had two VA licenses.

5. They should have remembered to send the check!

6. They had asked us outright for a good rating on the questionnaire MINI is supposed to send out. We never received the questionnaire (did anyone else?), but intend to request one.

Totals:
-5 hours at the DMV not including the 3 hour visit to convert the license.
-Many more hours on the phone with the dealership.
-One month of no MINI driving, no loaner and refusal to renew the temporary tags.

I really hope you all had happy experiences and don't intend to use this forum to gripe, but wanted to warn you all about this terrible experience.

Take care!"

[Shawnster]

Clueless, rude, arrogant and condescending. Do NOT use Tate !

Shawn

[gweeni'smom]

Ditto. I periodically call Tate and let them know where my Gweeni is right now. Salesman Matt Cole is no longer there, new Sales Manager is Rick. I will drive by soon to see if my car is on their lot, not sure they would recognize it.

[Shawnster]

Just incase anyone forgot TATE SUXS !!!!!!!!!

Shawn

[mfc]

Just a reminder:
The expierience is what you make of it!

[Shawnster]

Yeah , well I am not GOD, so I can not turn water into wine and no matter how hard I try I could not have turned that experience into a positive one!!

Shawn

[jzanlot]

Just thought I'd let eveyone know that Tate Mini has a new sales manager (in case you were ever unhappy) As of June 2004. He has sold for Tate BMW and Mercedes Benz of Annapolis and I recently order both my son and father Mini's from him. I have to say they are really becoming more customer service! I would highly encourage people to do business there!

[dej]

I have had only good experiences with Tate, from ordering through service. As an example, the then-sales manageer, John Dugan, helped me with a minor fix on a Saturday afternoon when the service department was closed (he even loaned me a tool from his own car!). I had my S there recently for the 10K service and rattle hunt and was pleased with the outcome.

[Thor Sanchez]

Nothing but good experiences for me with Tate, too. Scott has been a great Motoring Advisor (really knowledgable, very up-front. He even admitted that I probably knew as much as he did at various stages of ordering because of the internet - and he made sure I was checking MINI2 and Motoringfile, because he does all the time). The manager made sure we were getting everything we needed. Everybody was friendly and nobody was pushy. When it came time to pick up the car everything went as expected - no mysterious charges, no unwanted add-ons... just exactly the car I wanted at MSRP.

[JeremyApp]

For most aspects, Tate, has been fine for me. They sold me my car at MSRP, no forced extras like floor mats or anything like that. Delivery date was exactly as expected, and everything went pretty smoothly. My only comment is that they really need to learn to use the phones. Whenever I call them and ask to speak to someone in service, parts, anywhere, they always transfer me to the operator. Then, when I ask the operator, they transfer me back to the first person I spoke with. I always have to ask for the direct number, because they can't figure out the darn phones! This has happened about 5 times now!

[Paul!]

I bought my car from Tate. Scott was my MA. Tate (and Scott) was the only dealership in the DC area that took me seriously. I first visited on a Friday; on Monday, I bought the demo car that I test drove! Scott knew a lot about the car and answered all of my questions, and not once did I feel pressured to buy.

As for their service, I'm reasonably impressed. I bought my car in for its 10,000 mile oil change and gave them a short list of things that were wrong with the car:

1. Blown right front speaker
Replaced.

2. Brown coolant and low coolant level
Topped off, did not flush. I asked about the coolant turning brown, and they said that it's a fairly common occurance on MINI's, but they couldn't really give me a good answer on what causes it. They did say that it was nothing to worry about. <shrug>

3. Car stalled twice
ECU upgrade to v. 38.1.

4. Occasional rattle under car.
They said that they couldn't replicate the noise, but they tightened whatever they could find loose under the car. Haven't heard the rattle again.

The coolant thing has got me a little bothered, but it's still got 40,000 miles on the warranty. If the coolant issue ends up screwing something up, it'll be covered. Other than that, it was a good experience all in all.

-Paul!

[dondada]

Just bought my Mini from Tate Mini today and let me tell you it was the worst place I could've ever bought from. The Sales manager Rick was a complete A**hole who was walking around like something was stuck up his A**.

This is first time I have ever had someone lie to me in front of my face with 2 witnesses at 2 different points in time.

This ******* Rick ruined my day that I can't even enjoy my new Mini. I hope tomorrow I can start enjoying my Mini.

The Story:
When I first decided to buy a mini, I shopped around a bunch of places. I was able to find the Mini I was looking for at Morristown Mini since I didn't want to wait for the order to come in. Then during my research I found that Tate Mini also had the car I was looking for with all the right options.

So I contacted Tate Mini and got a call from Brian (a great sales guy) and later by Darrin (a great sales guy as well). I went in to check the car out on Wed. night. At which point I was approached by Rick who was waiting outside for me and gave me the keys to the car I was looking for. (I thought to myself "...wow, what a great guy...", 1st mistake.)

After checking out the car I started talking to Rick, since the sales guy who contacted me was busy helping someone else. I informed him that I was able to find the same car in NJ and the dealer there was offering me $500 of MSRP to take the car off their hands as well as throwing in FREE floormats and offered dealer installed items at cost. He told me that he can not meet that but he was willing to meet me half way. He stated, in front of my girlfriend as a witness, he can give me $250 off MSRP since I drove all the way out and also throw in FREE floor mats and give me dealer installed parts at cost. I thought to myself, this is exactly what I want and it's amazing how nice this guy is (2nd mistake). So that night I informed him that I need to get my cash ready, I'll call the next day to put down a deposit and that I will come sat to buy the car. He said to me don't worry take your time, we are hear to help. (HE SHOULD'VE SAID WE ARE HERE TO LIE TO YOU).

So come sat, I go to the dealership. The sales guy is waiting for me to start on the paperwork. I went outside to check out my new Mini, it had a FREAKING SCRATCH on flare thing right above the rear wheel. I didn't say anything cause I wanted to wait to see what this BASTERS would say. (This is when I started to feel that things were not going the right way.) Anyway, back to the story...I went back inside, the sales guy had everything filled out and when I check the price it said MSRP. So I told the sales guy about what I talked to RICK about and he went to talk to RICK. He comes back and says RICK said you are getting $200 off. I was like WTF, this is not what we agreed. (Now I know what you guys are thinking, $50 and you are making a big deal. It's not about saving $50, it's about what was original agreed).

Anyway, I asked the sales guy to get RICK. I talked to him and he denied even having a conversation with me about anything. I was like I have a witness, would you like me to call her and prove to you we had a conversation about this. At this point that F**C face RICK says to me "...well don't worry about it, I'm not going to make a big deal about $50...you don't need to call anyone...I'll give you $250 off..." So I said to him and the free mats too, right. He said "...sure, anything to close this deal..." or something like that.

Everything went along and now came time for me to speak to the finance guy. I went in there and the guy pulls out a rate of something 6%. I almost fell out of my chair cause when I spoke to Tate people on Fri. they told me don't worry about finding any rates we are currently offering 4.5% to 5%, which is pretty competitive. But 6%, that's nuts. No rate goes up that much in less than 24 hours. Another sleazy thing this freaking dealership pulled on me. Anyway, after some time of arguing with Rick and going back and forth we came to a mutual ground and completed the deal.

So now came time for the final check out. Brian goes through all the paperwork and shows me the things that come with my binder. We are ready to go outside to go through final check out. I turned to Brian and said where's my Matts. He looks at me and says "..What mats???" This just drove over the edge. I turned to Brian and said "...please get Rick...this is something we agreed on...".

When Rick came out he says to me "...What free mats are you talking about? It's not on the work order when we wrote it up and the paper you signed. There for I have no idea what you are talking about."

I turned to him and said "...do you not remember our conversation couple of hours ago, the conversation in front of my friend and the conversation in front of my girlfriend on wed night, where you offered $250 off, dealer installed parts at cost, and free mats?"

He said to me "...No I don't remember offering anything for free. I've given you enough discounts and frankly this whole process is starting to get little frustrating with you and you are starting to **** me off..."

I just stood there with my mouth open in disbelief. I thought to myself you call yourself a manager. That's when I realized that the deal is done and it's not worth it to screw around with $100 mats. After all, they are processing my title, registration, and I still need to get my Chrome Grill and Audio AUX Input installed. After all that happens I can do whatever.

So that's when I told RICK that this was all my mistake from the start. I should've never signed any paperwork without completely reading what I was signing. I just wanted to get the hell out of there and away from that F**K face RICK.

At the end I thanked Brian for being such a great sales guy and drove off into the sunset with my new Mini. But I was so ****ed from the whole ordeal that I couldn't even enjoy my ride home.

So for those of you who made it these far, thanks for letting me rant & rave and get my frustrations out.

And for those of you who are considering Tate Mini, don't do it. It will be the worst choice you will probably ever make when it comes to buying cars.

Finally, it's amazing that the car industry has been around for over 80 years now but yet we, as consumers, still have to deal with sleazy car dealers.

Thanks,
dondada

[mfc]

dondada,
I'm sorry to hear of your unpleasant experience. Please keep in mind that your unpleasant experience does not reflect how business is handled in most dealerships. Many customers have found dealership employees to be quite friendly people. As a motoring advisor (for MINI of the Main Line) I feel bad for the way you claim you were treated, but please keep in mind that not everybody in the car business is the crook that you might think. Many of us are honest, hard working individuals who actually enjoy working with people and cars.