MINI UK Honours Its Top Dealer

Sections: Official News Nov 21st, 2005 19 Comments

MINI dealership Robert Stern in Worcester has been awarded the title of MINI Dealer of the Year 2005. The inaugural awards took place at the MINI Dealer Convention in London on Wednesday 9 November.

All 157 MINI dealerships were judged on a variety of performance indicators including new and used sales. The award went to the dealer who proved the most successful at all-round business excellence throughout 2005 combined with exemplary customer service.

Andy Hearn, MINI UK General Manager, said: ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…â€œAs well as outstanding business performance, Robert Stern was an easy choice because of their passion. This is driven from the top of the business, and ensures that the whole dealership is working as one team to provide the very best service for the customer.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â

Robert Stern, Dealer Principal and owner of the dealership, said: ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…â€œ WeÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢re incredibly proud to receive this award and my thanks go to the MINI team for making this happen. Having moved into much larger premises this year and invested over Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£1.5 million, our business has developed dramatically. We now have more new and used cars on-site and are able to show our customers all the choices available on MINI.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â

Andy Hearn, added: ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…â€œThe continuing success of MINI means that more and more MINI dealers are expanding and taking the opportunity to separate their MINI showrooms from their BMW partners. This is good for both brands. Staff are able to give their full attention to each customer and have more space to fully bring the MINI brand to life.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â

Seven regional winners were also announced: Dick Lovett of Bristol, Whitehouse Ruxley in Kent, Sytner of Nottingham, Fairfield in Southend, Fawdington in Newcastle, Preston Hall of Stockton-on-Tees, and David Prentice in Portadown.

MINI UK Press

Written By: Gabe

Giacomo

Well my dealer here in SoCal wouldn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of ever getting that award.
TSizemore3

Let’s see… 157 dealerships for little old England versus around 80 for all of the United States… does anyone else see the descrepancy here?
Jon

Dick Lovett, …love it!
Edge

Let’s see… gotta do the math. Numbers are July 2005, courtesy of the CIA.

U.K. – 60,411,457 people, 157 dealerships: 384,786 people per dealership.

U.S.A. – 295,734,134 people, 80 dealerships: 3,696,677 people per dealership.

So yeah, MAJOR discrepancy! We have about 9.6 times as many people per dealership as they do!

Of course, per capita, the MINI is still WAY more popular over there as it is here. We are still the country of “screw everyone else” SUVs.
Bilbo Baggins

TSizemore3 Nov 21st, 2005 Link LetÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s seeÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â¦ 157 dealerships for little old England versus around 80 for all of the United StatesÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â¦ does anyone else see the descrepancy here?

It could just be because they buy more in England than they do in the USA.:-)
Nick

Hey Edge–good info. Will you lets us know when we (USA)get to 300 million. Must be nice to have friends on the “inside”. I thought we were already over 300 million. Hey, could the CIA be wrong?
Giacomo

I thought WE (USA) were going to pass England this year in MINI sales?

One problem I see with the math……it includes a heck of a lot of people that can’t drive?
paulsminis

:…it includes a heck of a lot of people that canÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t drive?”

And many of those have drivers’ licenses!

Cheers,

Paul
GSKChicago

A lot of the nearly 300 million people you mention Edge are in very Rural areas. I won’t veture a guess, but there are a lot of people that are nowhere near a MINI dealer, don’t know or care what a MINI is and many that couldn’t afford one. So that number is somewhat skewed.

Most, if not all, of the US MINI dealers are directly in or within a reasonable driving distance of some of the larger population concentrations in the country as well as higher income levels.

Either way however, it is surprising just how many MINI dealers there are in the UK based on those numbers.
tomvdv

oh look – Chandlers of Brighton isn’t on the list! what a shock! :P
minihaha

There is also no chance my local dealer in Ontario, Canada would stand a snowballs chance in hell and we have tons of snowballs.

They just don’t seem to be interested in the MINI experience, just selling “cars”. Very disappointing. He’s the only game in town so nowhere else to go.
Beecher

hey, minihaha, where in ontario are you from? (you can email me at gotvoodoo@hotmail.com if you want)

I hear toronto has the highest mini dealerships per capita in the world (one city, 5 or 6 dealerships plus a few more within an hour or two of there).

-Beecher
Happy

And no Lind MINI Maidstone on the list. What a shame. They would win worst dealer!
Giacomo

Anybody want to nominate Assael as the worst?!
Jim D Loving

Anyone have a good alternative to Assael MINI? I had a good service writer there but he left and I don’t trust anyone else at the dealership. Please advise
Giacomo

At Assael did you try Tim West? I have had him since I ran tru the rest. In LA, I haven’t tried any of the rest but haven’t heard anything good about Universal MINI either. I may try Universal as I just found out I could use the Metro to get home or at least close to it in Altadena.
Giacomo

My wife and I tried to buy a ’05 3 series from Assael but they were so horrible we bought a A4 instead, we had owned BMW’s for 25+ years.

There’s a flaw in the way MINI does it’s survey. Let’s say the dealership sucks but you have a good MA there’s no way to not hurt your MA if you give anything but a 5 on all questions. They should have them split…dealer….MA.That way they can pinpoint where the trouble is. Same with Audi…we hate the dealer Rusnak/Audi but the service department is good.
morknmini

Maybe this could turn into the Dealer Ratings Forum that NAM never got around to setting up.

I bought my car from out of state. The dealer was recommended by NAM folks. Because of the snooty sales staff I did not want to buy from the dealer located 9 blocks from my home. After I got the car I went to my local dealer and got the runaround (for having purchased elsewhere) and then so-so service (had to wait over 30 minutes even though I had an appointment). I complained to MINIUSA and got nowhere. I complained to the dealer I bought it from and they said they were going to complain to MINIUSA for me. Cool.

5 for dealer I bought it from: Classic, Mentor, OH 1 for dealer I went to for service: BMW of San Francisco, CA

Oops. I just noticed Gabe’s fine print about derogatory comments.
Edge

(OK, this is an old topic now, maybe people won’t even see this comment…)

Nick,

The CIA numbers I listed can be found simply by doing a google search on “USA population”. They have a “World Factbook” that lists data on every country in the world.

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