Hi, everyone:

I am thinking of buying a Mini Cooper in the near future, there're two dealership in the Vancouver area: Mini Richmond & Mini Yaletown. Just wondering if anyone has any good or bad experience they can share?

Thanks in advance,

mtgperson

 

I've dealt with both. I shopped at both places and ended up buying from Yaletown. I don't usually go downtown and Nick, the salesperson at Yaletown brought the car to me to test drive. When I was ready to buy, he picked me up at the office and drove me to the dealership and also when I picked up my car, he drove me from my office to get my car. I personally do not have any complaints about Yaletown's service. I think Graham has been a pleasure to deal with. He recently hired an assistant to deal with the front desk issues, but Alex doesn't know all the customers (clients) yet so I'll cut him some slack as to what he knows about the customers.

As for Richmond, some of my friends bought their MINIs there and were quite happy. My only issue was when I called about a test drive, they told me to come on down and when I got there, more than once, they didn't have the car for me to test drive. Then they didn't bother to call me back when they did have a car. When I did, take a car out, it was a set route and not indicative of the kind of terrain I would normally drive on (over bridges, up hills etc). However, a relative of one of the mechanics is a good friend of mine and I've heard good things about Richmond's aftersales support and service.

So takes your pick. I think with the two dealers, competition is good and we're treated fairly well in the Vancouver area. Another place you might look, if you take the ferries often, is Victoria. I found the sales person I talked to very ethical and professional.

One more thing, do your research. Typical of car sales people, you might know more about the car than the sale person. I knew more about the availability of things like DSC, and various options than the sale people or the sales people are willing to divulge.

 

I've only seen MINI Yaletown. based on how the dealership actually looks, I would buy it from there! I didn't even know I was looking at a dealership, then I walked by, and there it was!

-Steve

 

Hello, Beken & haulin_oats!

Thank you very much for answering my question, I didn't expect such a quick response. This was my post and I was impressed by the helpfulness of everyone at NAM. Now I know I can walk into either dealership and be treated fairly.

I am still deciding what to do, whether to get a MC or MCS...and the color, optional package etc.

Tough decisions...

mtgperson

 

That's the tough part. It is so easy to get carried away.

I started out just thinking of getting the Cooper Classic (simple, meets all my required basic needs of transportation and relatively inexpensive for what you get). Then decided the extra 2000 was pretty good value for the xenon headlights, ASC+T, metallic paint so the Cooper became my choice. Then came into a bit of extra cash and decided that an additional $5K was okay for 16" wheels, supercharged engine, sport seats, and 6-speed. Then the dealer had a car pretty close to what I wanted and lopped the price of the premium package off and tossed in 17" wheels and tires and I have the most loaded up car I have ever bought in my life. At the out the door price, my car was starting to encroach on BMW 318 pricing. Other options at this range would be Subaru WRX, BMW 318i, Volvo S40, Audi A4. But none of them have the driving dynamics of a MINI

So I would still advise you to decide what you want first, do your research and budgetting and stick hard and fast to it. Don't let the salespeople upsell you too much. I believe that is what their main task is. The MINI Cooper in general is such a well conceived car, it sells itself.

 

Beken,

Yes, I have the same feeling.

At first I was going to buy a MC with classic package ($23500 Cdn), but I like the metallic colors and extras so I was thinking about the regular MC ($25900 Cdn). The dealer told me most of their cars comes with at least the premium package so it drives the MC price to MCS territories, so I said to myself for $30600 I can get a MCS with all the extras and the least payment is only slightly more than a MC . But since most dealer don't stock based MCS, so they have to order one from England, so if I don't want to wait I can just buy a loaded one off the lot

I think I really should stay within budget and not get carried away, but it's really tempting to go all out

mtgperson