Well, I will hopefully be ordering my mini sometime within a few weeks following my graduation from Penn State on May 16th.

I am moving to Seattle in early July and will not be taking my car. I need a car in Seattle to start work in August.

I don't think ordering in late May will give my Mini enough time to arrive here in PA before I leave, even if it did I'd want to ship it out there, which would be just another expense I don't want.

I have have been thinking that I might be able to test drive and configure here in PA, however take delivery and run through the final payment up in Seattle.

Anyone ever done this? Anyone know if this is possible? I'm kinda in a weird situation and don't know what to do.

 

You can certainly do this. I ordered from New York and moved to Atlanta where my car was waiting. Contact a dealer in Seattle and they will help you with the details. Just make sure that you order early enough to have the car when you arrive.

 

so you called the dealer in Atlanta before going to the dealership in New York?

Did the New York office get upset at spending all that time with you when they're not really getting the sale?

 

I test drove the car in New York, picked up a brochure and asked a couple of questions. Then I called the dealer in Atlanta with a few more questions and asked them how I could place an order so the care would be waiting when I arrived. They helped me with the order which I configured on the MINIUSA website. The order was placed and the car was delivered to Atlanta two weeks before I arrived. Seems a little complicated but it really isn't. Just call the dealership in Seattle and they will guide you. I would suggest giving them a call tomorrow. It's never to early to get things started.

 

thanks!

I'll be calling on Monday..... Tomorrow is my last day of classes before Graduation, I'll probably be out at the bar immediately afterwards, not the best time to try and do something serious...

 

Don't tell them you're ordering elsewhere. Test drive and then walk out "thinking about it" and then call Seattle. I considered it, but at the end of the day, the closer dealer to me here got my business, although I liked the folks I talked to at a couple other dealers out of state. I haven't bought every car I test drove before, and with MINI's popularity, I don't think you'll hurt their feelings too much. They're in sales. They'll be okay.

 

^true..

i originally was thinking that I'd configure it here locally in person, but have them give my specs to Seattle or something... i dunno, i don't know how connected the dealerships are... But if I just order online and send my configuration to the dealership in Seattle, that's a lot easier.

I really want to just test drive, and then check out a few of the options to see if I really do want it, or if I can live without it....

 

When you call Northwest Mini in Fife, just outside Seattle, you also need to ask them how long it will take you to obtain a build slot.

Each dealer receives a certain number of build slots each month. Both NW Mini and Rasmussen in Portland often have a months-long waiting list.

Good luck and welcome to the beautiful Northwest.

 

^yikes

I'm excited to move out there, hopefully I can get my car...

 

Wait time on clubman at the Northwest Mini of Fife is roughly six months. I ordered at the middle of April and currently at number nine on the wait list for a production spot.

 

enjoy the Northwest, I lived on Long Island, now living in the Northwest for the last two years. Eat all the east coast food while you can i.e. bagels, pizza, baked ziti . . .

 

yah..the good thing about the MINI is that so many MINIs are custom ordered vs buying at the dealership.. so MINI dealers are used to doing business over the phone / email. I know when I bought mine, I went to several dealerships to check out the MINIs and test drive and the one I bought it from gave me the best price but it was also one of the dealers that I never visited (and I still haven't to this day - my first visit will probably be when I take delivery). So yeah, test drive/check out the car at your current local dealership and at the end of the day just order it from the dealership near your future home.

 

After visiting the dealer for a test drive, you can configure you MINI online at miniusa.com. Your configuration can be saved as a PDF which you can then email to the Seattle area dealer. Good luck!

 

I hope it's not as long for a mcs...

 

not quite sure what happened to my sig up there....

the sig on this site is wayyy harder to use then any other board I'm on...

 

just talked to NW mini... the guy was real helpful. he said there shouldn't be much if any wait time for the mcs. I will hopefully be putting in my order officially within the next 2 weeks!!!

 

Congrats! You should check out PSMini.org too- a great group from all over the Seattle area, there's almost always something going on.

 

It looks to me like everyone has a bit of a wait on the Clubman, although not as long as 6 months . I ordered my MCS here in Dallas on Friday and was scheduled for production the next Monday with production actually starting on Wednesday afternoon. So the MCS line is not backed up, but I might have gotten a dealer slot that was already allocated.

Good luck with the timing. I'd say if you still have to wait a bit, just get a rental car. In 2006 when we got our first MINI, we were looking at them but it depended upon my wife getting a new job. We ordered after she got her new job which required that she have reliable transportation as it involves driving a bit. So we just rented cars for three months. It sounds expensive, but with week long deals, it wasn't too bad really. We managed to make it work for not much more than the car payments were going to be.

 

^well, even if the car does happen to come in a few weeks late, I plan on living within bike range of my office. On top of that, my fiancée is a teacher and won't need her car until later on in August...

Only issue is that within a few weeks I'm going to have to be driving to different jobsites about 50% of the time. I'm in building enclosure design and engineering, so I've gotta check up on the construction.

I graduate next Friday, then Saturday and Sunday I will be driving around test driving a Mini, and various other cars just to be sure I'm making the right decision. 95% sure I am, but I can't turn up the offer to drive around in some cars for free...

 

Are they going to charge you a markup on your clubbie?