[Greegy]

Well Here is a little story for you in this i will name and shame a certain Dealership that has been long established in the Edinburgh area for a very long time now.

My Experience started with going to my nearest Mini dealer to have a test drive of a MCS.
I have long wanted one and i knew exactly what i wanted the car to look like but i had to have a drive in one to satisfy the are these any good question.

I was surprised at the performance of these not so little cars when you sit in one.
Grippy traction/smooth acceleration and good performance very good i said ill take one.

So in i go to finalise the details of what i wanted in and on the car all very easy and simple you would think, My main request was that the car had a Saltire Flag on the roof and looking at the options in the Accessories book you wold think that the Saltire and the Viper stripes would be the most simple to fit to the car. WRONG!

Going by my experience with EASTERN BMW they do not have this accessory in there control when the car arrived i noticed three knife blade cuts in the paint on the roof just at the edges of the decal. I mentiond this to my sales person who admited that it must have happend when the decal was being applied to the car, His suggestion was to have the car brought back to have the decal removed and the roof painted. So in it goes to have the work carried out,To be fair to EASTERN BMW they kindly gave me a Mini Cooper Soft Top as a courtesy car which was fun but TOO SLOW for a whole week.

Greegy your car is ready im told, Yippee i said see you at 5.30. In i go to collect my car with its Painted roof and My Saltire Flag.I promise you it looked like an 8 year old kid had got a rectangle of Vinyl cut it into 4 triangles and stuck it to the roof outside going by the amount of dirt under it.( Not Happy) i said that looks rubbish its got more bubbles than a chocolate Areo bar not to mention the dirt and best of all it looked like it was scaled off a postage stamp only covering the flat part of the roof and not following the roof contour Ok Greegy we will do it again BUT this time we will use another company to do the work, ok i said WHEN!.

Another 3 weeks later im still waiting on Eastern BMW giving the professoinal service you would expect you would get when paying a lot of cash on a car.We all know that the mini is known for its roof decals no matter what and if they include this as an option in the catalouge then you would think that a simple sticker would be no problem for such a company.

So my advice is that if you are thinking of getting this option done to your beloved Mini, have a good look at the end result before driving off as ive had no luck with it yet and im going onto third time lucky.

If you have had the same problems with this company or a similar problem with any other dealer please email me.

[zyo]

Check out my viper stripe fitting problem post.I've had a similar experience with viper stripes.They were fitted by ....i say fitted they weren't fitted thats just the point and the more i look at the job they did the more horrendous bits i find.The dealer was initially defensive when i phoned suggesting that the graphic guy they get in is a proffesional and does them all day everyday,guess what? perhaps he should do it them all night aswell.They're very difficult to fit sir.Thats why i've paid you £240 to fit 'em cos if they were easy i would have done it myself....i would have made a better job if i had.I drove off just happy to have them done without really checking.It was my wife that first spotted something was wrong,she said the passenger side boot stripe was covered in scratches.She always thinks i'm a bit obssesional so if she spotted it they must have been obvious.Then the more i look the worse it becomes.The workmanship(and i use that term loosely) is appalling.The guy at the dealers did say without prompting that he wouldn't be happy with it on his car.They are picking it up on Thursday all being well and dropping off a courtesy car so fingers crossed it comes back right.I'm just dreading it coming back the same.I have air bubbles ,scratches ,and they don't line up.I've posted a few piccies to let you know your not the only one.

[john boy]

Greegy
Sorry to hear about the poor graphic work on your car. It would seem that the work is being done by someone who has little care in there work. There is no reason why any cutting should be done on the roof when fitting a saltire flag as it is supplied by the dealer ready to fit. Maybe it was not a BMW kit. WE have been fitting BMW kits for another Edinburgh dealer since the new Mini was launched and it is good quality vinyls they use. Hope all works out okay third time mate.

[zyo]

Could anyone categorically state whether the viper stripes come pre cut or in one long strip.I saw an 'official' set on ebay and it was like a big piece of tracing paper type stuff with a pre cut viper stripe on it.The guy at the dealers says that its one long strip and the vinyl guys have to cut it.Surely it would be less time consuming if it were precut and more accurate.My dealer charged me £240 but when i phoned another dealer after i had had it done they told me £180 including vat and fitting.

[zyo]

John Boy if you read this i've just noticed that you've answered my question on my 'viper stripe fitting problem'thread.Cheers.

[john boy]

This is correct.
The viper kit is supplied in sections longer than required for each area and need to be marked and cut out before fitting to the car. It is a wee bit time consuming to fit vipers but no great problem
I would think £180 is plenty for fitting.

[zyo]

Thanks John Boy.

[jon vital]

They still need to be trimmed on the car and round the vents etc.

[john boy]

Not if you make up a template and cut the shape before you apply to the car. One template will suit all cars around the vents.

[zyo]

I was thinking that earlier today while contemplating what the finish would be like when my MINI returns from the dealer on Thursday(having stripes redone).Surely if you know your going to do loads of these things which if your sub contracted to by MINI is a fair bet surely you would take the time to make templates for the most common decals.You could save yourself a load of time if you could cut everything out to the correct size before fitting.Why don't MINI supply the vipers in pre cut sections cos lets face it all MINIs should be the same size.

[john boy]

Not sure why more work didn't go into the viper kit supplied by Mini. All the other kits are set up ready to fit. The kits would need to be different for the Coop S though.

[zyo]

I don't know this ,its only from what i've read,but when you apply these graphics aren't they soaked with a soapy water solution which allows you to reposition until your happy at which point you squeegy the water out with a squeegy tool.If this is the case,and as i've said i have only read this on MINI2.com then why did my stripes come back out of line.I can sort of see the problem if they are just very sticky and once you've put them on thats it,but if they can be repositioned before final adhesion then it makes it more odd as to why they came back in the state they did.Anyoo its going in ,in the morning to be redone.Fingers crossed,i just hope its a decent job this time.

[GOLDMINI]

Greegy
Sorry to hear about all the hassle with your new MINI.

Speak to Eastern and tell them you want it sorted now without further delay.
There is a company called Apex Signs in Edinburgh that the dealers should be aware of. They take care when applying decals to the MINI (the owner has one) and they have a good repuation on the Scottish MINI scene as well due to the work they've done on owners cars.

Get Eastern to take it to Apex and hopefully they'll be able to do a proper job for you.

Best of luck,
GOLDMINI.

Edit: reading some of the replies to your original post, John Boy may possibly be the owner of Apex although he probably wouldn't mention it in case it looked like he was trying to get some free publicity!