Hampton Roads Club Mini

well,

I am relieved (but really dismayed) to see fellow mini owners who have had bad experiences with CF too!

I should have known better than to not be patient and wait for a Mini right off the boat when they dropped them off in New Jersey.

I had purchased a lemon of a mini from Checkered Flag in 2003, and suffered 1.5 years of taking it in (about 23 times).  Not once did they tell me what was wrong with it or address my concern over it stalling and having absolutely no pick up in first gear.  (and I broke it in completely right and only used 93 octane....)

Come to find out, after a lawyer got involved and had to explain VA's lemon law to the dealership, that the Mini Company guy never once inspected my car everytime I took it in!

When they finally did have a Mini Company inspector look at my Mini, CF said any damage to my car that they found would not be covered by any warrenty I had, unless it was a manufacturing problem.   I assured them that they would find a problem and it would be covered.  After the lawyer fought with them they finally did some diagnostics, they shipped the engine to Brazil.

one month later, the engine came back from Brazil, remachined!  Why?  because the engine was not 'tight'.  Carbon deposits kept forming due to bad manufacturing of the engine!

That's not all,

everytime I have ever taken the Mini in for service, I has come back with:
2004, broken windshield, they would not fix unless I paid for it, upon pick up, left it with them and paid $400 for a non-mini windshield.  wtf?
2004, scratches and a dent in the passenger side door upon pick up
2005, broken windshield - this time they admitted fault and replaced it with a Mini windshield
2005, black farings on the sides of the windshield they replaced flew off on I-64 - sorry if it hit one of you.  Frank said those things come off all the time.
2005, ready to upgrade the front seats to heated front seats (as the dearlership said I could when I purchased the car), Frank told me that was impossible due to the fact that the car is not wired for heated seats.  I would have never bought the car if I couldn't upgrade the seats like they SAID I COULD!
2005, broken grill from replacing and fixing fan during recall, they finally fixed the grill in 2007
2006,  The owner of Checkered Flag leaves numerous phone messages on my cell phone.  He want to let me know that I can get a great trade in deal on my Mini for the latest and greatest: Jag, BMW, Mini Cooper, Porche.  I had to physically talk to them at the dealership in 2007 to get the phone messages to stop
2007, replacing the plastic one with a metal one.  I think it's plastic!
2006, broken window switch - pointed out by Frank, then covered and fixed
2006, oil all over the floor mats
2007, after $820 brake job, got the Mini back with out a car wash.  I was livid, they could have at least wiped off all of that BLACK brake dust from my rims and my hood!
2007, Mini dealership gave me a free detailing of the Mini as an apology for giving me back my Mini in dirtier condition after brake job.  Got the Mini back with the inside of the boot paint COMPLETELY stripped!

They let me take my first mini loaner car when my Mini was being detailed.  Prior to that all I was getting as a loaner was toyotas. (see picture).  Everyone loves a mini!

2008, ding in the windshield - they claim it was already there!
2008, called Frank up because the passenger window will not move.  I asked for the code or the riggamaroll of things I had to do to 'fix' it.  He said there is no riggamaroll, I need to bring it in for service because the switch must be broken.  I knew that he was lying because someone told me that the passenger window is easy to program into the child-safe mode.  And didn't the switch he had replaced before still have a warrenty or something.  "no".

Thank you all for having this site - I found out the little ritual I had to do to get the passenger side window to work again. 

I hate going to Checkered Flag

I've had decent dealings with CF. Both times it was over there things went well. We recently had a radio issue and the readout didn't readout anymore. It was going to take them 8 work days before they could get to it. I called Crown MINI in Richmond, they got it in in two days. AND, gave Regina a lightning blue 08 MCS as a loaner with less then 2K miles on it.

So far been very pleased with Crown, just hate the hour long drive up there. But being an impatient SOB I'd drive rather than wait a week + for an appointment. But nothing against the service quality at CF.

That's it, my husband and I are definetely retiring in Italy!

As for service, I will always get it over to Crown Mini in Richmond.  A 1hr. zip up I-64 is much easier to do than a 1hr traffic jam to Va. Beach.

Thanks for the sympathetic replies to my gripe, but just wanted you all made aware of my Mini's treatment at CF.  Frank is great, it's the techies that suck.  And the park jobs over there too.

Holy Crap!  I got off light in my 5 years of ownership...seriously.  The only realy Gaffe was being told I had to replace my brake pads and rotors.  I decided to upgrade to TSW parts instead of letting the stealership get the money for the job... got all set up to do the job, and found out the stock brakes were just fine.  Sigh... I swapped em out anyway... autocross had it's priorities! lol