GPMINI is generally serviced at MINI of Peabody by Chris, Gary, and the gang … but she’s 1300 miles from home, left sitting for months at a time, and (almost) due her 30K service.
So while down here, I booked her in at MINI of Orlando.
The booking process was wierd; seems they contract it out to some other operation; the guy I spoke with on the phone didn’t appear to know much at all about MINIs! Still, on arrival today, things were smooth and friendly … I’d planned just to pay for a “half way” oil & filter change, and get GPMINI checked over – but they said they could do the 30K service early, so why not! Saves me money, and gets everything checked, including changing the a/c filter.
During work, they discovered a small leak around the thermostat housing, so replaced the gasket and thermostat and did a coolant flush too …
When all was done, GPMINI got washed too (and we almost made it home before it started to rain!); however, heading home I heard an annoying “whistle” once GPMINI passed 70mph! It sounded like a window was cracked open slightly, but all were closed. I found that it went away if I turned on recirculation, so suspected the a/c filter since they changed it …
Back at 8002, I removed the a/c filter cover, and decided the tech had probably caught the amplifier “turn-on” wire in the cover when he re-fitted it after changing the filter, so I sorted that and put the cover on again – but I have yet to get out to somewhere I can do >70mph, to check that the whistle has gone.
Overall, pretty good service. Friendly, and communicative … but I don’t know anyone there, and they don’t know me 😉
M&I / GBMINI 
Funny, I just replaced my cabin air filter yesterday. I’d gladly look at yours for you but I won’t be seeing GP for a while!
Glad to see you are taking better care of the GP that yourself…. 😉
Hope you are feeling much better than you did a few days ago. Nice seeing you and Margaret in NYC and hope you flight to Florida was better than ours was back to Ca.
Also, nice to finally get a meal together that didn’t suck!
Say Hi to Margaret for us…. Robert & Kittie
BTW… just noticed that you had that car since 8002… wow that’s a long time to own a car.
It was late when I read it.
The booking is handled by Fields BMW in Orlando (who owns Orlando MINI). It’s a little strange, but if you have any questions, you can always ask to speak to a MINI service rep. I believe that Jatin is still the service manager there.
Today I discovered that my Sirius radio had been erroneously disconnected, too 😦