South Bay MINI

Had a lease at Southbay mini Cooper. We loved our little mini Cooper and the service that came with it. Thank you, mini for being so great.

This was quite easily the most pleasant experience buying a car that I’ve ever had in my life. I contacted Jacques Leon of SouthBay Mini on Monday & gave him the specifications of the car we wanted. He called me back on Wednesday & said SouthBay Mini now has a car matching my specs. In less than an hour we agreed on a price. We went in on Thursday & in approximately two hours, we completed the paperwork & headed home with our brand new Mini. Jacques has also followed up with a call today, Friday, to make sure all is well. We have no complaints & highly recommend SouthBay Mini.

Went in to get my mini serviced the other day and walked out with a new one! I was at the end of my lease and was looking to potentially upgrade. Mo and Ash made it super easy and we’re very flexible. They both knew their stuff and pushed the paperwork through as quickly as possible. Thanks guys!

Scammers, swindlers, purposely misleading. Cannot get them on the phone. Drive downtown or anywhere not to do business with South Bay mini. We took my husbands car for two inspections before the lease end. Brought our checkbook with us to pay any final costs. We were told that our low mileage credits canceled what we owed. We had explicitly told this gentlemen and several others that we were not going to get another car on that day because we were in the process of getting a home loan and was advised not to have our credit run. So we left happy and all was good. A week later we get a bill for over $ 800.00. We tried to call mini but could not get through after 3 attempts and waiting on hold for 20 minutes.
So my husband put his review on Unilocal.Now they call us to want to talk about it and keep passing my husband from one person to another. Finally they are sending the message «we can make this all go away if you purchase/​lease your next car with us.»
Feels like this has been their plan all along.
Unfortunate.

I am so upset with South Bay Mini. I returned a lease to them with 20,000 less miles than the contract. I was told by the gentleman who inspected my clubman that the 400 dollars damage, a bad tire and a small scrape under the front bumper, would be nullified because I was so far under the 30,000 miles. When I returned the car it had 10,800 miles on it. I was ready to pay whatever they wanted at the time but he told me we were square. I signed a release and complimented him on how nice they were and how efficient as well. Now a month later I received a last bill for over 800.00 dollars. I called to dispute these charges and I was blown off. I am extremely disappointed with South Bay Mini and will never do business with them again. I will also tell everyone I know about this treatment.

Twice tried to have them take care of the recall for the seat sensor for passenger air bag, twice denied. Was even told they would contact me when it was available. Nope, never happened. Had minor accident, fortunate not to have a passenger with me. While car was in the shop, Jim and Jack’s, they contacted me asking if I was aware of the recall. I explained how I was twice denied. Manny told me if I could wait another day he would have it taken care of for me. Even though the shop is in El Segundo, the work was done by Long Beach Mini, yes Long Beach! I hope to replace my 2005 MCS in a couple years. I bought it at South Bay, but I won’t make that mistake again. Seems like Long Beach Mini is my new dealership.

Don’t trust this place, they just scared me into getting a $ 600 preventative service that I came to find out later was completely unnecessary. And this was only ¼ of the overall cost of recommended things they tried to sell me on when I came in for a routine maintenance. Luckily I declined the others. I will never go back here again. I feel cheated and lied to.

I LOVE MINI dealerships. LOVE THEM.
But the service center here is a different story. I took my new/​used 2yr old MINI in with some concerns– the side blinker had randomly fallen out while I was on the freeway and I wanted it replaced. The serviceman brushed it off and just popped it back in, saying, «that just happens with MINIs.» I asked if it should be replaced– maybe the plastic wasn’t a good fit? The tires looked a bit worse for wear as well, and I asked if they should be replaced. He again said they were fine, but eventually I could replace them. They didn’t even offer to rinse my car off! (Even when I asked for it!) HONDA did that for me every time I got my oil changed– and that’s just HONDA!
Less than 4 months later, my tire popped on the freeway (thankfully, I pulled over and am safe) and the blinker has fallen out AGAIN and flew off as I was driving. Getting in for service will either require scheduling weeks out (they’re closed Sunday and close early Saturday) or taking time off work because their service hours are only during office hours as well.
It’s too bad we don’t have more MINI dealerships– I’d like to make sure my warrantee is useful, but their service dept seems to want to make sure I don’t use it. Even worse, you get a survey on your experience, but he high-​pressured me so much to give ONLY a 10-​star review, that I felt uncomfortable reporting ANYTHING. What a terrible customer service attitude.
The stars that remain are for the pleasant showroom and actual dealership. Good thing it’s nice, because you’ll be waiting around a lot.

One of my best auto service experiences ever. I highly recommend the service department at South Bay MINI. My 2008 MINI failed its smog test for a weird, aggravating anomaly called an unready OBII oxygen sensor. Bob Smith Mini in Calabassas was TOTALLY unhelpful. Camarillo was even worse. I even had to get the state «Smog referees» involved. Derek the service manager at South Bay called me first thing Monday morning after I left a message on Saturday. He totally understood the issue, was familiar with the issue and confident he could fix it so I was willing to drive 1 ½ hours from Ventura County. Derek and service advisor Halton Martinez jumped in, kept me updated while I waited and fixed the aggravating issue for significantly less $$ than the estimate.
Very polite, friendly and helpful.

Stay away. Worst dealership in the world. Manager horrible!!!

By far this has been the best experience I have ever had from a car dealership. From the very beginning, Daniel and Mo took such great care of me. Not only did they provide superior customer service, but the manager even came out to sit with us to go over various payment options. That has never happened before. From my experience from other dealerships they just sit in their offices and the sales person runs back and forth negotiating. I loved that-it’s so much more personable. After signing the paperwork Daniel brought me to my DREAM CAR and literally showed me every single thing I could possibly want to know about the car. I am so happy I chose South Bay Mini. I couldn’t imagine a better birthday than getting the car of my dreams. I was so excited I went home to watch The Italian Job! :D
Once I need to come for maintenance I’ll give another update of my experience.

If I could give six stars I would. By far, the best car buying experience I’ve ever had! Mo and Ash in sales found me the PERFECT car within my budget. Kevin in finance made the entire process smooth and easy. I can’t say enough good things about South Bay. I absolutely LOVE my new mini!

I could not be any happier with this dealership. Very laid back and no pressure. The focus was to get the exact car you want and they had to jump though a few hoops in my case. Randy, my salesman, was super nice and made sure I had no questions and followed up after the buy. I would recommend this dealership to even my Mom. Thanks Randy and Mo I am very happy with my Mini

I had such a great experience here that it actually compelled me to leave a review. I visited the Universal City Mini Cooper yesterday and had a less than pleasant experience with their lease department. Came over to South Bay Mini today and was helped by two different employees for two separate reasons and both were beyond helpful. If you have a leased car — come here! That sounded like an ad but I really was just so surprised and impressed by the difference. Ashley at the front desk and the gentleman who assisted me in the service department — both great employees!

I just wanted to drop a line about how good of an experience it was to deal with South Bay MINI.
I got my 2015 Cooper S hardtop through Tracey Dodd, and she was just fantastic.
From ordering it a couple months before delivery to the whole lease set up.
Simple, smooth, and absolutely transparent.
Tracey was a delight to work with and it makes me think of leasing MINI’s again in the future, not just for the car, but for how fair and trust worthy it felt to go through Tracey to get one! :)
Day and night with ALL my other experiences with buying or leasing a car. Period.

Didn’t walk out with a car on the day but couldn’t fault the service from Daniel. Patient, genuine and felt like he had all the time in the world for us. Showing options, multiple test drives, ran numbers… all without a big sales push. Great experience.

I had a bad experience at another Mini dealer but decided to try South Bay Mini and I’m so glad I did. From the moment I requested information on a Mini to the point at which I leased one, I had the best experience! I worked Daniel Del Vecchio who really took the time to listen to what I wanted and not only find the Mini that matched my criteria, but worked magic and got me the price I wanted (without a heavy sales pitch or aggravating negotiation)! Thanks Dan! I would definitely recommend him to anyone interested in Mini.

This place has a terrible maintenance department. My car was in an accident and after it was fixed, the sensor for windshield wiper fluid would go off every time I drove the car even though there was plenty of fluid.
I brought the car to MINI to fix. Apparently, they didn’t see the light go on themselves to they never bothered to even check the sensor.
So I had the pleasure of missing work again, paying again, and waiting again because they didn’t feel like investigating the issue I brought the car in for? Seriously? Then the service girl, Staci, gets very defensive in justifying to me that they wouldn’t check it unless they saw the light. You mean my complaints of the light coming on every time I drive or the freaking pictures I have of the light coming on wasn’t enough to justify you looking into the issue I brought the car in for?
Ridiculous.

Scheduled a test drive w/​Jaques for the mini i was interested in buying and talk numbers, promotions, etc. Test drive went great, but there was no talking of numbers with Jaques. I did mention I wasn’t looking to buy that day (was ready to buy, just didn’t want to be pressured into anything just in case), and I tried to discuss pricing, payments, my credit score, down payment etc but he didn’t even attempt to do any of that just gave me his card and told me to give him a call when I was ready to buy and sent me on my way.
I was annoyed as I knew what I wanted but just wanted to do my due diligence before having them run my credit. I mentioned my experience to my banker friend who works close to the dealer and he happened to have a client who worked there and he referred me to him. Determined to get more info as I knew what car I wanted and possibly work out a deal, I contacted Mark Brodkin per my friends reference. It took me 3 calls over a span of 4 days to not only get Mark to call me back, but he didn’t even have a new sales guy follow up with me. Instead he had Jaques call me back to follow up after I already mentioned I didn’t want to go through him.
I took my business elsewhere and went to Crevier Mini and my experience there was the complete opposite and well worth the trip to OC. Beyond friendly and courteous that when I went in to look at their inventory, they ran numbers with me and I purchased my car there on the spot! South Bay mini had a different sales person call me the day after I bought my mini at Crevier and I told them they missed out on a sale.

This past Friday I purchased the 2014 Mini Cooper Hardtop and I am so in love with the car and extremely happy with the service of this dealership. I’ve been looking for a new car for about 3 months now, have looked at so many different cars and decided upon the Mini Cooper. At first I didn’t even think about buying a new model, but the price difference between the 2011 – 2013’s was a small difference compared to the new models, plus the new model is so much different inside compared to the previous models.
I actually worked with Car Direct which was a wonderful experience. Joe Dufour the contact I was connected with did all the work for me with this dealership and last Friday George drove the car to me in San Diego. Of course I had so many questions about the car and honestly thought it was literally just getting dropped off. However, George spent a few hours signing all of the paper work with me, showed me all the features of the car and taught me how to drive it in the 3 different modes.
I was a bit nervous someone driving the car a few hours to me but George arrived early on the date promised with the car in excellent condition.
Their financial dept verified everything for me over the phone in just a few minutes and George also provided me with his Managers info in case I wasn’t pleased with anything.
Great service, nice, friendly and very professional staff!