Greetings. The name’s Matt. I hail from Los Angeles, California. Carbon, my new MCCS, is from elsewhere, for the most part.

. . . Carbon says hi.

The short story:

A few days ago, I leased a 2011 MINI Cooper Clubman S outfitted with:
Getrag manual transmission
Midnight Black Metallic Paint
Silver Roof/Mirrors
Punch Carbon Black Leather
Premium Package
Power folding mirrors
Anti-theft alarm system
Bluetooth & USB/iPod adapter
Carbon Black color line, interior color, and door panels
Black Checkered Dash/Door Ring
Some rubber floor mats
16” 6-Star Spokes in black
And, notably, a bunch of fancy carbon-fiber-looking sticky stuff, or “3M Scotchguard,” plastered all over the roof, C-pillars, and bonnet scoop . . . Let’s just say it’s growing on me.

If you’re absurdly astute, you may have noticed that those black wheels cannot be ordered with silver roof/mirrors on an MB Cooper . . . peculiar.

The whole story:

After obsessive amounts of research, at least a dozen test drives, dealing with more salesmen and women than I’d really care to think about, the MINI proved itself to be the best compromise of cost, comfort, practicality, and awesome. And, heck, it won my heart.

When I first considered the MINI, I inquired to a salesmen at Bob Smith MINI about the wait time for ordering a Cooper. “Six to eight weeks,” he says.

Sometime thereafter, upon becoming more resolute on the Clubman S, I called up that same salesman. I cheerily informed him that I had just sent over a build from the online configurator and I’m down to do some paperwork.

“Can you wait six months?”

Silence.

This is the moment I discovered that the disasters in Japan, where the automatic transmissions for the MINIs are built (or something to that affect), put quite a dampener on the wait time for ordering a MINI. (Either that, or I’ve had a bunch of salespeople lie to me in tandem.) I try not to think of this as bad luck, cuz, ya know, in terms of cruddy things that can happen to you involving a massive earthquake, I think I came out on top.

This, nonetheless, changed things.

So, I then zealously perused autotrader.com for a 1. somewhat nearby 2. 2011 3. Cooper S 4. Clubman 5. with a manual transmission 6. in Eclipse, Midnight, or Hot Chocolate 7. with harmon/kardon sound, and 8. bluetooth, but came up pretty empty handed till Texas.

Next, I begin sifting through dealer’s online inventories. And, as some of you may know, these things suck.

I went through nearly all of them in the U.S. (really), and ultimately find one (a fairly close one, actually) at Nick Alexander Imports. A 2011 Clubman S, stick, in gray with silver trim, premium and bluetooth. $28,500 MSRP. Yahtzee.

I call ‘em up and the salesman, Josh, says I sound familiar. Turns out he took me on a test drive some months ago. Fancy that. Also turns out that car listed online is sold. They do, however, have a similar one coming in early July. Same specs but with black trim.

He invites me down. He is salesmen, after all. Sure. What the hay.

Enter Carbon.

Soaking up a parking space on the lot is this MCCS that someone ordered and left to rot. Along with his or her deposit, I guess.

It’s black. Very black. And, what makes it blacker still is what I at the time assume to be some funky dealer-installed alternative to the factory roof/C-pillar options. And I’m right: a massive decal is covering up it’s silver trim. I’m literally taken aback by it at first. I mean, I’ve seen a boatload of MINIs. I live in L.A. I have a computer. But I haven’t really seen that before. First impressions aside, it’s kinda gaudy. Ugly, even.
One might even say it screams “Douche!” at a fair volume.

In any case, the car is, in essence, the same thing I’m waiting for plus black leather, and a bunch of other black stuff.

Like, for instance, the wheels. Next to the factory window sticker is one of those phony made-to-look-like-part-of-the-factory-window-sticker-but-the-dealer-obviously-put-it-there dealies, and, here’s the kicker, it says the wheels are $1,295. They’re trying to push the same 16s I’ve seen on the configurator as a no-cost option for thirteen hundred bucks because, I suppose, they had to rip them off some other Cooper to fit whomever’s relentlessly monochromatic taste.

Dealbreaker.

Also listed on that phony side-sticker is the price of the decal covering most of the car. And that, as well, is plainly listed at a humble $1,295. Orginal.

Double dealbreaker.

“I’ll give you this one for the price of the gray one coming in.”

. . .

Alarm system and power-fold mirrors, too . . .

1. Wait till July and pay a relatively equal amount for a normal looking MINI with less equipment.
2. Do something about that Cooper in Texas.
3. Pick up dark knight here, and get some leather seats, too.

So, essentially, unless I was royally duped, it is my understanding that I just pulled off a 36-month, 15k/year lease on an awesome car with an MSRP of $30,750 for a cap cost of a little under $29,100, a residual percentage of 67% on, and a money factor of 0.0017. And the figure “$33,340” was somewhere on the price tag, but I guess it didn’t mean much.

And they threw in some floor mats.

Other cars I test drove include:

2011 Audi A3 2.0T
2011 Audi A4 2.0T Quattro
2010 BMW 135i Coupe
2011 BMW 328i Coupe (Because no sedans were available in stick. Anywhere.)
2000 BMW M Coupe (My favorite car in the whole wide world times a million.)
2011 Dodge Challenger SRT8 (Long story. Did it for free DVDs.)
2004 Ford Focus SVT
2011 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 R-Spec
2011 Mazda Mazdaspeed3
2006 Porsche Cayman (heh, awesome)
2011 Subaru Impreza WRX 5-door
2011 Volkswagen GTI 5-door
2011 Volvo C30 R-Design
2010 Volvo S40 T5

And, lastly, what does that button that says “SPORT” do?*
*jk

 

Welcome Matt!
Great story!

 

You have a gift with the written word. I like your car. But I have weird tastes.

 

Looks good, now do something with those mirror caps.

 

I think it looks great! I'd keep the mirror caps and get a set of silver sport stripes

I like the Carbon Fiber hood scoop

 

That button is the second thing you press after the start button. If not, might as well not press the first button.

Welcome!

 

Thank you! I have weird tastes, too. Fo sho.
Most of my efforts have been car-oriented as of late, so I've been considering doing something like barging into Edmunds' Santa Monica office and seeing what happens.
Now all I have to do is become a better driver!

My thoughts precisely. This is one of the first things I pointed out when I initially saw the car. Thank you.

My other thoughts precisely. I feel the silver sport stripes may clash with the aforementioned hood scoop, though.

. . . the M7 grills look like they might kick some awesome on this car . . .

Also, a popcorn-munching smiley. Spiffy.

 

The back appears to be wrapped in vinyl. I like it, and it is definitely different. Nice MINI....