drainaudio
Senior Member
HI all,
I must say I'm very surprised and pleased by the attitude of employees of the BMW group having purchased a new (4000 miles driven by manager of dealership) Mini Cooper this week. They were incredibly friendly and helpful while I spent well over an hour going through the car asking an array of questions (it was cold outside too!!) and had no complaints when I took the car for an almost 2 hour test-drive.
There was no hard-sell and when it came time to discuss the price I told them what I was prepared to pay, the extras I wanted thrown in and the small list of things I wanted rectified on the car as part of the sale (this included such anal retentive requests as brand new wheel nuts and replacing a piece of interior plastic trim that had a few minor scratches).
I would have paid exactly what was on the screen as it was love at first sight and after the pleasure of the test-drive I was not leaving without the car. However, all my demands were met (a big discount) with a smile and despite the dealership being a 45min drive away, the car will not go anywhere else for servicing etc such is the feel-good factor I walked out with.
I should point out here that I feel customer service in the UK is generally appalling - having grown up in Australia, lived in the UK and USA and travelled/worked in most areas of the western world I feel I'm qualified to judge - I'm also very hard to please.
Maybe I got lucky…. It was a small Greater London dealership, it was a Sunday and I was a cash customer – by the time we had finalised all the details it was well past closing time.
I’ve been called every day since to update me on the progress of preparing the car for collection and each time I’ve called with an enquiry if I haven’t been able to speak to someone the call has been promptly returned.
Warranty is 3 years then extendable for £300 per year until 100,000Miles – includes full EU breakdown cover.
Free servicing for 5 years (you pay for tyres, brake pads, wiper blades), extendable to 8 years for another £300.
All warranties and service programs are transferable to a new owner.
So, I now own a 2005 Mini Cooper with every desirable option, the build quality is superb and it has a Getrag gearbox - so a little bit of the spirit of the 190E Cosworth present maybe..
Having read the experiences of so many of you with newer Mercs and poor dealer service stories maybe MB employees should get some training over at BMW?
Cheers, Geoff.
I must say I'm very surprised and pleased by the attitude of employees of the BMW group having purchased a new (4000 miles driven by manager of dealership) Mini Cooper this week. They were incredibly friendly and helpful while I spent well over an hour going through the car asking an array of questions (it was cold outside too!!) and had no complaints when I took the car for an almost 2 hour test-drive.
There was no hard-sell and when it came time to discuss the price I told them what I was prepared to pay, the extras I wanted thrown in and the small list of things I wanted rectified on the car as part of the sale (this included such anal retentive requests as brand new wheel nuts and replacing a piece of interior plastic trim that had a few minor scratches).
I would have paid exactly what was on the screen as it was love at first sight and after the pleasure of the test-drive I was not leaving without the car. However, all my demands were met (a big discount) with a smile and despite the dealership being a 45min drive away, the car will not go anywhere else for servicing etc such is the feel-good factor I walked out with.
I should point out here that I feel customer service in the UK is generally appalling - having grown up in Australia, lived in the UK and USA and travelled/worked in most areas of the western world I feel I'm qualified to judge - I'm also very hard to please.
Maybe I got lucky…. It was a small Greater London dealership, it was a Sunday and I was a cash customer – by the time we had finalised all the details it was well past closing time.
I’ve been called every day since to update me on the progress of preparing the car for collection and each time I’ve called with an enquiry if I haven’t been able to speak to someone the call has been promptly returned.
Warranty is 3 years then extendable for £300 per year until 100,000Miles – includes full EU breakdown cover.
Free servicing for 5 years (you pay for tyres, brake pads, wiper blades), extendable to 8 years for another £300.
All warranties and service programs are transferable to a new owner.
So, I now own a 2005 Mini Cooper with every desirable option, the build quality is superb and it has a Getrag gearbox - so a little bit of the spirit of the 190E Cosworth present maybe..
Having read the experiences of so many of you with newer Mercs and poor dealer service stories maybe MB employees should get some training over at BMW?
Cheers, Geoff.
