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Seattle Mini Service Review - POSITIVE!

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worbit View Drop Down
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Joined: May/12/14
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote worbit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Seattle Mini Service Review - POSITIVE!
    Posted: July/01/14 at 4:58pm
I've noticed that a lot of you have had some issues with Seattle Mini and I thought I would post my review of the experience I had while getting my '07 MCS worked on. 

Let me first give you a little bit of a background story as to why I found myself at Seattle Mini. I just bought my 2007 MCS with the JCW package from Kirkland Buick/GMC on 5/14/14. The car had 26K miles on it looks like it has never been modded outside of the JCW kit. The GMC dealer had stated that they did a 120 point (jokes on me for believing this) inspection on the mini and showed a report card of their findings. They stated that everything checked out, the changed the fluids, checked the brakes, as well as the engine and found that everything was spot on. The only exception were the rear brakes as they were down to 60% life left. Cool, I thought everything was good to go and purchased the car. About a week later I decided to head over to Seattle Mini to get the car looked at to make sure everything was running properly. I had read some horror stories online about the '07 model so I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to run into some of the troubles that others had talked about. I was greeted by Amanda, a service advisor, who was friendly from the get-go and answered all of my questions without hesitation. I told her I was a new mini owner and that I wanted to see if she could run the VIN to see what kind of work had been done on my car and this where my nightmare began. :( 

As it turns out, the timing chain was replaced at 3500 miles....red flag #1.....at 16K miles the car was brought in due to an overheating issue (something about the intercooler coupler wasn't tightened down properly).....red flag #2.......then at 19K miles, the car was brought in after the previous owner had driven over something on the freeway, damaging the exhaust in some fashion (exhaust was replaced)....red flag #3........then at 21K the turbo was replaced for some reason (the notes on file were not clear, Amanda thought that maybe something else happened when the exhaust was damaged).....red flag #4......at this point I thought I had purchased someone else's headache and was starting to stress out. :( Amanda said to not worry just yet, let her service tech look over the car and she'll get back to me. So off I went with my 2014 Cludman loaner......

Later that day I got a call from Amanda with more bad news. The timing chain was stretched and needed to be replaced....hello $1700 job.......I was completely floored at this point. Here I am one week into owning my new go kart and its already in need of a major repair. I was pretty upset at this point and started questioning why the timing chain needed to be replaced when it only had 23K miles on it. I asked if there was any way that this could be replaced under any TSB or something since timing chains shouldn't fail this quickly. She said she will look into it but was pretty sure that there wasn't a TSB on that part. Since the inspection wasn't finished yet, she went on to say that she will call me back once it was completed and after she spoke to the service manager to see what we could do about the timing chain. 

Fast forward to two hours later and I get another call from Amanda. She started off the conversation with "I have some good news and then some bad news" - at this point I was thinking that it she was going to tell me that there wasn't a TSB on the timing chain but that they were going to work with me on the price. To my surprise, Amanda said that she called MiniUSA and they agreed to replace my timing chain for free under "good will" since they agreed that the chain shouldn't have failed so soon - AWESOME!!! - then the bad news.....the water pump pulley failed their inspection and needed to be replaced. :( Hello $560 bill.....at this point I was pretty furious at the GMC dealer since they claimed that the engine was checked out completely and passed with flying colors. I told Amanda to go ahead and replace the pulley since I just wanted my car back asap. I then called the GMC dealer and demanded to speak to the lot manager. Once I finally got him on the phone I told him about the near heart attack I had just experienced as well as the sh*tty experience I had with Bob the sales rep who sold me the car. After about 30 minutes of chatting back and forth, John said to bring in my receipts after I pay for the pulley replacement and that he will reimburse me the money since I was told everything had passed their inspection! SWEET!! 

The next morning I went in to pick up my cooper and Amanda greeted me warmly once more. I told her about how the GMC dealer is going to cover the costs for the pulley and thanked her again for being so kind/patient with me. She then took me over and introduced me to Tim, my service tech. Tim was nice enough to pull the pulley out of the trash after asking to see how it failed. Tim and I continued to chat a little bit about cars and said to give him a call if I ever had any questions about my cooper (He has an R53 that is fully bolted which made me feel comfortable about him working on my car). 

So in the end, Amanda went above and beyond my expectations and saved me a buttload of money. Tim was super friendly and offered his help with any questions I might have about modding my R56. I left very happy and fully plan to do all of my service work with Amanda and Tim in the future.......

TL/DR: Bought Mini cooper from a GMC dealer. Dealer lied about inspection work, Seattle Mini came to the rescue and fixed parts for free. 

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onramp View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote onramp Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/01/14 at 8:19pm
Great story - I like it.  And good news about the GMC dealer too.  Glad to hear you had a good ending.  Enjoy your new friend.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ipeverywhere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/01/14 at 10:32pm
Yes, excellent to hear. I can give you some advise about #1; your timing chain. If you have the exact date of when it was replaced the first time this may give us some clue as to why it failed again. I can go into this in more detail when we meet. Secondly, the '07s and '08s are known for the timing chain to go and its better when it happens earlier rather than later. Also, 23,000 is still "early" so actually.. you should now be good and glad MINI picked this one up for you.

The other stuff? As long as it's fix I wouldn't worry. LET'S MOTOR! =)



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Genie B View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Genie B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/02/14 at 6:46am

Great to hear there's a happy ending to what had to be a very disheartening and frustrating experience. Good of you to post a positive service experience, as the positive stuff doesn't always get told. And, really great that you went back to the GMC dealer to hold them accountable!

Wishing you Happy Motoring going forward! Tongue



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BurnerS Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/02/14 at 3:40pm

I personally LOVE Seattle Mini Service... and I have had a not so good experience but they jumped through HOOPs to get it done and done Right!

This statement was not paid for by Seattle Mini Service


thanks for your review

New 2013 Clubby S - JCW Engine tune - JCW Brake Kit - JCW Exhaust - JCW Cold Air Intake - Lowered - Racing Wheels
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Genie B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/02/14 at 4:48pm
Originally posted by BurnerS BurnerS wrote:

I personally LOVE Seattle Mini Service... and I have had a not so good experience but they jumped through HOOPs to get it done and done Right!

This statement was not paid for by Seattle Mini Service


thanks for your review

 OH, SURE!  LOL 

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