Central Florida Based Mini/MINI and automotive shops.

[jboy_nm]

How many of the shops posted here are up to date? Also, any close to Maitland/Altamonte/Sanford that you guys recommend? Trying to stay as far north as possible.

My MINI is due for oil, I've got a coolant leak and my passenger door doesn't open from the inside! Any suggestions on who can do all of this? Thanks all!

-JB

[1fastmini]

We can take care of all your MINI needs

[J3kidford]

Go see Eddie at E2. 407-595-4469. He's in Winter Park right off I-4. I drive from Jax to have him work on my car.

[2phun]

Another option would be Maitland Importers.

Maitland Importers, Inc.
1008 W. Church Street
Orlando FL. 32805
Ph.407-425-0545
Fax 407-422-2981

I've heard nothing but good things about them. Haven't had any personal experience with them since my extended warranty and service plans are still in effect, but everyone I've spoken with who has speaks great things of them. Not one negative from the countless people I've spoken with. Can't say that about some of the other shops in town.

[coobah]

I'll second the recommendation for Eddie at E2. He is the best!!!
I have not heard of one credible negative comment about him either....

[James]

You're joking, right? I would certainly call Steve and Tom credible.

[coobah]

I am not joking one bit.
I have heard stories, but can only go by what my personal experience has been, and it has been top notch.

[The L]

I second Maitland Importers! They are fantastic!

Give them a call and Ian will answer any questions you may have

[2phun]

I am not joking one bit.
I have heard stories, but can only go by what my personal experience has been, and it has been top notch.

So complaints from someone other than yourself means the complaints aren't credible?

I am glad you are sharing your personal opinion, and I'm also glad that you've had good experiences with Eddie. That's what threads like this are for...sharing personal experiences. And getting feedback from various viewpoints (good, bad, ugly) is critical for perspective consumers to make an educated decision. However, to say that viewpoints from those who have differing opinions than your own are not credible viewpoints is insulting.

I wasn't planning to share it here, but in order to give "credibility" to my prior statements I guess I should clarify what I stated earlier. My personal experience with Eddie was not a pleasant one. Again this is only my experience. I went in to see him in order to save a few bucks on a brake pad change on my wife's car rather than going to the dealer. A few days later, I had to go back to him again because the calipers on one of the brakes he worked on seized, burning away at the pad and then grinding into the rotor. Rather than standing by his work, he gave an excuse and then charged me another few hundred dollars to "remedy" the problem. A few days later, my ABS light came on. When I called Eddie to question him about it, he again gave excuses rather than standing behind his work and said I should come in to see what needed to be fixed. I took the car to the dealer instead. After doing a diagnosis on it, they said that the work that Eddie had done was done incorrectly and caused the ABS system to fail. The part alone cost me 4 digits. My biggest gripe is that Eddie did not stand behind his work.

This is my personal experience. By itself, I would say that this really was an isolated event and not something to be concerned about. The problem comes in when you start to ask around in the MINI community and hear countless other similar situations where Eddie's work has caused additional issues costing much more than the original repair cost and Eddie has not made right on the situation or stood behind his work. I can't speak for Minvader or Tuffer or any of the others that I've spoken with over the years. Maybe they'll check in here and share their stories. Not everyone wants to share their experiences (especially negative ones) publicly. I'm sure if perspective customers ask them privately, they'll likely have a very interesting story to share.

Of course there are plenty of people who have had great experiences with him, and that's as should be expected. If his customers only had negative experiences, he wouldn't be in business. Obviously he CAN do good work. The question is, in which group will the perspective new customer wind up? I've already had two people who disregarded my previous posts and then made a point of coming up to me at meets saying they wish they had heeded my warnings.

But here's my real point. If you have a choice between Shop A with a very loyal following but NUMEROUS extremely negative experiences and Shop B with a very loyal following and NO negative experiences, which shop would you choose?

[2phun]

On a side note, I had been contemplating whether or not to get the extended service contract and extended warranty on my car. When I had my experience with Eddie, I went in to Orlando MINI and purchased both within a week. I wanted peace of mind.

Having work done at the dealer is a bit more expensive than through a local shop, no question. The main concern comes in to play when something doesn't go as planned and the repair fails or doesn't solve the problem. Will the shop stand behind their work? Orlando MINI has always stood behind every repair they've ever done on my car. They had my car in 4 different times to work on my cabrio roof. It's an extremely complex system and one little bent piece can have a huge effect on the rest of the system. Each time I took it in, they problem solved to see what needed fixing. When it didn't come out quite right, they invited me back to fix it the next time. They didn't give me any excuses. They didn't charge me an additional deductible or other fees for additional parts. They stood behind their work and made it right.

Anyway, I've had some minor repairs that needed fixing over the past couple years, most of which were covered by the extended warranty. Today I took in my car for three more "small" warranty issues, and totaled with the prior repairs I've had done, my extended warranty has now paid for itself.

When it was time to change my worn brakes in October, my extended service contract also moved into the black.

With another two years on both, I'm rather happy I spent the money. Like I said, peace of mind.

Again, this is my personal experience, but I've been very pleased with my experiences at Orlando MINI. They'll be the ones doing all my service and warranty work until my plans expire, and possibly beyond.

[coobah]

I am not joking one bit.
I have heard stories, but can only go by what my personal experience has been, and it has been top notch.

So complaints from someone other than yourself means the complaints aren't credible?

I am merely commenting on my own dealings with the party in this discussion, and based on the information that I was given, one person posting negative comments about someone without them responding, doesn't necessarily mean the postee was correct in the experience. 2 sides to every story.
I am just promoting a service provider to others so that they can continue to provide quality workmanship for Mini-fanatics in our community. If you are insulted, well, sorry you feel that way, that wasn't my intention. I made that comment based on what information I had about the situation you posted about. Let's take this off-line and continue the discussion if you so desire.
Goooo Gators!!!

[speedy1]

We have a great new place here in Jax if you are interesnted in a little road trip!!

[Minvader]

I'll second the recommendation for Eddie at E2. He is the best!!!
I have not heard of one credible negative comment about him either....

As Steve pointed out, your statement was, yes, insulting... and everything you said after this makes it very suspect. Just because you have personally heard one side of a story doesn't mean that it's any more credible than another. You cannot simply explain it away later by saying that you were only speaking based on your personal experience. Your first statement clearly says the opposite. By your own logic, Steve and I have the same right to doubt the credibility of your claims... and nobody has done that.

There's nothing wrong with your speaking out in favor of Eddie, if you have good experiences with him to share, then by all means, do so. BUT... if others choose to share experiences that differ from yours, don't dismiss them as being lies. If you feel the need to stand up for Eddie because he's a personal friend of yours, you shouldn't do it by questioning anyone else's credibility. That's Eddie's own business to take care of, since he's the only other person who knows the whole story.

I'm sorry that I'm even involved in this discussion, and as I already told you in our very own off-line discussion, I don't post negative things about other people here on this forum. I do speak my mind when it's an issue that has affected me personally, so I will hold personal conversations about things I choose not to post on the forum. I'm not going to air any dirty laundry here, so I'll leave my public statement as this... Maitland Importers is my personal MINI mechanic-of-choice, and I go pretty far out of my way to have them work on my car after having tried other Orlando area options.

[RHE]

As Steve pointed out, your statement was, yes, insulting... and everything you said after this makes it very suspect. Just because you have personally heard one side of a story doesn't mean that it's any more credible than another. You cannot simply explain it away later by saying that you were only speaking based on your personal experience. Your first statement clearly says the opposite. By your own logic, Steve and I have the same right to doubt the credibility of your claims... and nobody has done that.

There's nothing wrong with your speaking out in favor of Eddie, if you have good experiences with him to share, then by all means, do so. BUT... if others choose to share experiences that differ from yours, don't dismiss them as being lies. If you feel the need to stand up for Eddie because he's a personal friend of yours, you shouldn't do it by questioning anyone else's credibility. That's Eddie's own business to take care of, since he's the only other person who knows the whole story.

I'm sorry that I'm even involved in this discussion, and as I already told you in our very own off-line discussion, I don't post negative things about other people here on this forum. I do speak my mind when it's an issue that has affected me personally, so I will hold personal conversations about things I choose not to post on the forum. I'm not going to air any dirty laundry here, so I'll leave my public statement as this... Maitland Importers is my personal MINI mechanic-of-choice, and I go pretty far out of my way to have them work on my car after having tried other Orlando area options.

Well said, Tom.

[Jeveretts]

I would like to post another thumbs up for Orlando Mini. I recently bought my Mini used, with 90K miles on it. It had a check engine light on that had a few people baffled, including a well respected BMW indie shop in Daytona. I talked to Eddie about the problem on the phone but really didn't get a great vibe, not that he did or said anything wrong..I just had a hunch I would be better at the dealer for this one, especially since a couple of people had already looked at it.

I drove it to Orlando Mini, checked it in and sat down to have some of the free coffee and cookies, about an hour later, the service adviser came up and said it merely needed an o2 sensor. The great part, is that they told me they fixed the 02 sensor 14 months ago on this exact car and they would do it for free this time to stand behind their previous repair (14 months later!?!?!). They also told me that my oil pan gasket is leaking a little, something I had already noticed and was going to let slide for a bit... and that they had previously fixed that at some point in the cars history, so they would be happy to do that as well at no cost to me. I am taking it in Wednesday morning to have that done. AND.. to top it off, my adviser told me they would have to drain and refill the oil to do the oil pan, so if I just pay for a filter.. I get a full oil service as another freebie bonus! AND, they would be happy to take me anywhere in the area and pick me up, so I can do a little shopping or lunch or whatever!

So far, for the cost of my gas from Daytona to Orlando Mini, I have had quite a bit of free repairs, some cookies and way more coffee than I should have had. My car is now running perfect, and since they fixed the O2 sensor, the car is now getting around 33mpg IN TOWN!

Oh, and I guess I should note, that they printed out the entire service history for my car.. something I didn't get when I bought it.

[speedy1]

Jeveretts.....sounds like an awesome MINI experience....soooo glad to hear it!! Both Tom Bush and Orlando MINI have been great to me!!

[Jeveretts]

Jeveretts.....sounds like an awesome MINI experience....soooo glad to hear it!! Both Tom Bush and Orlando MINI have been great to me!!

You can call me Jerry. Didn't we meet at the Pub in St. Augustine?

[Jeveretts]

Just thought I would post again on this subject. Sitting on the sidewalk at Eddies shop, while Eddie is going WAY beyond the scope of a favor to get Felicia going. Giant thumbs up for Eddie.

[FeliRO]

Thank you to both of you (Jerry and Eddie) and Orlando Mini for washing my car today!!!

[speedy1]

Jeveretts.....sounds like an awesome MINI experience....soooo glad to hear it!! Both Tom Bush and Orlando MINI have been great to me!!

You can call me Jerry. Didn't we meet at the Pub in St. Augustine?

Yes we did!! Thanks Jerry...I just try not to call people by their real name unless I know they dont mind. LOL Hello again!!