I believe you. Once I was told that the new starter would take a week to come in for my dead 4Runner. I questioned as to why they use horseback deliver & ended up with my truckster fixed in a day. Remind them that 1 day shipping is available these days.
One of the reasons I decided too sell my 2005 was the realization that even seemingly minor parts that were dealer only parts had become 3+ day items they had to order....then add the day to find the issue...and a day to install....makes MINOR stuff 5 days... dealers have always stocked very minimal parts, and with gen1 now being 10+ years out of production (except for a few cabrio cars that will meet that statement soon) and many parts being unique, i realized many "10 minute fixes" would turn into 3-5 day ordeals that would include a rental car... When I had a rear caliper seize, I was lucky that my MINI guy keeps a spare on the shelf...but told me it was cause even the dealer made them special order items... Similar story for the odd electrical bits...sure we have some GREAT vendors, but often THEY MUST GET THE PART FROM MINI, THEN SHIP IT TO YOU unless they stock it..... Kinda starts too kill it as a daily driver... sure, many sites have 50% of the stuff available with overnight shipping, but that can double the cost of a part...and still might take 3 days if you order it late in the day. Lets face it...with the GEN3 cars being the new cars, and gen2 cars being the main cars getting fixed....gen1 cars, even if you love them are becoming less viable as a daily driver unless you have a 2nd car to use.....
Yeah, usually if we need parts, we overnight it from our regional depot. We keep the usual stuff on hand, like oil, filters, typical broken stuff - but if a TSB or recall comes out, usually parts are very limited and on an as-needed basis only, sadly.
Geez, it's not the end of the world. Driving a 1st generation MINI is really no different than driving any other contemporary car. It's not like you risk getting stranded every time you head out from home. My MINI is nearly 14 years old and I would not hesitate for a moment to jump in it and take a trip from coast to coast. The average age of a car on US roads is 11.4 years. Remember that's the average age, so considering how many new cars are sold each year, that means there are plenty and plenty of cars much older than 11 years still providing people with daily transportation. If you take into account that many (most?) MINIs are owned by enthusiasts whose affection for their cars goes beyond that of owners of typical basic transportation cars, it's reasonable to think that MINI owners are going to take the extra steps needed to properly maintain their older cars, rather than waiting for problems to surface. That helps somewhat offset the generally poorer reliability of the older MINIs as compared to, say, a similar vintage Japanese car.
I don't use my R53 as a daily driver. Problem solved. My daily driver is a bicycle, and let me tell you how that feels when you get stranded and nobody has parts for a 1999 Gary Fisher. I have bought parts from my dealer ONCE and they had them in less than 24 hours. Toyota needed longer to get the same part (caliper mounting bolts) for a still current much higher volume selling truck.
I have to take a day off to do this and am getting low on STO for the rest of this fiscal year. I hope I don't have to go in twice.
My R53 is my "daily driver" I just drive daily. I can't think of many mechanical parts I can't get on short notice. Heck even the local auto parts can get stuff same day or overnight. I understand keeping inventories low. But for I recall where you know your going to need x number of parts it doesn't make sense to get at least 1/2 of those. It just goes to show that MINI mgt doesn't quite get it. If you want to make main stream cars and be a main stream dealer you need more dealers.
More dealers means more places to park unsold cars. That might work. If one needs MINI parts eMINIparts.com is the answer. They are faster than my local dealer plus they sponsor this little zoo.
aka MINI OF BEDFORD NH, THEY ARE MY local MINI dealer....great guys really, them and their sister dealership in Peabody MA, both IMO both 2 of the BEST most honest MINI dealers in the US... Heck, I'm not just saying that, I bought my car from them in PeabodyMA before the Bedford NH location opened, and never told them that one of the owners of the auto-group they are named after was a regular customer of mine when I was flying corporate. Just not my style to namedrop, but I can say when an individual owns a a large group of car dealers.. and the owners still treat the people serving them, in my case, their pilots with respect and kindness, it kinda shows the company culture. Flew them often enough to be on a first name basis by sight, and got to chat with then during numerous flights and delays while waiting for guests or cars to arrive to bring them to their destinations... Knowing that I had no qualms giving them my business, and they happily took care of me as a customer. Just a stand up grope of guys...it shows in both their sales and service departments... And for the record I have not flown the owners/founders of the group or their families around in the last 5 years, so I have nothing to gain here...heck...I sold my MINI, so i don't have any current dealings with them on a retail level either!!:cryin: still miss my MINI, but it was time...maybe something will strike my likings soon...would love to have another MINI in the family!!
Recall done today. New reman pump and fan installed for free, (tested and found defective, although it was still working fine), but paid a bit for replacing the leaky feed and return lines. Hopefully it'll be good for another 13 years.