When is a car service not a service?
Discussion
...When it's a MINI "care" checkup.
We've got a Mini One which was we use occasionally for local trips etc. It's done around 12,000 miles in the 4 years we've had it. When we bought it, we got the TLC package.
Cue last month, and the car tells me that it's due a service. It's only the second one, but it's around 18 months and 3000 miles since the last one, I've effectively paid for it through the TLC package and on current usage I'm never going to use the full quota (5 services or 50,000 miles IIRC), so I book it in to the garage. Of course, they can see it tomorrow but if I want it collected or a courtesy car, it'll be a whole month before they can fit me in.
So, I decide just to get it done and I make arrangements to get myself picked up from the garage and dropped off later in the day, inconveniencing someone else in the process.
When I pick up the car, there's not a single thing that's been done. Nada. Zilch. No oil change, no brake fluids, nothing.
It turns out that this isn't a "service" at all. It's an opportunity for the garage to look at the car and nitpick every last little chargeable item that they might be able to convince me to get changed, sight unseen. Mine's quite a tidy example, so they were struggling a bit, but here's what they came up with:
- Front tyres are at 3.5mm and need changing "soon", so do I want them replaced? Excuse me? Nearly 2mm over the legal minimum and with just 12,000 miles underneath them? I've just eyeballed them and it looks to my eye as if they have considerably more than 3.5mm anyway.
- Both front wiper blades are split and need replacing. No they don't, they've got small tears about 5mm long on the far end of the trailing edge. Absolutely no reason to change those at this point.
So the upshot is that this MINI "service" is nothing more than a ploy to give the garage a chance, at my own expense and inconvenience, the opportunity to sell me new wear & tear items that the car doesn't really need.
Impressed I am not. The car is great but the constant badgering (monthly phone calls) to try and get me to buy a new Mini and now this have really taken the shine off the ownership experience.
We've got a Mini One which was we use occasionally for local trips etc. It's done around 12,000 miles in the 4 years we've had it. When we bought it, we got the TLC package.
Cue last month, and the car tells me that it's due a service. It's only the second one, but it's around 18 months and 3000 miles since the last one, I've effectively paid for it through the TLC package and on current usage I'm never going to use the full quota (5 services or 50,000 miles IIRC), so I book it in to the garage. Of course, they can see it tomorrow but if I want it collected or a courtesy car, it'll be a whole month before they can fit me in.
So, I decide just to get it done and I make arrangements to get myself picked up from the garage and dropped off later in the day, inconveniencing someone else in the process.
When I pick up the car, there's not a single thing that's been done. Nada. Zilch. No oil change, no brake fluids, nothing.
It turns out that this isn't a "service" at all. It's an opportunity for the garage to look at the car and nitpick every last little chargeable item that they might be able to convince me to get changed, sight unseen. Mine's quite a tidy example, so they were struggling a bit, but here's what they came up with:
- Front tyres are at 3.5mm and need changing "soon", so do I want them replaced? Excuse me? Nearly 2mm over the legal minimum and with just 12,000 miles underneath them? I've just eyeballed them and it looks to my eye as if they have considerably more than 3.5mm anyway.
- Both front wiper blades are split and need replacing. No they don't, they've got small tears about 5mm long on the far end of the trailing edge. Absolutely no reason to change those at this point.
So the upshot is that this MINI "service" is nothing more than a ploy to give the garage a chance, at my own expense and inconvenience, the opportunity to sell me new wear & tear items that the car doesn't really need.
Impressed I am not. The car is great but the constant badgering (monthly phone calls) to try and get me to buy a new Mini and now this have really taken the shine off the ownership experience.
BMW realised with the MINI that it was much more lucrative to sell a 'lifestyle', with all the continued sales and income that implies, than simply to sell a car.
As well as guys like you, MINI's also sell to people who know nothing about cars and aren't interested in the technicalities - 'technically' I reckon there have always been more practical competitors to the MINI which haven't sold nearly as well, such as the new Panda. People like this will be too scared to not respond to the service indicator and will see tyres as utterly safety critical and have them changed.
BMW are just exploiting the weaknesses of the market they have targetted, aren't they? You have to hand it to them, they've been bloody good at it!
As well as guys like you, MINI's also sell to people who know nothing about cars and aren't interested in the technicalities - 'technically' I reckon there have always been more practical competitors to the MINI which haven't sold nearly as well, such as the new Panda. People like this will be too scared to not respond to the service indicator and will see tyres as utterly safety critical and have them changed.
BMW are just exploiting the weaknesses of the market they have targetted, aren't they? You have to hand it to them, they've been bloody good at it!
raf_gti said:
So a garage pointing out that your tyres <are> getting a bit on the low side is cause for a Mini rant? Just think, you can use it as an excuse to buy winter tyres 
Nope, it wasn't just pointing it out, the conversation went a bit like this:Mini twonk: Your front tyres will need replacing soon, you want us to do them now, yes?
Me: How much tread on them?
Mini twonk: Around 3.5mm, that's pretty low, shall we just swap them while the car's with us, OK?
raf_gti said:
Mini rant
Very good!
The wife's Cooper S has done 48k miles. The last oil service was at 36k. The diagnostics indicate the next oil service is not due for another 13k miles. I make that 25k on the same oil?
It's on a 5yr 50k TLC and is due the MINI-care check up in January (1 month after the 5yr deadline, they refuse to see it before that unless the warning light comes on). So I'll be charged for the 'free' check unless I take out another 3yr 80k extension to the TLC pack for £300 and start again.
It's on a 5yr 50k TLC and is due the MINI-care check up in January (1 month after the 5yr deadline, they refuse to see it before that unless the warning light comes on). So I'll be charged for the 'free' check unless I take out another 3yr 80k extension to the TLC pack for £300 and start again.
How much did TLC cost you, and why did you go for it if you only do 3,000 miles a year?
All recent BMWs have condition based servicing, not just MINIs; I had a similar service on my 545i last year where they only look but don't touch. Cost a bit more than yours did though
Are wipers not replaced under TLC anyway?
All recent BMWs have condition based servicing, not just MINIs; I had a similar service on my 545i last year where they only look but don't touch. Cost a bit more than yours did though
Are wipers not replaced under TLC anyway?
Ozzie Osmond said:
I really can't see anything to complain about here. Nothing at all.
I think the OP is a little annoyed that his service was in fact not a service but a 'health check' that so many dealers offer inconjuction with a proper scheduled service.A health check should imo, be done at the same time as a service and not be on the cars service indicator.
skyline501 said:
It's on a 5yr 50k TLC and is due the MINI-care check up in January (1 month after the 5yr deadline, they refuse to see it before that unless the warning light comes on). So I'll be charged for the 'free' check unless I take out another 3yr 80k extension to the TLC pack for £300 and start again.
Rag it until the light comes on?Jobbo said:
How much did TLC cost you, and why did you go for it if you only do 3,000 miles a year?
All recent BMWs have condition based servicing, not just MINIs; I had a similar service on my 545i last year where they only look but don't touch. Cost a bit more than yours did though
Are wipers not replaced under TLC anyway?
I think it was something ridiculously cheap at the time, around £200 for services within 5yr/50K. I went for it because although it was a 3rd car I had plans to use it slightly more in the first year - I used it to prove to Mrs PhilboSE that a Porsche 911 would be a viable car for the school run - there's about the same interior space in both! And, I thought that it was almost inevitable that service costs over 5 years would be more than the TLC package (still think this is true).All recent BMWs have condition based servicing, not just MINIs; I had a similar service on my 545i last year where they only look but don't touch. Cost a bit more than yours did though
Are wipers not replaced under TLC anyway?
Condition based servicing I am comfortable with, however if there isn't anything that needs doing, I don't want to be inconvenienced to drop off the car just for their benefit.
If wipers are supposed to be replaced under TLC, mine weren't.
Deluded said:
The legal limit in the rest of europe is 3mm.
I'm sure that's not right.This from the AA website, "Tyres - Like the UK, most countries require a minimum tread depth of 1.6mm over the central three-quarters of the tread and around the whole circumference.
"We recommend a minimum of 2mm but consider changing tyres if the tread is down to 3mm before you go. Tyres wear out quickly after they get down to 3mm."
PhilboSE said:
Of course, they can see it tomorrow but if I want it collected or a courtesy car, it'll be a whole month before they can fit me in.
PhilboSE said:
Condition based servicing I am comfortable with, however if there isn't anything that needs doing, I don't want to be inconvenienced to drop off the car just for their benefit.
So you've done just 12,000 miles in 4 years with one service in that time, yet you can't wait a few weeks for the courtesy car they've offered you?Please, there is NO cause for complaint here.
Deluded said:
3.5mm is low. You should really be changing tyres at 3mm, not the legal limit at 1.6mm. 1.6 is stupidly low. The legal limit in the rest of europe is 3mm.
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