MINI of Baltimore County

Almost a year ago I came to this dealer to purchase a Mini. At the time I was driving a crapy Saturn that I’d paid off quite some time ago. The salesman, I think, saw my Saturn and figured I didn’t have any money and couldn’t have seemed any less interested… Didn’t offer a test drive… Didn’t try to even look for something with the features I was looking for. So, I gave up and went to Annapolis Mini and spent my 35k… That same day! LMAO!
So, since this mini is much closer to me, I take my Annapolis Mini to this location for service. There’s one gentleman that is pretty nice and I usually deal with him. He seems to remember my name or is super fast at looking it up. But the good service ends with him. My first service trip ended up taking way way way too long and ended up making me miss an appointment elsewhere… Which cost me. The second service was to have my sunroof fixed (stopped working after only 8mo… Scary. Sadly they ran my car through their car wash which looked more like they just ran muddy water over it… It was really that bad, no exaggeration.
Today, I went in to see about getting a tow hook cap replaced. I went to the service department and one of the other guys sent me to the parts department where I was told it would be about $ 140… $ 140 for a small piece of plastic. I said to the parts guy that I thought it should be covered under warranty… He sent me back to service. The service guy said it wasn’t covered by warranty… He suggested it was stolen. 1^st I highly doubt it was stolen. Why would someone steal a tow hook cap? You might say that at $ 140, someone would have an incentive, but I highly doubt it was stolen. I think it fell off. I simply drove from a gated & guarded government facility to another and it was gone. But that’s not what really angered me. I think it was the service manager that went out to my car to look (no signs of force or damage) and insisted it was stolen and I said «of course you’d say that … He then said I should go to where I bought the car and walked away. His tone from the start was short and rude. I get it… From his perspective anything could have happened… But he didn’t even entertain anything other than his default opinion. This is exactly why people hate dealerships. They don’t listen… Don’t even pretend to care… Charge incredibly high prices. (That cap is $ 16 on one of the mini parts websites)… And they can’t even do it with simple grace and kindness. He should not manage any department.

MINI of Baltimore is top notch. Everyone makes you feel welcome. Yoni is my service advisor and is always very hospitable. He greets me in the service bay and makes sure my car is taken care of in a timely manner. I highly recommend MINI of Baltimore for all your MINI needs.

I’ve been coming to MINI of Baltimore since I bought my Cooper S, in the summer of 2012. I’m a bit of a car guy, and I have a habit of exchanging cars frequently. I love my MINI, and while the car itself makes it easy to forget about how much I want to drive other cars, the experience I have with the dealership makes it significantly easier.
You don’t often come across a car dealership that is (a) not trying to screw you, and (b) actually being pretty awesome. MINI of Baltimore is both. As I mentioned in other reviews, I’m a loyalist, and I’ve been brining my car in to see Yoni from day one. He keeps me up to speed on what’s needed right now, what I can safely put off until my next visit. He helps me save a few bucks here and there, by letting me know when there’s a special on service I’d need anyhow.
Keith and his team treat my car very well. I had a persistent rattle in my sunroof from day one, and between Yoni and Keith, they worked very hard to exhaust the alternatives to ensure that I would get a warranty repair when they eventually had to replace the whole sunroof cassette. What would have been a costly repair, was entirely covered by the MINI warranty because they followed protocol, and kept me in the loop.
Great dealership, great service center, great people. They make it easy to give five stars.

This was my first time at this dealership and the second time for MINI service. Overall, a pleasant service experience, as it was done quickly, and I had a comfortable wait in their lounge. I would rate my service rep Jonathan (Yoni) Baron 5 of 5 stars for his professionalism and cordiality. On the minus side, they do need to improve the clerical staff, in particular, the one on duty when I got there (at 11 am on 10÷3÷14) ignored me as I stood there, and I noticed she could not stay off her cell phone, which is annoying. Nonetheless, Yoni was very pleasant to deal with, and so I have no hesitation about returning for my next service.

Great people, very professional and fast.

The Best Dealer in Years!!!
My advisor is Jesse (Wildasin), who is the best advisor! I had many advisors; I can say he’s the best, in my opinion.
I love going to the Mini of Baltimore!
The place is way cool! It’s got some of the best toys on the lot. I spent hours there. LOL!
Seriously! I love these cars! They’re built, strong, serious road fun, and trusted road adventurer.
I’ve taken my Mini on road trips. The Mini of Baltimore has kept me and my Mini on the road, in the best of times and the worst of times. Because I road travel well and tend to keep my cars beyond 10 years, I got the extended warranty and maintenance.
If you love road trips as much I do, GET A MINI!!! If you live in Maryland, get to your nearest Mini dealer. And I’m not paid to say that. You got questions about Mini; I’ll find the answer… better yet Get to your nearest Mini Dealer!

Went into mini for an oil change — they informed me that my break signal was alerting them to check them. Without hesitation, my service rep Jess got me into a loaner Mini so that I wouldn’t be stuck in the Mini Lounge all morning and afternoon. About midday, Jess personally contacted me to let me know they would be replacing my front brakes, and the car would be all ready the next day. I informed him that I likely couldn’t get my car until the afternoon due to my work schedule and he said it was not a problem, that he was there until 6 and not to rush. When I got
my mini back it was scrubbed down, vacuumed, and ready to go home! Great, quick experience!

Terrible experience on Saturday. Got a flat tire on the JFX while on my way to Philly — drove slowly to the dealer — initially told me they could fix the flat for $ 39 — turned out they had to replace the «Run Flat Tire» for over $ 280 (one tire!!!) — no more Minis, never again!!!

have been looking for a new car for the last several months. I currently drive a BMW 328xi but needed to find a cheaper alternative after my lease ended. Of course I was fooled into thinking that the lease specials offered online were real. I made an appointment about 4 days in advance. When I got there, the salesman was informed me that he had three appointments at the same time so I would have to wait. He sent me on a test drive with a really nice salesperson (who just started several days before so he couldn’t answer any of my questions). After 1 ½ hours I finally was able to talk to the salesperson and told him which car i liked. He went in the back and brought out a sheet– the price of the car was listed as 41k (seriously, for a freaking mini) and lease payments were 1250/​month for 36 months! He said they have no reason to offer incentives because the cars are so popular. He also couldn’t explain to me why I would have to give them 45k over 36 months for a car with a price tag of 42k. Honestly, what a ripoff and the snotty attitude that went with it was so off-​putting. This place acts like you should be honored to have their attention. I would never buy a mini. In fact, for less money I can get a brand new BMW with more options and better service. Don’t go to mini of Baltimore– what a waste of time.

Mini of Baltimore has lost my business for good for the last time. I purchased 2 Mini’s from them, a 2005 and a 2008 Mini Cooper S from this location. I love them to death but I gotta tell you, the cara not the dealship. Customer loyalty doesn’t mean a thing to this place. I bought both of my Mini’s when they were in Towson. They moved to Owings Milss and I followed them there as that is where I bought my car. I never had a good impression of them. The salesperson did not act very nice, every one of them seems like they are above the rest, that they don’t care if they had your business or not. They didn’t budge $ 1 on their prices like they were selling like hoecakes. I was immature at that time and I wanted the car and didn’t care about the way they treated people. After buying the car, I started seeing problems with almost everything. I bought my 2008 MINI Cooper there because the first one was totaled and I still decided I wanted the MINI. The experience was the same. Again, I didn’t care, hoping it was just the salesperson who had an additive. I mean this guy was wearing a pink scarf around his neck indoors and it was blazing hot outside. Anyways, since I’ve had the car I’ve had the timing belt replaced two under warranty and the engine replaced once under warranty with less than 15k miles on the car. Needless to say there were countless problems with the MINI afterwards. Let fast forward to 2013, so far this year I’ve had to bring my car there 6 times this year and even the lot attendants all know me by the amount of times I’ve been there. I brought it there once because my windows had a mind of their own and when I tried the common teoubleshooting steps it didn’t work, I had the extended warranty and my passenger side window would not go up. I took it into the shop and they told me the software was outdated and had to be updated but couldn’t tell me why. So I either had to deal with the window not coming up or get it fixed, can you believe it they couldn’t tell me why the software went haywire and charged me $ 400 to UPDATE the software when I think the software went out of sync when they replaced my battery because the car mysteriously died on me for no reason while I was parked. They had the nerve to tell me software updates was the only way to correct the problem and I would just have to deal with it if I didn’t choose to go with the software update? Did they really update the software or did they replace a mechanism in the window? Who knows? Then they told me it could happen again at any time and it would not be warranted and I would have to pay it again if something were to happen to it again. So the next two trips was because of an engine malfunction light. First one was due to a bad DV and the second this time was due to the fact the fan blades were rubbing up against the metal housing of the turbo. That’s funny, they didn’t say there was anything wrong with it with they replaced my Blow off valve. So my turbo was ruined and they tried to blame it on the forge spacer that I had installed on there since the car was purchased from a magazine they had sitting in their waiting room. Now what would you think if you saw a magazine in the waiting room that had all these aftermarket upgrade part in it? Wouldn’t you think that they’re trying to encourage you to buy from them? Wouldn’t you think that they would warranty the parts that they were displaying? I did and somehow this «spacer «I had installed on it caused the turbo to go bad even though it had no moving parts and all it did was let the air out of the turbo faster than the own BOV. Wouldn’t you think that would help the turbo? Call me stupid because I did. Well they guy I normally deal with, Yoni, decided to tell me that he’s going to do me a favor and call in a claim for me because I bought the warranty there at that shop, at that dealership. Oh and this is after the day I brought my car there 8:30am and didn’t have a diagnosis until 4:00pm when the time before that I worked with Jesse and I had a call before noon and the car was fixed by the end of the day. The only modification from that visit to this visit was the own blow off valve they replaced under warranty and now all the sudden a month later the turbo fan was broken? S they call the extended warranty people and he calls me back today to tell me that the whole thing is going to cost me $ 600. What?! I thought you said it would be covered by the warranty? Yes, but they were charging me for the nuts and the bolts that were needed to bold the new turbo in place and let’s not forget those hoses that were broken to begin with. So I’m looking to go pick it up tomorrow and there’s nothing that they’re willing to do because they’re the specialist and my car wouldn’t be running if this procedure was not done. I was even contacted by the GM and he was of no help, he barely knew what a blow off valve was and didn’t know jack. Word to the wise. Don’t bring your car there and don’t buy a MINI.

Arranged to have a pre-​purchase inspection done for a used MINI that I was purchasing from another dealership long distance (unseen). Allen went out of his way to be helpful and kept me informed during the process. They found a couple issues that they said could be repaired under warranty, and could get it done in just a few days. The other dealership ultimately sold the car to someone else, but dealing with MINI of Baltimore was a pleasure.

I didn’t purchase my MINI from this dealer because I didn’t have any positive experiences with their sales staff. I ended up driving down to Alexandria to purchase my car from the AMAZING staff they have there. It’s a shame that place is so far away, or I’d have my car serviced there as well.
Since MINI of Baltimore County is so close to where I actually live, I have been coming here for service. Well, now I’m done. I’ll happily drive to Alexandria or Rockville (this location wasn’t open yet when I purchased my MINI) to have my car serviced from now on.
Last year I made an appointment to get an oil change. From the waiting area, it didn’t seem to be very busy. There were only 2 other people waiting when I arrived at my scheduled time. I sat for two hours waiting and waiting. Finally my car was done. During that time no one came to tell me what the holdup was or offer any explanation as to why a scheduled oil change would take so long. The people who had been there when I arrived were long gone by this point. I let them know of my disappointment when they emailed me a follow up survey. Other than the super long wait, the service was fine.
Last month my father decided to bite the bullet and have a bunch of extensive repairs he had been putting off finally taken care of. All in all, his trip to MINI of Baltimore County cost him over $ 7,000 and took nearly two weeks to be completed. At no time did they offer him a loaner vehicle. My father thought that since his car was out of warranty, he figured he wouldn’t be able to get one so he was afraid to ask, not wanting to add even more to his bill.
My dad had bonnet stripes added to his car while it was being worked on. It was only an extra $ 100 and he had wanted them for a long time. His car looks great and I decided to get some too.
I just tried calling MINI of Baltimore County to make an appointment to have my oil changed, my front alignment checked and bonnet stripes added. The guy put me on hold to check the price of stripes and came back to tell me it would cost $ 398. I told him my father had stripes put on last month for $ 100 and that MINI sells the stripes alone for $ 60. He pulled up my father’s invoice and told me that since his car was done at their body shop (located on Joppa Road), it was $ 100 but that they charge $ 398 since they have someone come out to install them on site.
Is there a reason they couldn’t recommend me to take my car to their body shop? Is there a reason they charge $ 300 more for labor (putting stickers on a car) at the dealer than they do at the body shop? I told them to cancel my appointment and I would take my car somewhere else. He asked me if I still wanted them to service the car and I told him no, I will take my car somewhere else. He actually asked, «Because of the price of our stripes?»
Talk about terrible customer service. I’ve had better service at a Jiffy Lube.

My wife owns a MINI and I’ve taken her car here a couple of times when she couldn’t make it for various reasons.
The place is nice. You get complimentary soda, coffee, and snacks while you wait. The only reason I’m not giving it 4 stars is because of a lack of personal service. If you go in, drop off your car for regular service or repairs, and go home, then you’ll love this place. But the instant you ask them to do something simple, but not entirely common, you get a string of lies why they can’t do it.
It’s different when I take my BMW in for service. At both BMW and MINI, I’ve asked for some computer settings to be changed when the car is connected to the diagnostics machine. I even provided a print out of step by step instructions on how to do it through the diagnostic machine menus. BMW’s response was simple, «No problem, sir. And there’s no charge since we already had it hooked up.» MINI’s response was, «Well, we can’t do that for liability reasons.» When I challenged them on that statement, they started telling me a different reason. What does this teach me? There really is no reason, they’re lying, and they just don’t want to provide service even slightly above and beyond normal.
Since MINI is owned by BMW, I’m going to ask my BMW technician if I can start taking my wife’s MINI to them.

Came to this dealer with 2 issues with my car. Two hours later, was informed they had washed my car and it had an oil change, but neither problem was fixed. Please honey do you think I wanted to waste 2 hours on my day off for a car wash and oil change? Not happy.
I was informed I’d have to come back again and wait another 2+ hours for the issues to be fixed.
Then, when I got into my car to leave, there was a system «glitch» (their word, not mine) that had likely resulted from the car wash. UM. Came here with 2 issues, left with 3! Additionally, they refused to address the third issue (that they had created!) at that time (too busy).
I did not know servicing your car could be so unpleasant til I met Mini Cooper Towson.

I’ve had my mini since 2007. I’ve had a great experience at other mini dealers. But I do not trust this one. I am writing this review as my neighbor just came back from having his mini serviced here and also thought they were untrustworthy. He knows a lot about cars. I know we are limited to mini service dealers. So just be careful when they recommend additional repairs.

I had my mini serviced there for over 2 years. Every time my experiences were fine. But this time was unbelievaeble. I sent my car in on Saturday to change the brake pad and they gave me a white loaner car since there were over-​booked. When I returned the car on Monday since they couldn’t finish it on Saturday and closed on Sunday, I was told there were 3 dings on the door of passenger side. I was found out that you these dings were very tiny and you had to stand in a particular angle with a help of strong light to be able to locate them. I swear I never open/​touch that door since it was under my hand. I did walk through the car with the service man when I checked it out. Neither I brought a magnifying glass nor I was ever shown/​taught how to detect a tiny dings on the car body. This was really a big lesson for me and I never did the business with this dealer Again !! (By the way, they charged me for over $ 3000 for the services visits this month)

Purchased my car from Benn Edwards and now Yani is my service advisor. While Yani is the new kid on the block, I know him from his last role. Yani went out of his way to help me to make my service experience remarkable. Thanks Yani… And thanks to Benn for the cool car.

This would be the fourth Mini Cooper dealership with whom I’ve interacted. I went car shopping with my mother at Mini of Towson (MD), took mine for service at Mini of San Francisco (CA) and then Alexander Mini (CA).
Most of the dealers have sort of a fun, playful vibe. Somehow that was lacking at this one. People were just business, it was a bit of a letdown in that way.
But the car was repaired, I was on my way, efficiently… just didn’t feel like a «Mini» experience the way I felt at all three other places. Oh well, I’m back on the road so it’s all good.

The dealership has a good variety of cars and the sales & service staff treatment is excellent. The only issue I have is I purchased a loaner car from them, which is considered pre-​owned. After purchase and I got the car home I noticed a gouge in the white hood stripe. I took the car in for minor repair less than 2 week from purchase and had mentioned the white stripe gouge, expecting them to step up and agree to fix it. The manager stated that because I didn’t notice it at time of purchase he would not correct the problem. Not good customer service, I would say.