Service (not) due

Posted on by Ian C.

File this under “Audi dealership hopeless, compared with MINI” …

My Q5 last week told me that I needed an oil change, as I had reached 10K miles:

So I called Audi; they said that service is not due till 15K – because they do a first “free” service at 5K. They didn’t explain whether the Audi asks for a service at 10K, or whether it asks 10K after the previous service and they just didn’t bother resetting the interval at the 5K visit.

I asked them what to do about my car asking for service; they suggested that I ignore it – for the next 5,000 miles! They said that resetting the interval “takes at least an hour” and they clearly weren’t at all interested in doing it.
I suggested that ignoring a “service due” alert for 5,000 miles was a very poor quality way to make a car – apparently they (IRA Audi) didn’t much care. I also pointed out “what if some other issue comes up that requires service, given that you told me to ignore the warning”. Once again, they didn’t care.

So, I emailed Audi USA who, to their credit, called me within half an hour and were apologetic – but still didn’t explain whether the issue is with the car or with the dealership. Anyway they said to take it to the dealership to reset, and I told them how un-popular that seemed to be, and that IRA Audi claimed it would take a long time.

Today, I got a call from IRA Audi; they said to bring the car in so they can reset the service interval – it won’t take long, maybe 20 minutes … hmmm.

If this was a MINI, I know that MINI of Peabody would have encouraged me to bring it in either to service if it needed it, or to correct the wrong interval. I know also that BMW of Peabody would behave the same – since exactly that happened with Margaret’s BMW, and they sorted it.
I know also that I would have got a friendly and helpful explanation if the car was reporting the wrong service interval – I would not have been told to “just ignore it”!

I really like my Q5, but I continue to be amazed just how poor IRA Audi can be 😦

Coast to coast

Posted on by Ian C.

Back in August 2006, I did a coast-to-coast drive in my then brand-new GPMINI as part of MINI Takes The States; it was a two week trip fully organized by MINI USA, and it was great fun – even though Margaret only joined me at the beginning and end.
Now in 2010, MINI USA is organizing another similar-but-different MINI Takes The States event, and we will be driving coast-to-coast once again!

In 2006, I picked up my GP MINI in Monterey, California during a fabulous early delivery celebration event, so it was then a simple matter (!) of driving about 5,000 miles back home; this time, my MINI is in Florida so it has to go coast-to-coast twice! To this end, my friend Robert who lives near Los Angeles, California is flying to Florida, collecting GPMINI, and driving back to his home – then we fly out to Los Angeles, collect the car, and join the MINI Takes The States event driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and finally to Denver, Colorado. After that, we make our way further East and South eventually back to Florida!

Here’s an early concept of the driving route:

This route covers a total distance of 3,267 miles; much less than the route I drove in 2006 as back then we started in Monterey and finished in Boston. However our true final distance is likely further, as we will do some touring on the Denver to Florida drive – this is Margaret’s chance to see LOTS of America!

Of course the MINI will do even more miles as Robert will drive 2,500 miles or more taking the car to Los Angeles!

I’m sure there will be lots of amazing pictures, in August … “watch this space”, as they say!