Hello All,
I just wanted to make public our satisfaction with Amanda and South Bay Mini.
The TL;DR - Amanda is great.
Our Tolstoy:
My girlfriend wanted to get a Mini as her first-ever car purchase sometime in August. I thought it would be a no-brainer since she pretty much had in mind. So we set out to find one for a test drive... and failed. We could NOT find an '08 Mini (non-s) available that Saturday. They were simply all sold out, coincidentally, for the same reason she wanted an Mini (not MCS): fuel economy. Thanks to soaring summer gas prices, the already scarce Mini was nowhere to be found. We didn't think taking an MCS for a test drive was fair since we wanted the standard coupe. Alas, our testdrive would have to wait for another day.
The following workweek I managed to find my way to Universal City Mini to check out their selection. All they had were MCS, but I could wait no longer. I took a shiny red one for a spin and was entranced. Go-kart handling indeed, Mr. Cooper. I started to consider, what was an MPG or two between friends? afterall, my GF was going from a 12MPG city hand-me-down Cadillac ElDorado to a MC.
I take a good look at the sticker price and head to the barganing table. I figure with some haggling, I could knock off a good chunk, just like I had done for my own car (obviously not a Mini). As soon as I sat down, the sales rep started to lay down terms unilaterally. I hadn't even decided on that particular car and he was already billing me for nitrogen-filled tires. Dumbfounded, I asked him what exactly he thought he was doing dictating me, the customer -- the one with the $$$, how I was going to buy the car.
To paraphrase what he told me: "Gas prices are sky-high and people want Minis. We include Nitrogen-filled tires and Lo-jack on every car as a <i>value</i> to our customers, for $1,500 over sticker."
"That's ridiculous!" I replied, noting that no member of my family has ever paid over sticker and I didn't plan on bucking that trend. He then attempted to convince me that I was actually getting a "deal."
"Most other dealers are just marking up their cars without adding any 'value'" a word he repeated. He kept using that word;I don't think that word meant what he thought it meant.
Dazed but not fazed, I stormed out of the dealership and immediately started placing calls around town. But... he was right. San Francisco wouldn't even talk to me because I was from So-Cal and they had residency restricitons in place to keep their Minis in the bay. Every single dealer in California had a markup. Or so I thought.
Enter South Bay Mini.
Ironically, the dealership closest to my GF was *actually* the best. I spoke with Amanda over the phone and she assured me that there would be no markup. What you see is what you pay, she said. Naturally, I was skeptical. All my research thus far had led me to believe that any Mini dealer could pretty much ask for your first-born, and they'd get it. Even a certain dealership in OC suckered me into thinking they'd *just* charge 500 over sticker, only to try to push dealer-installed addons later.
No, none of those tricks transpired thankfully. Amanda walked us through the website and helped us put together exactly the Mini my GF wanted. No pressure. (no need, these cars sell themselves!) We were treated in a courteous manner by all the staff. It was as far from what I experienced earlier as I could imagine.
Heck, Amanda even helped us find the best OUTSIDE financing she could! (Penfed FTW)
But that's not all!
It turns out that there is a price to pay in order to avoid markup: the long waiting list. Once my GF signed her paperwork, she was told to wait until December/January for her Mini. Time is money, I suppose. However, my GF had a fortunate stroke of luck that coincided with her fashion sense. The color of her Mini was being phased out!
"But that's a bad thing," you might say...
Amanda found out about this and was able to shoehorn my GF's car into the last allotment for that color... as a result my GF took delivery this saturday!!!
She couldn't be happier!
THANKS AMANDA!!!!!
