Part 8: Hopefully the end of a saga?

20 February 2003
Picked up new vehicle. Missed 03 reg by a few days.

07 February 2003
Confirmed that indead the power steering had failed. This would be fixed and
the car returned to us. We never drove the car again.

06 February 2003
19.25 Car broke down. Speedo dropped from 60 to 0 then back up to 60. All
engine management lights came on. I then lost the steering. Breakdown guy
thought it was the power steering.

21 Januray 2003
Got the car back. Was informed that it wasn't the clutch but the gearbox and
that they'd fitted a new gearbox. No service sheet was left with the car
and they did not want to discuss with me any problems or what had been fixed
in more detail.

17 January 2003
Broke down on the way to work. Was told by the mechanic that it sounded
like the clutch had gone again. After waiting about 90 mins, the recovery
came and advised me that the clutch had gone again! Taken to Rydale and
hire car being arranged.

31 October 2002 / 5 November 2002
Clutch was replaced.

21 October 2002
Took car into Rydale Centre @ Birmingham for Service. The lighter socket
was broken and there was noise from the clutch. It sounded like traction
control adjusting the engine timing, but as we don't have traction
control....
They completed the service, fixed the lighter socket, but said that I needed
to get the car booked in again. They could also hear the noise. They wanted
to take the car in and have a proper look at it.

Part 7: 8th August 2002 The trials continue...

Airbag light now permanently on. Engine management checked but nothing seems to be wrong. Original clips used on seat back - no longer strong enough so need replacing. Damon Hill BMW phone up at 15:30 to say they need to keep the car over night to get parts in but no, they are not able to provide a car. So, do I walk home? Oh, and back to work the next day? They eventually provided a hire car after claiming that they offered one earlier but I had refused it! The lies keep on coming.

Airbag light on due to fault in the seat connector. Looks like they are prone to damage from rear seat passengers.

Fuel system checked and the fuel pump found to be slightly down on pressure so this was replaced.

Seat back clips replaced. Centre console trim also replaced at this visit from earlier complaint.

I would seem that all of them are damaged as part of the manufacturing process. Nice. They managed to find an unmarked one though and fitted that.

The car was at least nice and clean when it came back, but the paint was covered in the back-to-black spray used on the tyres and the fuel tank was left empty. Considering the milage I'm putting in to drive the car 30 miles each time it goes in, a bit of fuel wouldn't have killed them.

To top it all (you really couldn't make this up) the car was booked in to have the rear end looked at after the shunt. The crash repair centre (not Damon Hill) had made proactive arrangements to provide a hire car the day before as they were not able to get one to us by 07:00 in the morning. 19:00 passed last night and still no car.......So we took the Mini this morning and waited for them to ask where the car was.

Got a phone call later on to say that the car won't be picked up today because it was booked in in 2003!

Must rename the Izzy to Jonah.

Toby

The saga of Izzy (Part 6): This is taking the piss! 31 July 2002

So, BMW have finally done a recall. About time too.

Doesn't help that the seats are falling apart AGAIN! The back of the drivers seat has fallen off exposing the airbag. No passengers in the back then!

After seeing a very brief bit on morning TV, we then had to chase around to find out if Izzy was effected by the recall. They told fleet that she was but refused to say what the recall involves. We then got in touch with the dealer who said she'd have a look at the recall list and our car was there.

When asked what it was about, we were told gears. BMW never bothered to tell me that Izzy NEEDS to go in, but she is going in anyway on Monday anyway.

This visit was already booked to have the power output looked at. Low rev first and second gears aren't pulling as well as they did prior to the last visit when the battery was taken off. I know this because the garage didn't bother to reset the clock.

Damon Hill still seem to miss the small things that P*ss you off. She is also booking in on Wednesday to have the rear end looked at after a shunt - not our fault by the way. Must admit, nothing seems to be damaged, despite to speed of the impact (no, the car behind, I haven't pulled off yet!) Packaging is really tight there too, so to have everything OK, maybe the engineers at Gaydon got something right.

Just need Oxford to put them together right and sort out the dealers, and we might come away with something quite special.

Toby

The saga of Izzy (Part 5): The Saga Continues 16July 2002

Tuesday 16th July 2002

Haven't really heard anything yet from the garage to explain what they have done to Izzy in the past and why. They changed the gear selection cable, but didn't explain why, if it will happen again, how serious it might be if it does, etc.

The manager we spoke to on Sunday, who wished he had been informed of how serious this problem was, has actually been involved in this for some weeks now. Maybe he was confused.

He gave us the "we are very concerned that you are not being looked after properly etc, etc.." schpiel and you accept that, happy that somebody is finally taking note.

But when you find out that fleet have been talking to this guy already, and the only reason he wasn't brought in before that was because he was on holiday, emotionally speaking, you're right back where you started.

I just want to be able to say that the Damon Hill garage have actually done some good work, and that's the end of it, but they keep trying to hide things from us. And they are really bad at doing that too.

The saga of Izzy (Part 4): The Bitter AFTERTASTE! 08 July 2002

Now the gearbox is stuffed!

Pick a gear, any gear. The gearstick just rolls around in a circle.

We were on our way to meet VIP customers at Silverstone for the GP too.

BMW rescue took 1 1/4 hours to turn up. Fortunatly we had a spare car because they refused to provide a replacement car on a weekend!

Back to Damon Hill.

THE STORY UPDATED AS THINGS GET BETTER ......WORSE?

Editors note: nice to see something going right at last

The saga of Izzy (Part 3): The Sweeter End

To close this story, I got the car back today.

New seat trim, new steering column, new battery box and fuse box covers, new door trim, full valet and full tank of petrol.

Finally, some good service.

I guess this it what it is normally like there. Best regards Toby Mullarkey PS: As before, can you pop this onto the ihatethebmwmini site? The garage have done their bit, so I will do mine.

Editors note: nice to see something going right at last

The saga of Izzy (Part 2)

As posted by Toby Mullarkey regarding his partners MINI company car Post 2 of 2.. at last possible evidence of the alleged legendary BL build quality is here ;).... Tobys words verbatim.....

By way of an update, the story continues....

When the company car fleet manager overseeing Maria's Mini last spoke to Damon Hill BMW, he was assured that all of the faults would be fixed at the next and hopefully final visit which was set for today, and that we would receive the "red carpet treatment".

You can probably guess what's coming...

Dropped our car off and went through the lengthy list of things that are still outstanding, most of which have been caused by the dealer - ill-fitting and now damaged seat trim, scratched centre console and door, rattling dash. The knocking in the steering column has also returned with a vengeance.

Then I went outside with the assistant to pick up my courtesy car. A filthy Mini One was not quite what I had in mind as the "red carpet treatment"!

I questioned if this was really as good as it gets and the assistant looked at me quite shocked and asked what I was expecting. A clean like-for-like car would have been a good start. A better car would have been nice as an apology for all the trouble, bearing in mind they would be keeping ours for a week.

She said that they only have Mini One's and 3 Series courtesy cars. A 7 Series driver for instance, would get a 3 Series (bet they were chuffed). I asked about the Cooper S demonstrator, but that was only for company demonstrations. As it happens, it was also falling to pieces, the wheelarch trim at the front was missing!

She asked if I would wait for 10 minutes for them to run it through the car wash, but I was already late for work, so told them not to bother. I was already past caring by this point.

When I got into the car, a car wash was far from all it needed. The carpets were filthy as was most of the interior.

Anyway, drove the car out of the garage, pleasantly surprised to find just less than quarter of a tank of fuel in it (that's supposed to last a week!?) and promptly turned it round and drove it back again.

I had had that car before and second gear bites horrendously. Not wishing to have the gear collapse on me, I returned it. That car's boot is also a bugger to shut. Both items I had told them about last time I had the car but obviously nothing had been done.

So, onto the second courtesy car.

The assistant didn't get the joke when I asked if it came with a paper bag with eye holes in. Bearing in mind this was the Damon Hill garage, the car was painted up like Hill's crash helmet. It also had blacked out windows, daft clear lenses all-round and was covered in advertising for the garage. Best of all it was an absolute bottom of the range One under all that. Great! At least this one had just over quarter of a tank in it. Oh, this one was just starting to develop the steering clonk too.

So my pimp mobile and I left for work.

In the mean time Maria had spoken to the fleet manager to confirm that the car had been dropped off. He asked her if we liked the Z3 that had been arranged. No joke!

Damon Hill garage had assured the fleet manager that to compensate for all of the trouble, they would provide a Z3 for the week. This obviously had never happened. If they ever had any intention of doing anything of the sort is anyones guess.

This is the part that is really starting to piss me off. If they had been hopeless on the one time I went, fine, caught them on a bad day. But this is the thirteenth time the car has been back. In just short of four months. They are just not interested. There is no way that this car will ever get fixed properly because the garage don't care for a second what happens to it.

They blamed the poor seats on being rushed (they had had access to the car for three weeks) and accused me of claiming the tyres on the first loan car were bald. I did say that they looked bald, but then confirmed that it was just they way the light hit them from where I was standing.

They refuse to answer calls from the fleet manager and seem to be under the miss guided impression that we don't talk to fleet when arrangements are made e.g. the Z3.

Based on this experience, the knocking steering will never get fixed because they will either never bother to look or will never admit it's there. This worries me because there are only a few things that could be causing it and most of them could cause the steering to jam!

I would be very interested to know if and/or when this is going to print because I would love to take this in to show them when I pick the car up.

Everything I have said about Damon Hill is based on my experience of them and my not necesserily be normal, but as I said earlier, has happened repeatedly.

The real shame is that I hate the car now. While I still like the design of it (I ought to, the company I work for designed a good chunk)
I would never dream of buying one now. Or any other BMW. Service costs nothing, but both of the dealers I have visited just aren't interested and the Damon Hill garage is willing to lie till they are blue in the face that they do care.

Best regards

Toby Mullarkey

PS: Feel free to post this on the ihatethebmwmini.com web site. People ought to know how they might get treated. I think I already sent the first half to you too.

The saga of Izzy (Part 1)

From: "Toby Mullarkey" <tobymullarkey@xxxxx.xxx>
Subject: BMW Mini lets Minilister down?..
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 07:19:19 +0000

Maria (my wife, it's her company car) has spoken to the fleet manager and they say it is OK to do the story, so long as they and the car's number plate are not mentioned.

FYI Izzy (Isobelle) is an 02 model Cooper with Chili Pack, half leather seats, 16" alloys, Air con and MD player.

So,

In brief, we collected the car with a broken heater and a windscreen that wasn't fitted properly. After waiting six months, we weren't about to refuse it now.

Izzy was taken to Godfrey Hall in Coventry (never again - filthy) to have the heater fixed. It wasn't connected properly.

Next, to Damon Hill in Leamington Spa to have the windscreen replaced because it had been fitted too low in the frame.

At the same time the dash was removed to solve a series of rattle issues, the vanity mirrors were refitted to have them pointing backwards not into the middle, and the drivers seat was checked because it felt like it was leaning to the left. It was. BMW knew about this but had no solution as yet and having tried replacing a seat previously with no change, felt nothing could be done.

In changing the dash, Damon Hill managed to scratch the drivers door handle and the centre console.

Picked the car up dropping off the Mini One loner (disappointed not to get a Cooper but hey)

Next was the drivers seat. This jammed in a less than perfect position for either myself or my wife. We found that adjusting the height made enough of a difference to get by until the next visit to the garage.

A week or so later, while driving in heavy rain, water started to come in through the windscreen. Damon Hill had refitted the same windscreen back into the frame and the seal had failed at the bottom.

This went in to be replaced and again was offered a Mini One. I had asked if they would come and pick Izzy up, as I would not need a loner, but they didn't have anyone spare to do that. I was asked however, not to forget to fill up the
petrol before bringing it back. It's 3.5 miles to work and back. The pumps don't dispense that little.

Anyway, got the car back, this time with a new screen as they had split the old one taking it out again.

They had also managed to mark the dash with the saw used to cut the glass out. While driving home, the screen started to creak. That "this glass is about to split in two" sort of creaking. Drove home very carefully.

Phoned Damon Hill and they said they would not be able to come and collect the car, but could I bring it in myself? After expressing my concern about the glass splitting on the way back, they said, we can't come and pick the car up.

Long story short, the creaking was glass stuck down the dash from the split windscreen. In the mean time, the steering developed a clunk on left turn. This was intermittent and as far as I can tell hasn't come back again. Damon Hill suggested I take one of the repair shop guys for a spin to see if they could hear the clunk. I suggested they take it for a spin themselves as I had better things to do than drive around all morning. After being dropped off at work they took the car away to check it.

After having to chase the car, I was told it was ready to collect. I told them, unless they wanted a taxi bill (they had dropped me off remember) they should bring the car back to me. They did. And scarpered. So Ihad to chase them again to find out what was wrong with it. They found nothing wrong and cleaned up the marks on the dash.

The problem with the seats would have to wait as there was a backlog of Mini's requiring seats.

When the passenger seat jammed at full recline after having a nap on a long journey, the fleet manager declared the car unfit for road use as this could happen to the drivers seat.

Izzy then spent two weeks sat outside our house while we drove round in a hire car, waiting for the seats to arrive. The hire car was an Vauxhall Astra. Bit of a come down from the prestige of the Mini. We were also still paying tax on the
more expensive Mini.

After many phone calls between the fleet management company and BMW GB, some sort of resolution was reached. Issy was put at the head of the 1000 long list of other Mini's waiting for seats. However, this still ended up to be a week
longer than Damon Hill quoted us.

We went to Damon Hill on 19th June to pick up Izzy to be ready to go to a wedding in it on the 21st. They were pleased to say the car was ready and had been valeted as usual. When we saw the car, it was obvious that all was not
well. For a start, the inside had not been cleaned - as usual, but worst of all, the panels that had been carried across onto the new seats had not been fitted properly. To the point that some were actually hanging off. The new seats were
also filthy. You can imagine how delighted we were. Their solution was either to take the car as it was or take the Astra and come back another day to pick up the Mini. This was the last straw. After my wife went ballistic at them, we
left half an hour later in Izzy with the visible panels refitted and booked in to have the less visible ones refitted. The problem is that in removing them, the panels have been bent, so will never fit again properly.

Apparently we will be getting the "red carpet treatment" when Izzy goes in next Monday. It must be a prize for getting 12 garage visits in three months. I'll believe it when I see it, but I don't actually want the red carpet treatment. I
wanted them to fix the car once, the first time they had it.

The car left the plant with two assembly faults - the heater and windscreen and one design fault - the seats. Everything else has been caused by the dealerships. I can forgive the car but not the dealerships. I'm just glad that it is not actually our car.

Best regards

Toby Mullarkey

BMW reliability my ass. Sounds like she might be a bit of a lemon though 'cause the only real design fault is the seats (brace yourselves for the recall) and the battery box stuff. The rest is bad assembly.

Best get Lumpy laura back on the road or Mavis out of retirement!

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