Momentum MINI is a MINI dealer sharing a lot with Momentum BMW south of the I610 loop on highway 59 in Houston Texas. We have been there numerous times for MINI clinics and repairs and have always had good service. Our cars always come out cleaner than when they came in and are delivered back with a smile.
Our primary club, the Houston MINI Motoring Society has on several occasions gotten together with the people at Momentum MINI to put on what they call Service Clinics. Now while these events are not just for the members of the club we are typically there in large enough numbers that they cater to us pretty heavily. When we went in November of 2019 they even had a nice floor sign out in the front of the service bay welcoming the club.
As service clinic is basically where they take the car back and a mechanic inspects it while you are there with him. You are encouraged to let the mechanic know of any concerns or problems you are having with the vehicle and they will check most things out right then and there such as leaks, smoking, charging issues, etc.
While talking to the mechanic the service manager came out and was admiring Buster (of course he was, heh). We struck up a conversation that led to me making the confession that I had removed certain performance enhancement parts because it could void my warranty and I had issues with that at MINI of the Woodlands on several occasions. The service manager laughed and said there was no reason to remove mods before bringing in my MINI, most of the people working there had modded MINIs and as long as the mod wasn’t proven to be the problem, it would not affect my warranty at all. In fact, he said if I needed a mod installed, they would be happy to do it for me. He even made some suggestions as to where to get some dyno tuning done, awesome!
Once the inspection is over and the mechanic has addressed all your concerns they run you by the parts department to pick up a little goody bag loaded with small fun things like pens, note pads, maybe a cap, an air pressure gauge, etc. Then they take you to their cafe and feed you a free lunch while they work up the paperwork.
The cafe is what I would consider a really large cafe or small restaurant and is quite literally right in the middle of the dealership. I did not expect any dealership to have their own restaurant, maybe a reasonable coffee bar but certainly nothing with a kitchen and cook. They do things from fried cheese sticks, to burgers, all the way to smothered chicken fried steak (not on the menu but was the special one day). The free meal is restricted to certain items including a burger or the aforementioned chicken fried steak but the rest of the menu is available just like at any restaurant, for money. The food here was quite good, certainly as good as any fast food place in the area.
While you are eating or very shortly thereafter you will most likely receive a text message with your repair quote attached. If your car is under warranty you just need to walk back up to the service counter (if your adviser doesn’t come and find you which ours did) and make an appointment to get things done.
We took both Buster and Lola to the last one and both needed some work so we left Buster and took Lola home. Later in the week we came back and swapped the two so they could work on Lola.
The work done to both vehicles seems to be great, we have had no issues. The pricing was what you would expect from a dealership, expensive but no more so than any other dealer.
In regards to pricing I was curious about one repair they wanted to do to Buster which was two heat shields on top of the exhaust had been damaged by some debris from the road. While these were not causing issues I saw why he wanted to replace them but opted to do that either myself or at a later time. It needed two shields requiring removing about 8 screws. You may or may not have been able to replace them without lowering the exhaust although the mechanic said it would lower it. Total price about $250.
I went home and looked up the two shields on outmotoring.com to get some pricing. Both shields and shipping would be a little over $100 which left around $150 in labor. I am pretty sure Momentum MINI’s basic hourly rate is over $100 per hour so the pricing seems fair.
The previous clinic we went to there was just as nice, we just did not have as much work done on that trip.
I should also mention that their sales manager was the sales manager over a MINI of the Woodlands when I bought Buster and is one of the two people over at MOTW that I really liked. If you need a new MINI, go see her. If you need your MINI repaired, go see the service people over at Momentum MINI.
Overall 10 out of 10 for them.
