This shop has all of the bells and whistles you would expect from a Boulder shop and the front desk personnel are courteous. My personal experience was not that effective and a bit frustrating. My 2014 Mini Countryman had an the engine light on and was in 'reduce power/safe' mode. They felt that they would need to tackle some of the engine code issues and then reassess. I spent over $1000 before they described the possibility of a very expensive component replacement that would involve disassembly of the engine, which they had done before, but not on a 2014 Mini. I paid up, took the car to a more dedicated Mini mechanic and in less than an hour, the mechanic identified that the timing chain and turbo need replacing and the work exceeds the value of the car. If that diagnosis was made at 'The Shop Automotive', I would never have spent $1000 since I didn't spend any money at the other shop (the car is 'mechanically totaled'). So I learned something... get all of the diagnosis up front and in writing. It's a bit nonsense to say 'that they needed to tackle some codes before others'. To what end; what if I had approved $5000 of work only to find we have another $10,000 to go. They later called to backtrack on the 'engine separation' task; they had confused the Mini operation with that of a VW Tiguan. I will 'own' some of this process; I should have requested a full listing of issues first before approving any work, but guidance in the process of repair is expected. Not related to The Shop, I learned a hard lesson regarding the Mini Countryman; at around 90,000 miles, it's common that the turbo and timing chain need replacing costing approximately $10,000 to do both (I quoted it at three shops).
Joe, thank you for your feedback on your Mini Countryman, and we sincerely apologize for the frustration this caused. We understand how important transparency is in the repair process, we appreciate you sharing your experience as it helps us improve communication with our customers moving forward.
- The Shop Automotive LLC