Today I headed in to Boston to “the other MINI dealership” – Herb Chambers MINI:
The reason was to meet with Annette (NoNo on MINI2), because her MINI has been “sick” and her original dealership, New Country MINI, completely failed to find the problem and eventually blamed her aftermarket air intake and/or exhaust – even though they had no idea what the problem was!
Pete (BWROOFCHEX on MINI2) helped arrange for Herb Chambers MINI to investigate and hopefully fix the car …
Herb Chambers MINI is different to MINI Peabody in a few significant ways – primarily they share a building with BMW & Porsche (so for example you have to go to a different floor to the bathroom, and outside to a different part of the building if you want to buy a MINI accessory).
The other big difference, due to their location close to the center of Boston, is a lack of parking – more than $4 of quarters (per MINI!) kept the parking meters happy while we were there …
Where Herb Chambers apparently is NOT different is the enthusiasm shown by their staff for MINIs – indeed both Steve & Rich currently drive a MINI, and Steves car is nearly as decorated as mine:
Also, there was only enthusiasm over the fact that Jared, Pete, Jason and myself all descended on their dealership just to hang out and chat with Annette while her car was being worked on …
In time, we all headed off for lunch at a nearby “fast food mexican“, then attempted to reach Fenway Park for a guided tour; we did get there, but with limited parking & time (due to a game tonight), we changed our goal to the New England Aquarium – the journey took us through lots of Boston, as one way systems prevented our direct route attempts!
But in time we got there, and after buying tickets we enjoyed the aquarium exhibits … highlights included penguins:
Next we headed over to Quincy Market for food, drinks and shopping; we were also treated to some amazing acrobatic entertainment, which culminated in one guy somersaulting over the other 7 – stunning!
Finally we spent some “quiet time” in the Christopher Columbus Park on the waterfront, before returning to the cars (and paying $29 parking, each!) …
A great day spent with great friends!
Oh – Annettes car is not yet fixed; one experiment did not fix the problem but did eliminate one possible cause … Mark at Herb Chambers MINI has promised that he will resolve the issue to Annettes satisfaction, as soon as he can.
Meanwhile, you can watch the MINI2 thread which I am sure Annette will update when there is news …
M&I / GBMINI 
Herb Chambers MINI impressed me…especially after hearing how poor everything was at the start. I would have no issues now, bringing my car to Mark if need be…or stopping in just to hang out.
See Annettes glowing write-up about Herb Chambers …
what a great day Ian, Audra and I really enjoyed your company, as well as everyone else today. Great pics!
Looks like a fun day off from work!
So what was the total you paid in parking fees? Now you know first-hand why I always take the T when heading into the city. 🙂
Josh – I think we stayed below $35 in parking fees; I think Jason (who came in from Alewife on the T) paid much less …
Let’s see… $5 for parking at Alewife, and 2 T tokens at $1.25 each.
And, I think I could have made the drive down and back on one tank of gas. I chickened out and filled up on the way home, though, as there are stretches of the trip back where the nearest gas station is 20 miles away, and probably closed. Gotta love Vermont.
Nice write-up, Ian. But you may want to change that to a giant octopus, not lobster 😉 It really was a fun day, and as I said in my write-up on MINI2, I was most impressed with Herb Chambers. Mark is taking this case personally, the way every SA should. I also appreciated the gesture of giving me a nice, engraved keychain even though I hadn’t bought my car there, nor ever had it serviced there. That was a nice touch. I’ll let you know when I have to head back there. It’ll be fun to go on another “tour.” “Aquarium, left.” “You can’t go left, there are barriers there!” “LEFT!!!”
lobster – whoops! Got it right in the gallery 😉
As for the directions – wish I had remembered radios …
Update: Herb Chambers thought they had identified the issue – a bad spark plug! But when Annette picked up the car today, it failed on her once more. The work will continue …