overheat melted all plastic components mounted on the engine

I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with a local Mini Cooper dealership here in Maryland. Can’t even convey in words how upset I am with this dealership. Although I did not purchase the vehicle from them, the attitude of the service department and the response received was very disheartening. Purchased a used clubman for my son from a national dealership here called Carmax. We thought it was being maintained properly. Paid for scheduled services and even had an oil change service just this past September. Our son was traveling from Philadelphia to our home in Frederick, MD when the vehicle experienced a major overheat and complete melt down. The vehicle was towed to the Mini of Baltimore dealership due to Carmax quoting two weeks before they could even have it diagnosed, and their service advisor suggested the Mini dealership because they take them there anyway.

After checking out the vehicle Mini of Baltimore padded up a list of damages that far exceeded the purchase price of the vehicle. The grand total was over $14,000. They indicated that the codes read back showed the engine had experienced two previous overheats that we were unaware had happened. Since the codes supposedly indicated a check engine light had been on and there were two previous overheat conditions recorded, the extended warranty insurance purchased at Carmax rejected the claim.

Given this news we asked the service advisor at the Mini dealership what could be done to bring down the costs since we would be paying out of pocket. The only response was to talk to the president of the dealership. The result was being laughed at and told we could purchase a new vehicle. With no other options suggested, we made arrangements to tow the vehicle back to our home town of Frederick, MD. We were then told that we had to pay a $250 diagnostic fee for them to release the vehicle. They never even opened the engine or put it on a lift. Kept my cool (even though I wanted to throw rocks thru the showroom) and paid their extortion fee.

A local independent shop (Eurotech of Frederick) has now replaced the engine and all melted auxiliary plastic pieces in the cooling system for ~ $4,600. The behavior of the Mini Cooper dealership in Baltimore was absolutely disgraceful. Will never go near them again and suggesting that everyone avoid the crappy Mini Cooper vehicles in general and never, ever, ever, do business with Mini of Baltimore.

Please take our experience into consideration and avoid being treated this way by Mini of baltimore. They have totally destroyed the brands reputation for us and many others.