ALLGBMINI

See this entry on Gizmodo:

“Hyper rescue robot “T-52 Enryu” (rescue dragon) from Tmsuk first appeared in March 2004 but now he’s wandering the highways and byways saving stranded motorists”

Sadly if you check back through the old Men Of Metal links, you find that the original website no longer exists, perhaps due to MINI USA changing advertising companies recently.
However the Wayback Machine still knows all 🙂

MINI of Peabody is keen to re-assure both me and the MINI community that our favourite dealership will stay just that – excellent in all MINI respects!

Early today Gary King, MoP Service Manager, called me to chat and confirm that there are no changes to the service department and everyone is keen to maintain their customer relationship.
Then I “chatted” with Joel, my MA – he also posted a comment to re-assure everyone.

Finally when I got home, I had a message from Warren Waugh, one of the owners of the Lyon Waugh Auto Group that owns MINI of Peabody as well as the related BMW dealership and various others.
He & I chatted at length and he again emphasised that everyone knows how great the MINI community is, and how good their relationship with it is, and they don’t want to change it – except perhaps for the better!
Warren confirms that we can look forward to more MoP organized events like last years excellent Get Into It, the Classic Minis gathering, the Open Rally and the much earlier 2003 rally.

It’s always sad when this sort of thing happens but I can’t see any other dealership being concerned enough about their image in the community to call various owners and personally re-assure them. My thanks to Gary, Joel and Warren.

I just heard from now EX General Manager of MINI of Peabody, our up-to-now favourite dealership … Martin was fired yesterday from the position he had from day zero, creating the MINI dealership from the ground up, and repeatedly achieving best dealership in USA. Martin was no doubt instrumental in hiring many of the rest of the excellent team too.

I have no idea what is behind this but I am concerned for the friendly future of my dealership.

I am shocked and saddened. Commiserations Martin; I hope you soon find a new outlet for your sales & management talents.