Hi all,

I just got back from the dealer where I placed my order. Asthe car I ordered is already in Canada, delivery is in earlyFebruary. Actually, that was my choice as they wanted me to takedelivery at the end of January. Having said that, thebuying experience was very good. When I wanted a testdrive,the sales person brought the car to me at my office. I didn'thave to go down to the dealer. If I factory ordered my car,delivery would have been in April. There was a bit ofcompromise on both sides but it appears to be a win-win scenario. I'm paying a bit more than I planned on and am not getting bonnetstripes. I had intended on getting stripes but the car instock did not have them and the dealer installed ones cost a bit morethan I was willing to pay for them. I definitely wanted Foglights as where I live, it gets foggy in the spring and fall. Thedealer installed fog lights cost twice as much as if I factory orderedthem. I'm getting them anyways. I'm not sure what it meanson the line that says "Fog Lamps-Front-w/ASC" as ASC+T is standardequipment in Canada. I also wanted to get the cold weatherpackage which included the electric front windshield defroster. The dealer recommended against it because the amount of driving on thehighway, there was fairly high probability that I might at one time oranother get a rock chip hit the windshield. Small repairablechips are okay on the standard glass but would cost lots of $$$ torepair on the upgraded windshield. So I took his advice.

What I did not intend on getting was the "Premium Package". Alldealer stock MINI's (as I am told) have the PremiumPackage. It's like a manditory option that costs$2000CDN. The package contains the sunroof, heated seats, cruisecontrol and control buttons on the steering wheel. As I was in nohurry for my MINI and was not interested in the Premium Package, I wasready to factory order. The dealer wanted to move their stock sothey offered me this car at a small discount. I could notget them to include a set of snowtires on rims as others on this forumhave suggested. I might ask them to sell me a set atwholesale. I'm not sure what that means. However, I couldprobably swing the snowtires as wholesale pricing somewhere else(Costco comes to mind).

I'm kind of thinking with the rise of the Canadian dollar compared tothe US dollar and the British Pound, I would have expected somediscounting.

I'm not sure in other parts of the world what is standard equipment andwhat is not. But in Canada, Xenons, ASC+T, 16" alloys, arepart of the standard package. So here's what I am getting.

'05 Cooper S (6spd)
Premium Package (Sunroof, heated seats, cruise control, steering wheel buttons)
Foglights
Anti-theft wheel bolts.
rubber floor mats (in addition to the velour ones which come standard).
Leatherette seats.
Colour is black-eye purple and the roof is body color.

Having read and heard that most people are paying list price, I guess this is a fair deal.

For other 1st gear folks, for comparison purposes, other cars I had onmy list were: Mazda 3GT, VW Golf 1.8T, Subaru Impeza RS2.5,Nissan Sentra SE-R spec V, Acura (aka Honda) RSX, Toyota Celica GTS,Volvo S40, Mercedes-Benz SLK230 (used), SMART ForTwo.

The MINI will do commuter and personal transportation and fun duties (Istill have a bigger car for hauling the wife and family around) inreplacement for my 1985 Pontiac Fiero SE 2M6. The Fierowill go into storage and restoration mode.

Thanks to all of you on NAM who responded to my queries and set me straight when I started waffling about the Mercedes SLK.

I'll post pictures and stuff at a later date after I take delivery.