Motorwerks MINI

Totally incompetent in the service department.
Brought my car in for a known problem with the High Pressure Fuel Pump (Service Bulletin Included) and requested that they test the part in question. They only looked at what the car’s computer was saying was wrong, (miss-​fire code). If the car is not receiving the required fuel then there will be a miss-​fire (no fuel = no fire). They claimed that it was due to carbon build up in the intake valves, when asked to prove that what it was, all I received was silence from the shop foreman (proving that they know this is a problem and they just want to charge the customer large amounts of $ without admitting that the Mini’s have this problem) which is a good indication that I was right and they just wanted to charge me $ 1300 for a repair that was not needed. To prove this fact I had the car’s intake valves cleaned (through walnut blasting prior to my visit) so this could not be the case. I asked to have them explain the $ 140 diagnosis and once again I received a lot of silence from lead service person, (this only indicates that Mototrwerks Mini is trying to hide the truth and charge the customer for unneeded repairs). To sum up this complaint, I already had the replacement to the faulty part on hand (the High Pressure Fuel Pump) replaced it myself, and the car is working great. Maybe you should hire real mechanics instead of people who can read a screen on the diagnostic tool and say well that’s what it is and it can’t be anything else. My good friend who is a ASE master mechanic pinned down the problem in 17 min. This was a known faulty item and a specific warranty was extended to this part, they still wouldn’t bill the company to replace it. Well I hope this makes it to their website (I know it won’t because they are right and the customer is wrong), so to all other customers, be for warned, they care about profit and not your vehicle. Thanks For NOTHING Motorwerks Mini, you can keep the $ 140, I will enjoy passing along this story for as long as I can all over the web. Big FAIL on your part.
Sincerely
A Very Pissed Off Customer
PS ask me about the oil leak they caused after the timing chain tensioner replacement (service bulletin) that they caused and after two different returns to the dealer (and the fact that after screw up #2 they finally received the correct install tool from Mini for the seal, yes MN you can thank my wife and I for that one) they still denied that it was something they did. Car comes in for service without oil leaking on the ground, returns from service at Motorwerks Mini with an oil leak staining my garage floor. I put 2 + 2 and got =4 and they said it was something else (even though it was listed on the repair order under warranty). I guess if you are going to lie about your business practices, you should make everyone at the dealership (service department) is on board with the BS.

I took a Mini survey sometime in the past 6 months and gave the dealership poor marks for very valid reasons concerning the staff, policies and deception. I received a follow-​up call from the customer service manager who asked me to explain my reasons for the negative comments. He said, «Wow. I can completely understand how you feel.» He then went on talking in circles not sure what to say and sort of said, he wanted to make it up to me without specifics. He continued to ramble on and wrapped up the call by saying he is sorry to have disappointed me and hopes I give them another chance in the future. End of call.
Thus, no resolution. In fact, I am pissed off more than even because he has likely fulfilled an obligation of making a follow-​up call and is regarded as successfully doing his job. When in reality, nothing different happened for the customer – me. I have never, ever taken the time to write a complaint about anything. I don’t harbor ill-​will and tend to just move on after a bad experience but this follow-​up call from the customer service person ignited my fury. Motorwerks Mini/​BMW is awful!

I love MINI but unhappy with local dealer ridiculous trade-​in valuation. Mark-​up is 5000 – 6000! Want next MINI. MINI Motorwerks Mpls. act as if they are the act in Town. Oh, but unfortunately, they are! May have to go to Chicago to work with 3 MINI dealers there. Or just buy a BMW X1 or Jeep

Here’s the thing. salespeople are, for better or worse, salespeople. They have different approaches and use different tricks but in the end they’re profiling you and picking the best angle.
I accept all of those things, but I wasn’t ready for how aggressive and unprofessional Mini would be. Over the course of the hour I spent on the lot before I walked away I got at least a half dozen different pitches from my salesperson. They even hinted that I needed to prove that I could afford one of their cars. There was a lot of condescending explaining:“Why would you want a girly car like that, this is the cool one, this will make you drive fast!” and «We don’t sell any cars like the ones you saw online, you are just confused…»
In the end I walked away and I’m really glad I did. Their customer service was bad and they were arrogant and pushy. Minis are neat cars but the tremendous volume of crap you’ll have to put up with to shop one in the Twin Cities should cross them off your list.

New location is a disappointment. I attended the grand opening event: lots of reps standing around talking to themselves & not greeting or mingling. The sign-​in area was also slow & required a full check in with all the info they should have already had via the RSVP link we were all emailed to fill out & send back. They had no idea who was coming & had no program or info summary for their «BIG EVENT». There was no real mini information booths or specialists set-​ups. The food was not set up on time, the entire event just seemed unprofessional. Honestly, it all would have been fine if I felt I’d walked away having learned something new about my mini, or the company! They took all the cars out of the lot so you couldn’t even check out the latest models! They had a tour they were doing, but there was no one explaining anything, it seemed like they’d hired out staff for the event that were not with mini. The service guy seemed cool & up to mini standards, but just not a great vibe on the whole. I miss the Bloomington location already.

Wow– Motorwerks Mini upholds the deceptive, dishonest overall lack of values that are associated to car dealerships. The process of buying a car is a game in interpreting the scams that are presented. Tolerated much of this, including:
1) False advertising. The cars and prices advertise on-​line are «not available» when you show up at the dealer
2) Quotes changing. The sales manager actually came up a with a quote that involved $ 100 more monthly payments then what had been emailed me the prior evening. Though this was correct somewhat though it never got down to the emailed quote.
3) Final numbers changed again during the finance process. Ok, only about $ 1 a month difference — though they changed. Why — why can’t this be an honest, exact process.
4) Awful experience with the finance guy during our paper signing.
5) Numerous requests for receiving a 10 in their evaluation by indicating the sales person works hard and will not be compensated if they receive anything less than a 10 on the corporate feedback form. If this is really true, who knows. Seems humiliating for the sales person and it is annoying for the customers to be harassed into giving a false rating.
Unfortunately, I did give all 10s. However, immediately after I gave the sought after «10 rating», I learned that the Sales Manager lied about a «new promotion» that Mini just put out. This promotion was a free 500 miles though required completion of new paperwork. Decided that resigning all new paperwork was not worth a «gift» of 500 «free miles». Told Sales Rep that we were good with original paperwork. Well-​my phone rang minutes after I sent that email and it turned out that the «gift of 500 miles» was an avenue to change the numbers on the papers and an attempt to have us sign papers with new numbers. UNBELIEVABLE! How stupid do they think we are?
Being from the East Coast I had no problem calling them out on their deception and dishonesty. To his credit the General Manager somehow «fixed» the problem so we no longer had to sign the suspicious «new papers». Funny how that works.
In the end, I do not have a good feeling with this dealership and this has impacted how I feel about the purchase I made. I wonder, is it worth it to them to loose that relationship in order to gain a few hundred bucks that was a result of an error on their part?

I purchased a new 2012 Mini Cooper 2 weeks ago and I have to say I was super impressed with the staff. Katie Schwartz was my salesperson and she was super helpful. I was able to test drive every model of Mini Cooper. I even got multiple test drives on some cars. Super attentive and friendly.
Post purchase have worked with Frank in parts and Brady in service and both were friendly, knowledgable and extremely attentive.
Overall I just can’t say anything bad with my purchase…
If you think these cars are cute on the road… Come in and test one out… they are blast to drive.

My wife and I bought our NEW Mini Cooper S there in 2006. It was a great car until January 2008, which is when the «EP» light came on. This is a dummy light that means END OF PROGRAM, a computer problem that relates to the transmission.
So, my wife brings it up there, and they reset the computer, and say that should take care of it… INCORRECT! The EP light came on the next DAY!
We bring it up there, get a loaner, they «fix it» again… Nope. So we go through this back and forth process a total of 5 times, to no avail. Meanwhile the transmission is getting much worse each time we get the car back, rather than repair it, they would screw around with it. One time, my wife was almost stranded, because they wasted all of the gas (it was ¾ full when brought in), and did not bother to inform her at the very least, or refill it!
Sure, the customer service guys were on the nicer side when we would bring the car in, but that is their job, to make each customer feel precious.
I could go on and on and on about how all of this transpired, but I have to get to the good part…
My wife and I finally resolved to having the car repurchased under the lemon law statutes. Motorwerks itself was unwilling to approach us at this point! They said that we could not use the lemon law when the car was under warranty… FALSE.
So, we contacted BMW corporate, and Salvatore T. took care of us, along with the BBB Automotive Division’s assistance. After about 8 weeks of paper work and such, we had our issue resolved, but that was no thanks to MOTORWERKS. They made my wife and decide from there on that we will NEVER step through their doors again.
Motorwerks BMW in Bloomington Minnesota gives the BMW brand a bad name.