In one of the flakiest moves of my longish life, I decided not to buy the Countryman All4 that I so meticulously spec'd and ordered back in February and, instead, buy a Cooper hardtop.

I won't get into why I changed my mind here, but thought I'd let you guys know that this nicely equipped CM may well be available with virtually no wait. The car arrived at the port in Southern California on the 14th and should be close by now to Mini of Portland in Oregon.

The car is Cosmic Blue with a black roof and has the Premium package, Mini Connected with Nav, and Adaptive Xenon headlights. MA is Ann Fry.

 

Ann's awesome and used to race an Austin-Healy in rallies. Hope you find a buyer, but curious as to what changed your mind... don't have to share, but I'm sure you've got more than a few of us wondering.

As for me, a MINI wouldn't have been an option (and wasn't) without the AWD, so I assume that wasn't a requisite issue for you.

In any case, good luck with finding a buyer, shouldn't be too hard!

Cheers,
Tad

 

Hi, Tad. I didn't mean to make my change of heart sound like a big mystery. I just decided that I'd enjoy the basic hardtop more. The kicker was when I sold my '02 Cooper to get ready for the new car, and was totally bummed to see it go. In our situation we didn't need the extra room of the Countryman. All4 would have been nice, but not essential since we have an Outback for the nasty winter driving.

I've enjoyed working with Ann as well. I didn't know about her racing background, but have been impressed with her technical knowledge. Problem is, the dealership just sold over the weekend to Lithia Motors and for some reason the sale apparently messed up their computer system. I've been waiting more than a week for them to do a search for a car in the system with the options I'd like. Email doesn't work either.

By the way, I don't own the Countryman, so I'm not trying to sell it. My thought was to alert the guys and ladies in this forum to the fact that this CM is up for grabs. Obviously I think it's optioned perfectly. I spent enough time agonizing over each checkbox.

 

Interesting news. I have my Countryman on order with Rasmussen so I'll be interested to see if/how this gets impacted by the sale of the dealerships. Hopefully no bumps along the way.
It will also be interesting to see if this impacts the planned move of the Mini shop out to Beaverton.

 

Thanks for the scoop, and totally understand. I'm campaigning for a move to Hawaii so I can go back to RWD and nothing but summer tires, but wife loves it here so... Countryman is the compromise that works. It's replacing a Forester, so we will use the AWD. And I know what you mean about agonizing over the options... mine tends toward the performance and handling rather than technology and connectivity end of the spectrum (albeit with the better stereo and a way to let the sun shine down on me).

I ran into the email problem as well, but Ann is generally pretty quick to either answer or return calls; the number still works and I got right through when my email bounced (I was calling to ask her to have them NOT drill the front bumper for a plate). I'm not too worried about the dealership transition as pertains to my build, but you'd think this is what IT guys get paid for...

Should be fine, hope Beaverton is still on the agenda as downtown is too crowded for as much as that dealership has going on. Oh, and Beav is half the distance for me (coming down from Skyline).

Cheers,
Tad

 

Blacter, I think that I ended up with your Countryman. I was having a hard time finding a slot, and the folks in Fife found a car in Portland that almost perfectly matched the one that spec'd. I have had it for a week now, and I could not be happier.

 

Congrats dangermoo! I came THIS close to buying it!

I was having a hard time deciding between what I guess were the 2 last All4's on the lot in Oregon! that one, and the one I ended up buying, all4 silver all around, black wheels, prem, cold weather, bluetooth hk,and the one deciding factor.. the lounge leather seats! This critter needs his lumbar support, apparently more than all the tempting tech on the blue one!

It was an agonizing decision, and I was convinced both would be gone before I made up my mind! (my trade in might not have lasted until an order arrived!) The silver is more to my taste anyway, I'm a very happy critter!

 

Thanks, dangermoo. I'm glad it went to a good home. If you have a minute sometime, I'd love to see a photo.