M&I / GBMINI

I drove Black Knight over to Orlando MINI this morning, for it’s first service. I was a bit puzzled why the car had been insisting on the need for an oil change for the last week or two (since it’s not yet a year since I bought her), but all the MINI information says to follow the cars service recommendations.
I emailed and spoke to the dealership to book the appointment, and made clear that the service seemed early – but was told “bring it in”, so I did.

On the way to Orlando MINI, I finally reached 5,000 miles (low mileage, because of last years inability to sit and drive for a couple of months – and thus missing MTTS!).

Of course when I got to the dealership, the service writer came back and said “we can’t do the service, it’s too early”! A level of “discussion” followed, and after a while happily they decided to go ahead anyway (thanks, Garrett).
The issue was that Black Knight apparently has it’s manufacture date, not it’s sales date, to base the service decision on. It’s likely the dealership omitted to correctly set that date when they sold the car last year, so I had no qualms over “encouraging” them to follow through and complete the oil change (and avoid me another trip in a few weeks).

So, Black Knight got it’s oil change:

I’ve had zero issues in the last year so nothing else to be done, including “do not wash”; I doubt any MINI dealership is properly set up to handle the frozen paint finish, since there’s less than one car per dealership in USA!

I’ve enjoyed being back behind the wheel of a MINI this last year – the car is much more enjoyable than the BMW X3 I had before!

I sat in an F56 at the dealership today while I was waiting, and it seems more cramped than I’m used to – not surprising as the Countryman is bigger, and clearly noticeably so. The new F56 interior design is nice though; I guess we’ll see F56-style Countryman cars in a couple of years, right when I’ll be due for another car 😉