Anyone see Tiff Needell roadtesting the new Mini the other night. You can buy a
5 year or 50,000 mile service pack including all parts and labour for £100.00.
What a deal, then reality or cyniscm creeps into ones thinking.
You get nowt for owt, is this built in to the initial price. Are servicing costs which I assume are mandatory for the warranty going to be excessive.
However what a deal which I think knocks all these third party ones into the stone age and a good thing too.
Alvin
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Nice idea, but as you say, they must have factored the likely costs into the purhase price - so why bother with £100, why not zilch? Seems to be a kind of a smoke-screen approach - if it were zero people would be suspicious, but put a token value on the servicing and people may just overlook the obvious and think they're getting the bargain of the century.
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Alvin,
I am making the asumption (because I haven't seen the details) this has broadly the normal warranty details/cover/conditions.
In fact it is the agents dream if it ties the owner to 5 years of dealer servicing. I bet it excludes all normal consumables tyres/dampers/brake pads & discs/clutch/bulbs/wear & tear etc. Even if the service costs were "normal" this enforced loyalty to the dealer would, on average, far exceed any warranty liability.
Not being anti dealer David L but just trying to put the economics in perspective!
David
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David
I'm sure you're right it excludes consumables, but a car for £10.3k, and even a halfway reasonable 5 yr warranty plus 5 services at £20 each doesn't seem too bad to me.
regards
john
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I can't seem to find details of this warranty so not really fair to argue against it. Is it a special offer?
But anyway free lunch???? comes to mind.
David
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I don't think it's a warranty, just a service package. Everyone seems to be reading into it about the warranty, but I've never seem any mention of the words 'warranty'.
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Even without any warranty, 5 years of services at £100 (call it £20 a service) looks Ok to me.
Regards
John
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Though in total it's only 5 oil & filter changes, and 1 air filter.
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Nothing like the 'normal' BMW service schedules then? OK, they may not be quite so thorough on what will be expected to be a cheaper, simpler car, (even if it isn't) but I'd be amazed if that really is it. For example I doubt air and fuelfilters, or plugs will go the 50k Is that hard info?
Regards
John
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Try getting hold of a MINI before next Spring. The only way is to offer a few grand to someone who got their order in early.
HJ
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Planning to order a MINI Cooper on friday, if the test drive turns out OK. Had a look at one on the weekend - it seems to be very well constructed and looks great. Delivery has been quoted to us as late September, as long as you are only wanting pretty standard options or later in the year if it's a bit more eccentric. I wouldn't dream of paying a premium for faster delivery - it's the value for money that's a big attraction.
The servicing deal is good and it's transferable - a book of vouchers in reality. I can't see BMW making a fortune on the MINI, unless everyone options it up by a couple of thousand, in the short-term. But given by how good it feels and how resonable it will be to maintain I'd be unlikely to change to a worse built car when the need for something bigger comes along. And I'm sure the trade in against a BMW will be easy to arrange...... and MINI centres will no doupt also have a few 3 series hanging around.
If delivery is longer than December (the girlfriend birthday) I'll be wanting to wait until March for the new reg and possibility of going for a Cooper S.... Not much fun getting a new car in the depths of winter anyway....
HJ - any ideas when the Cooper S will break cover for magazine tests. I live quite close to Oxford and I've seen quite a few MINIs driving around - one had an extra intake on the snout of the bonnet, is this the S?
Piers
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Answer to Piers. I get the press releases and dutifully put them into my own words on the site. But as to inside information, no chance. They won't even let me drive a new MINI for the simple reason they don't have to. Demand hugely outstrips supply. If you are being quoted September delivery on a Cooper that's really strange because BMW says deliveries will not start until October. If any MINI dealer quites you delivery this side of January 2001, get it in writing and make it a binding term of your contract with a financial penalty clause if delivery is not made in time. I very much doubt that any MINI dealer will accept an order on these terms. Try and read between the lines of what I am writing. If I put it in black and white I'll get sued.
HJ
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I think Dave N has hit upon it, something which hadn't ocurred to me.
The name is a service pack with no mention of a warranty.
Why hadn't I thought about that!!!!
Alvin
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The fuel filter, air filter and spark plugs will, almost without doubt, be designed to last >50K
Most fuel filters today have a change interval of between 60 - 72K
Platinum tipped spark plugs are replaced at 60K
Air filters, with the right design, could last in excess of 50K, I'm sure
So, the £100 service pack is, as Dave N says, basically 5 oil & filter changes
I wish I had a marketing tool like this to retain my customers to my service dept for 5 years
MOT's, tyres, all that a/c work etc etc after 3 years - ho-hum
Rgds
David
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I remember the last time I went to the states, they were advertising the Ford Contour V6 (mondeo), and extoling the virtues of no maintenance, apart from fluids and filters, for 100K miles. I think it went something like "No tune-up for 100,00 miles". When I had my V6 Mondeo, I wondered what else they did on the expensive servicing, considering in the US it only needs fluids and filters.
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