It's a PUNTO Adventure.........

[BI GAL]

Hi Folks,

Thought i'd share my MINI-less holiday experiences with you all.

Last week, my girlfriend and i were supposed to take my Cooper (hasn't got a proper name!) on holiday to the south-west of France - a round trip of about 1500 miles!

Having packed all the holiday stuff into the car and said goodbye to the nextdoor neighbour (classic mini fan!), i went to pull away from the curb.....
Couldn't manage to turn the steering wheel....not a sound from the usually loud power steering pump. Oh F**K!
Tried again, switched off the engine, tried again and again but nothing happened.

Not much left to do but ring MINI Emergency Service and arrange either a quick fix or a new car.
Fantastic - mechanic and towtruck arive in under 10 minutes!
Quick poke around the fusebox and under the car is enough to declare the problem 'a job for the main dealer, sir'.

Not to worry, i thought. Ring MINI back and get them to sort out a hire car ASAP - i have a ferry to catch in 4 hours and i have a 200 mile drive to get to the docks!

'No problem sir, we can let you have a hire car for 2 days while yours is being fixed', said MINI.

'You weren't listening were you', i wished i'd replied. 'I'm due to catch a ferry in 4 hours and i need the car for the next 9 days.......'

<a long, fruitless discussion ensues between myself and 'confused@MINI.com'>

'If i miss my ferry, my holiday is screwed. I need to be in Dover in the next 3.5 hours. What's the best you can do?', i plead with confused@MINI.

'My supervisor says that we'll agree pay for 4 days car hire', came the reply.

'Right, that'll have to do for now. Where do i get the car from and how soon can i pick it up?'

'Errr, i can give you the number of a car-hire firm, if you like?', said confused.

................

A dozen phone calls later comfirms that all the major car hire firms in Nottingham are closed at 7.45pm on a friday night.......
Our last chance is to try East Midlands airport.

'Yes sir, we can do that no problem at all, but we close in an hour', came the reply from EUROPCAR (THANKS GUYS - SHAMELESS PLUG!).

'We'll be there', i yelled.

.................

A speedy taxi ride and a dash through the airport later, i was repacking our holiday stuff into the boot of a (EUROPCAR!) Fiat PUNTO 1.2L

It begins to rain.......

.................

2.5 hours and 200 miles later we arrive in Dover, in time to catch our ferry!

A Happy Ending - eventually.

The holiday went smoothly, the weather was superb, the wine was even better.
The Punto behaved itself for the whole trip and, being slightly bigger than a MINI, allowed us to bring more booze back.


I'd like to say thanks to the following people:

the rapid-responding recovery driver

a certain car-hire company (who shall remain nameless)

the various police forces who, by their absence, made the express trip to Dover possible.

SYTNER BMW - Nottingham, for fixing my cooper while i was away (apparently, the power steering pump had a terminal fault)

and lastly the sandwich-making ability of my girlfriend, for making a hungry man very happy indeed.


Thanks for listening,

BIGAL

ps, what do you reckon my chances are of recovering my costs? I'm going to be over £100 out of pocket if MINI don't cough-up for the full car-hire bill....

[Rob.]

At least you still managed to get away on your holiday, so that is good news.
I think you have a good case to get MINI to pay the bill for the hire car. Their product let you down after all. I would just talk about how worrying about your car and the rush to get away on holiday spoilt the trip for you and ask for them to pay as a good will gesture.
Hope your car is OK.

[Martin L]

Glad to hear everything went well

When I used BMW Emergency services recently, they said that they could only do 2 days of car hire but after a bit of explaining of the situation I got a car for 4 days. If you do indeed need the car for longer they have a procedure where your garage has to put in the request to BMW for the extra car hire, as they can explain why the car's off the road for the extendend time.
Whether or not your holiday falls into this category is questionable.
Besides, BMW said if I hired a car by myself and didn't use Europcar they would only reimberse me £35 per day as this is the rate tht they could hire a car for.
Hopefully my experience with BMW applies to MINI too.

[lightbody]

I had a similar situation - my new COOPER broke down and left me without a car for a week-long business trip.

I simply told them they would pay for it - and they did.

- ROb

[EBMCS03]

Wow... Got me on the edge of my seat for a minute... thought u wernt going to make it... *phew* glad to hear it worked out and everything went smoothly!

[BI GAL]

Good news!!

Mini Customer Services have agreed to pay for all my hire car costs and also the cost of the taxi to collect the hire car!

Thank you Mini Customer Services - i can now afford to insure my Cooper 'S'

[pob]

Unlucky! My Cooper has been in for 3 days and I've managed to swing the Cooper S demo for 3 days as a courtesy car!!!! Impressed is not the word!!!