Expectations for recall work in light of dealer closing

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polyphonic

polyphonic

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Hey All,

Our MINI lives out of state in an area that we currently do not spend much time. We received the high voltage battery software recall notice on October 19th and promptly began trying to reach our local MINI where the car was purchased. About 2 weeks ago we found out that they had closed down.

MINI USA says that we must tow the vehicle to and from the closest dealer, which is 300 miles away (75+ mph highway with limited charging as well as we have no time for this)

MINI USA claimed that BMW can perform the work. I spoke to the local BMW service director and received the same response "we can't perform the work because we're not a MINI dealer."

Is it reasonable to expect that they arrange to help us out via BMW or a tow? Since this is a fairly critical recall, and the purchasing dealer closed, we feel they should provide some assistance. Is that reasonable? Otherwise it's going to be a $1000+ expense.
 
I suppose there is some advantage to living in a crowded metropolitan area...

Here's what I would do:
1) Tell MINI USA to tell BMW USA to tell the dimwitted dealer that yes you can service the MINI. I would venture that much of the underlying software that runs MINI EVs is shared with BMW EVs. The BMW and MINI dealer I used share the same premises.

2) If BMW dealer remains dimwitted then I would drive the car the 300miles unless it had popped up a warning message, which I think very very few have done. Consider it an adventure in charging anxiety.

Yes I think MINI should help you out here and I think a 600 mile round trip tow is going to be well over $1000. Will they, probably not.

FWIW. I took about 2 months after I became aware of the recall before I got mine in, maybe about 5 weeks after getting the notice. Of course all our driving is local ,mostly at 25-35mph. I dropped "Eddie" at 8:30am and he was done by 12:30. This was mid November and beginning of December I get a ding-ding saying car is now due for annual service - big sigh.

cheers
MacMini34
 
If you had purchased the car and transported it to some remote unreachable location, that’s on you. If their dealer closed down, it seems like it should be on them.

Other brands can send recall software updates over the air. In my opinion if Mini cannot do that, and can’t keep their local dealership open, it is not unreasonable for them to pay all expenses to have the work completed. I don’t know if it’s easier for them to send a mobile tech out to do it, or to have it towed.
 
I guess your local BMW dealer doesn't want to touch warranty work. Maybe that dealership is allergic to EVs, so reach out to another BMW dealership? Seriously they could just plug in an ethernet ICOM adapter into the OBD2 port and run ISTA-P for crying out loud.
 
I haven't had the recall work done myself since I'm about 3 hours away from the closest Mini dealer, but I fall into the "my fault" category of purchasing my SE knowing there was no Mini dealer in my local area.

I've not heard of BMW servicing Mini's, under warranty, in quite some time. I believe at some point in the past they could, but not for many years. Obviously I wish they'd bring back the ability for BMW to service them, since there's many more BMW dealerships around (and my two local BMW dealerships were great with my i3).
 
There is still a similar 450V/350A fused safety box like the i3 on the MINI SE. I don't think the MINI will go kaboom, but you would have to hold MINI USA to the 8 year 100k miles warranty on the HV battery assembly.

Ultimately the software update is really to cover MINI USA and potential corporate warranty repairs costs...so you do your own risk assessment.
 
Thanks for replies!

MINI USA eventually agreed to move the vehicle one-way (they said roadside assistance could be used). Unfortunately price quotes showed MacMini34 was dead-on, it's $950 one way (!)
We plan on re-locating the vehicle later next year, so maybe we'll just wait until then for the software update.

Does that sound ok? MINI/BMW certainly don't seem to be treating this as a critical recall if our communication is to be used as an indication.. so I guess we shouldn't either?
 
I think you're fine waiting. If it was more likely to happen, they would have recommended not driving the car until you got the update.

I still need to schedule mine. I called twice to schedule and was promised a call back on whether I could get a loaner but was ghosted both times. I'm not a fan of the centralized appointment system they have now vs calling the dealer directly.
 
If Mini is agreeing to transport it to the facility, I’d do it ASAP. You don’t want the offer to be forgotten by their staff at a later date. Plus recalls are always a potential safety risk, no matter how small the percentage is.
 
Quiet Mini said:
If Mini is agreeing to transport it to the facility, I’d do it ASAP. You don’t want the offer to be forgotten by their staff at a later date. Plus recalls are always a potential safety risk, no matter how small the percentage is.
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They said they're planning to relocate soon, and I assumed that meant they would be closer to a dealer. Could be a bad assumption though.
 
Quiet Mini said:
If Mini is agreeing to transport it to the facility, I’d do it ASAP. You don’t want the offer to be forgotten by their staff at a later date. Plus recalls are always a potential safety risk, no matter how small the percentage is.
Click to expand...

They’re agreeing to one-way. It’d cost us $1000 to move it back.

We can move it to where we live full time next year for less than that. I suggested to move it to our home earlier at their expense, and we would deal with alternative transportation in the meantime where the mini is located (it’s out of town, used for occasional work trips). No reply from mini.

It seems that we may be dealing with outsourced support. They don’t seem to be in the same page, the emails aren't professionally composed, and they don’t sign the emails with any name. We’ve decided to wait.
 
So you think you may be communicating with someone that will gladly pick up your SE, and then you will not see it again?
 
ColdCase said:
So you think you may be communicating with someone that will gladly pick up your SE, and then you will not see it again?
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FYI when shipping a car, you have to arrange for someone to meet the driver at the destination. They won't drop off a car at a location without someone to confirm receipt.
 
Just from personal experience, I would take a complete set of pictures of the car prior to shipping, just in case it is damaged in transit and the shipper tries to make a claim the damage was previously there...especially if transported in an open carrier.
 
ColdCase said:
So you think you may be communicating with someone that will gladly pick up your SE, and then you will not see it again?
Click to expand...

Didn't even think of that -- it was more of, I wish they had a higher-level understanding of the situation and ability to discuss it internally like good old-fashioned customer support. For instance, if they could arrange for the local BMW to handle this, as teslarati97 has explained it should be dead simple. They (MINI and BMW) refuse to investigate that possibility. The level of detail I've heard from BMW is "we are not a MINI dealer."

Spending that amount of money for their manufacturing defect really seems inequitable, plus I also failed to consider chrunck's point about meeting them for the pickup. That means it's at a time when we'll have to be there so it will require a loaner for a week, maybe more? The shipping times typically have a wide time window of around a week, and this is apparently a less traveled route. Also didn't consider Jkoya's point about the car getting dinged up, though that's low priority.

Anyhow, I've gummed up the forum enough with this situation. I'm going to keep pushing them, but the expense is too high to move forward.
 
SameGuy said:
Maybe start a paper trail with the NHTSA as well.
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polyphonic said:
Didn't even think of that -- it was more of, I wish they had a higher-level understanding of the situation and ability to discuss it internally like good old-fashioned customer support. For instance, if they could arrange for the local BMW to handle this, as teslarati97 has explained it should be dead simple. They (MINI and BMW) refuse to investigate that possibility. The level of detail I've heard from BMW is "we are not a MINI dealer."

Spending that amount of money for their manufacturing defect really seems inequitable, plus I also failed to consider chrunck's point about meeting them for the pickup. That means it's at a time when we'll have to be there so it will require a loaner for a week, maybe more? The shipping times typically have a wide time window of around a week, and this is apparently a less traveled route. Also didn't consider Jkoya's point about the car getting dinged up, though that's low priority.

Anyhow, I've gummed up the forum enough with this situation. I'm going to keep pushing them, but the expense is too high to move forward.
Click to expand...
Maybe time to get the state AG involved as well. You shouldn't be out one cent for this, other than the few electrons to get to the nearest location for BMW USA to be able to make it right, whether that's a nearby dealership, or a car shipping company.
 
Well the local BMW dealer wouldn't get paid by BMW North America for warranty work on MINI . While I don't have access to the repair steps, I'd reckon the process would be to simply connect the ICOM to the OBD2 port and run ISTA/P to update the SME module to a Sept 2024 or later version. Maybe the dealership only has a partial subscription, but that makes no sense with F-series BMWs.

To my knowledge, the BMW i3 safety box (SME) is a combo BMS with a 450V/350A safety fuse (HV battery wired in series). The SE version (61279455518) could be different.
 
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