Grey area with Mileage and service inspection?Mini refused to cover mine today......

[Miniweee]

Called Mini yesterday as my service countdown was finally on at 36,700 miles for my second FREE INSPECTION courtesy Of MINI. Was told next appt. date was the 28th but they had something come up and said "Can you come in tomorrow.? Sure I said.

We then drove 4 hours to the Mini Dealership and were greeted nicely like usual there. Then they said..."We have a problem here, you are at 36,900 and we only do a service at 36,000. You are over. The cost today is 300.00 for the oil change and inspection of your vehicle.She told me she would speak to the manager about it after we told her we felt that was pretty ridiculous since we drove so far to get there.

Manager said he would give me a deal at 200.00. 200.00!!! He said he would let me get the oil change and service for that price. I declined of course.

Problem1.Because of all of my highway miles my service indicator did not come on until 36,700 miles.If it had came on at 36,000 and they had to shedule me the two weeks out am I suppose to park my mini and have it towed down there not to go over my miles to void my 3 years/and or 36,000 mile warranty?

Problem2. We DROVE 4 HOURS!!!! They had me start my car the day before when the appointment was made--tell them the mileage and if it said service inspection.Then they said "No problem see you tomorrow."

Problem 3 I was told I would HAVE NEVER QUALIFIED for the service inspection. I was already the 36,000 when my mini cooper started doing the service countdown.She said "It's just one of those things."


HELP ME! What do I do? Swallow my pride? Call again Monday? Call Mini service. I am so upset about this. It's not the money that bothered me. The selling point of the Mini was the service inspections. I am feeling pretty screwed. It took 21,000 miles to get to the second service indicator. That's alot?

[Paul]

Call MINI Customer services and complain. That's very petty (and stupid) as the MINI service intervals vary from car to car.

[Miniweee]

I just don't want to see other Mini owners go through this when they reach their second oil change/service inspection. It truly is a grey area and it needs to be more defined by Mini.

What mileage were some of you at when you had your second service done?Did you have a problem?

[DoningtonPhil]

I am not sure I understand

Every time I turn the engine on my MINI it tells me how many 'miles' it is til my next inspection

I booked mine in when I had about a thousand left to go. I figured that was approx one months worth so booked it for 4 weeks later.

As it turns out, by the time I got there, the indicator showed I was 360 over. The service guy said there is a 1000 mile allowance either way - so not a problem

Does your service indicator not jsut show something like '- 630' when you start your engine?

[Miniweee]

It was showing 130 miles left. Mini doesn't like to schedule you until you have 400 or less.Thats what they told me today. So I had 130 left. The problem is I drive a lot of highway miles. So It somehow calculates your next service based on city/ highway driving. Don't ask me how. When I was at 36,000 my countdown was well over 500. If they have a 1000 mile give and take then they should have just done it for me. I drove 4 hours in case I didn't mention that.It took 200 miles to get there!

They reset my service indicator as well and they didn't even do anything to it. They said that they would fix my noisy windows under warranty but refused to do anything warranty related because I was over the 36,000 mile limit.

3 years 36,000. Thats what they kept saying. They told me I drove too many highway miles.IS THIS MY FAULT? I think someone is blowing smoke up my butt. I am still furios!

[bubblegoose]

Quote: Originally Posted by DoningtonPhil

Are we talking warranty or service here?


In the UK at least, there is a 36k or 3 years warranty which covers faults and fixes. If a fault occurs outside of that mileage or time then its not covered.

So technicaly, your dealer is right, your car has done more than 36k, so its out of warranty. But only just. Some goodwill and flexibility from your dealer would have been nice

Apart from that, there are the service intervals. In the UK the first 2 or 3 are covered under TLC, in theory the first 50k or 5 years worht of servicing- this varies according to how you drive your car.

I have to disagree with the comments made.....
UK Warranty is 3 years, unlimited mileage.
UK TLC pack is 5 years 50,000 miles (whichever is the soonest)

I do not know how warranty stands in the U.S but I would definately contact Customer Services to try & resolve the situation.

Hope this helps
Dave

[MaxaMiniBro]

Not being a MINI owner (yet), just a car owner in general and someone in sales specifically, that seems to be the worst customer "service" attitude you could imagine! First of all, you weren't that much over the magic number. Secondly, you drove 4 hours for service! That is unbelieveable to me. They need to up their dealer count, since I am 3 hours from the closest MINI dealer, and to drive that far for routine service gives me pause. Right now I work about 200 yards from my local mechanic, who does all the work on our family cars. Drop it off, walk to work and pick it up!
Lastly, lets say they stick you for the $200/$300 service charge. What type of marketing is that? How many people (besides the ones on here) would you tell about your rotten experience at that dealership? If it costs them one sale, the lost profit is greater than the cost of a lousy oil change and inspection. This is what is referred to as "viral" marketing. You tell a few people, they tell a few more, etc., pretty soon a lot of people have a negative opinion about the place without ever stepping foot in there!
Contrast that with a welcoming, positive experience, and how much goodwill and enthusiasm that would generate, and it is a VERY inexpensive and very effective campaign. Idiots they be.
As an example of how much of a plus good service can be, go to the NY/NE Social thread and look at the later posts on "Visit Me at Herb Chambers" by NoNo. There you will see that a little thing like a free key chain absolutely made her day, along with a Can-Do attitude. Be Different, and it will pay big dividends. You just have to do a little bit extra to be extraordinary!

[yellowmininy]

I think I was >400 miles over for service the last time, though it was already past the covered service interval (I'm at 43,000 mi). Seems very strange that they would expect that you be at exactly 36,000 mi when you have a 4 hour drive, and it's rare to get a service appointment where I am (Towne in Buffalo NY) in under a week.

Different dealerships do have different rules about how they cover oil changes if you are UNDER the mileage- I think Buffalo it's 500 mi. I've also heard that they will raise warranty concerns if you are way beyond the intervals without having the service work done, which I can understand if you are 2,000 miles past the service interval.

But to not cover the service because you're a few hundred miles over seems frankly, nuts. You might want to try 866-ASK-MINI & see what the MINI standard is. Also their customer service reps may be able to help resolve the confusion.

[justbob]

What dealership did you go to? That's incredibly petty. My understanding is that it's free servicing for 36 months, 36,000 miles--when your OBC indicates that your service interval is up. It looks like you were in range for a servicing when you hit 36,000 miles, in my opinion.

I had my first service at 10,000, with a 1,000 miles left to the interval, but I was going to a MINI track day so they did it when I had my car inspected.

At about 20,000 it told me I had 9,000 to go, so I paid for an oil and filter change and tire rotation because I knew I was going to do a lot of high speed long range driving. I think it was $125. They did not reset my OBC, and told me to bring it in again when indicated.

Now I'm at 27K+, and it's telling me I have 1800 miles to go. I'd do another oil change myself if it was not under warranty.

CALL MINI USA and get your free service--I wouldn't budge on this one. What a breakdown for your MINI dealer. Sad.

[Miniweee]

I'm not going to budge on it. A day later and losing some sleep last night has fired me up even more about it. I was at ther mercy yesterday. I will be suprised to hear what Mini customer service has to say. I want to solve the issue on 36,000 with 500 miles left to go for service. Telling me "You would have never been eligible for this service" was crap. Tell me that before I drive 4 hours.

[Lawrothegreat]

Mini customer services is definitely the way to go.

Good luck.

[nclorax]

Can someone explain the service intervals. I would have thought that they popped up at set mileage. From this thread I am getting that they don't. Just got my Mini and got the extended maintenance agreement. I figured it would pay off because of the miles I expect to put on the car. But if the car decides and its not based on set miles I may have made an error.

[Oldpaint]

That's really petty considering the drive time. Call mini on it.

However the computer in the car (service indicator) does not keep track of the warranty or service contract.
If you have the opposite driving style of very few miles a year it doesn't tell you to go in on your yearly anniversary.

[tomt]

I went to the Owner's Lounge on Mini USA and found this:

Quote:

4-year/50,000 Mile Warranty
At MINI, our commitment to quality, durability and customer satisfaction is clearly demonstrated by a 4-year/50,000 mile New Vehicle Limited Warranty and a 12-year/unlimited-mileage* warranty against rust and corrosion perforation.

Full scheduled maintenance for 3 years. On us.
MINI also wants to ensure the proper performance of your vehicle, so we offer Full Maintenance as standard for your first 3 years/36,000 miles.

So, there should be no question of being in warranty.

Given the combination of providing free maintenance only when the computer indicates it, and the drive, I would hope they would cover it.

In retrospect, you might have tried making an appointment at say 35,000 miles, but it seems as though they would have said "come back when it says less than 400 miles to service."

[Miniweee]

Thats the whole problem. I was never in the window where I was able to get service covered by the warranty. At 35000 miles I still had something like 1300 to go. I just assumed that the warranty would cover me even if the maintenance countdown ended up going over the 36,000. I guess not. Plus if I would have scheduled it and my mileage was 36,001--by the time I got down there it would have been +200 miles. Would they still have covered it?

Who knows. This is petty. I am calling customer service tomorrow am and I will tell you what they say.