So, I've been in touch via email about purchasing a MCSa from Mini of Sterling. Their website claims that they have inventory, but apparently the MA says that they are only accepting orders. They said the current wait is 3 months for a base Cooper and 4 months for a Cooper S to be delivered. That doesn't jive with the stories I hear on NAM here about waiting maybe 2 months from Order to Delivery.

Anyone get a MCS recently from MoS?

 

Hey,

I am not sure, but I think MoS is taking orders for 09's. I think they filled the more recent slots for 08's. You might want to email them and ask if they are referring to 08's or 09's. I was told Fri. they were only taking orders for 09's, now that's for the base MC dont know about the others.

Dell

 

I ordered my MINI through MoS in February 08. I remember looking through all of their online inventory lists and some of it can be misleading. It shows other people's customed MINI's as their actually 'inventory' Which is true, because MoS does have them, but they've already been sold. So, i'm not sure if that changes anything of what you're looking for or not, but i just thought it'd be helpful to know that it is possible to see something that's already gone.

 

My dealer did the same thing saw it online before i knew it hit the dealer....they all do that!

 

I spoke to Robin at Mini of Sterling... she was the one that helped me on my test drive. She said that she thinks that it's more like 3 months for a MCS 09. And yes, all their orders are now 09's.

 

When I went there they had an entire back lot filled with cars, but only half had "sold tags" on them. When I went inside I found out they were all sold customer cars, so I asked "why no sold tags on so many of them", and the guy said "oh those must have come in the last 72 hours and have not been tagged yet"....but we're talking about 20+ cars with no sold tags on them

I'm fine with not driving someone else's car they have already bought but if that's the case they could at least put the sold tag inside...I mean how hard can it be?

Analogeezer

 

The real problem is that like oil demand exceeds supply. Mini should look into building another plant preferably in the states. With gas prices approaching European levels, the mini is becoming a very popular car on both sides of the Atlantic. Hopefully Mini will seriously consider expanding operations and soon. My understanding is that MOS is only taking orders for 09s. The wait is long and difficult. But on the good side it gives you that much longer to save $$$ so you don't have to finance as much.

 

I absolutely and emphatically disagree with you. BMW should never move production of the MINI outside of England. MINI was/is/ and hopefully will always remain a British badge! I get chills even thinking about quality and maintenance issues that would result from increasing production or "americanizing" the brand.

I say order the car you want and enjoy the somewhat exclusive nature of your British Car when it arrives.


...or you can go buy a PT Cruiser.

 

.

 

I have gotten the impression that MINI (well, actually BMW) keeps the production of MINIS at or below demand to keep the brand more exclusive (from a cachet standpoint, not necessarily a price standpoint) and to keep the prices at MSRP.

Over the years there have been LOTS of cars that came out of the blocks extremely hot and soon cooled off, hard to imagine but people were paying over MSRP for PT Cruisers when they first came out

I bought a Mazdaspeed Miata (factory turbo model, only offered in 2004 - 2005) in late 2004 for $6k off list because it was a sales tank, in 1989 people were paying $6k OVER list

While I'm usually a cheap guy and never pay MSRP or even close to it, I've resigned myself to that fact with MINI because that's the way they have constructed the brand and after 6+ years it doesn't look like that is going to change any time soon.

When you think about it, it's a "dream brand" from a manufacturer and dealer's perspective, the cars are sold at or above MSRP, dealer network is spread out to the point where they don't really compete with each other, the cars are often ordered which makes it much easier on the manufacturer (they can build "just in time" to save on materials stockpiling) and the dealer (not need to stock a large number of cars and pay floor planning on them.

Even from a sales perspective it's probably the best car in the world to sell....buyers are predisposed to loving the car, most order them and are happy to get them configured the way they want them, it makes buyers feel "special". I would think from a salesguy perspective it has to be a dream job, just take orders from happy buyers and send them on their happy way once the car arrives.

I'm sure there are exceptions (order goes wrong, takes too long to arrive, and some customers are just jerks no matter what) but compared to most car sales jobs, it has to be the funnest and lowest pressure gig out there.

Analogeezer

 

Production is facility limited. The plant at Oxford runs 3 eight hour shifts, seven days a week.

From the BBC:

 

Yeah I knew about that, I guess what I was saying is I don't see them wanting to make the huge investment to build another plant and dramatically increase production. The car was never meant to be a mass market fuel saver like a Yaris or Civic, and I'm sure they don't want the "cachet" to wear off like it did with PT Cruisers, New Beetles, etc.

Analogeezer

 

[quote=FeedBack;2378521]I absolutely and emphatically disagree with you. BMW should never move production of the MINI outside of England. MINI was/is/ and hopefully will always remain a British badge! I get chills even thinking about quality and maintenance issues that would result from increasing production or "americanizing" the brand.


I would agree with you up to a point. I think the American worker is as good as any other. But I certainly wouldn't want the Big 3 to have any influence over the Mini. American cars are uninspired, ugly and cheap looking. It wouldn't surprise me to see any of the Big 3 go bankrupt with the gas guzzling crap they've been producing. Management should be lined up and fired but instead I'm sure it will be the workers who are laid off while the bosses get golden parachutes to retire on.

 

This Autoweek article speaks to prices and current production. Note that the Oxford plant is running 3 full shifts and is the sole source for world wide supply - I don't think they are purposely holding back production.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...4/1023/CARNEWS

 

No, they're not holding back production. They can't keep up with demand. Expanding dealerships in the states is fine, but only if Mini can supply additional cars to meet what will be increased demand and they're not able to meet the demand now!

 

The rapid success of the MINI was a big surprise to them. When they saw the handwriting on the wall, they started plans to expand their facilities.

It has only a couple of years since the Oxford plant has more than doubled in size and capacity. I don't think they are holding back production... more than likely are now surprised that doubling the capacity wasn't enough. But now they've got to be careful about how they expand any more.

-del

 

I completely agree with this. If MINI ever changed the location of production, I would do everything in my power to make sure that the car I bought came from Oxford.

I ordered my 06 from MINI of Sterling in October of 06 and took delivery of it exactly 1 month later. I know that some people were waiting for the new design on the 07, and gas prices weren't quite so crazy, but I still think it is wierd that there is that long a wait for one and that you can only order an 09 thie early in the year...

 

The "British" heritage of the current MINI is overblown, don't you think? Frank Stephenson was born in Morocco and educated in Pasadena, CA. The car wouldn't be where it is today without BMW engineering, oversight and marketing. Would it be a disaster to build it in the US? Were the BMW Z3s and Z4s disasters? Those cars reformed the concept of the BMW sports car, and were built in Spartanburg SC. Nothing wrong with that. I don't think there is anything sacred about the fact that a few hard-working British people contributed to the assembly of my MINI.

 

Sacred? No... But, in my opinion, the Z3 and 4's don't have quite the same allure that the MINI brand holds.

They certainly don't hold the same resale values.

 

That's because the market is awash with lots of two seat sports cars, slotted just below (Honda S2000, 350Z)) to above (Porsche Boxster) and beyond the Z3/Z4.

It certainly didn't help with the sales of the Z4 for it to be kinda ugly (except the coupe which looks great but sells poorly).

MINI created a unique market, an expensive, well equipped small car whereas before small meant cheap and cheap looking, and cheap driving. It really has no competition whereas the Z3/Z4 had tons of it.

It's been what, 6 years now and nobody has tried this part of the market, which is really surprising to me, VW is probably the closest in terms of cachet and pricing but their cars are much larger and not as cool.

BTW - getting back to the subject of the thread, I have blown off MoS and will be heading to MoA to order my wife's car today....will report back later on how that went, looking forward to finally ordering a car.

Analogeezer

 

The limited production is part of the reason for the MINI being the highest ranked car for resale value. As it currently stands, a MINI only loses about $2,000 in value after three years of ownership, regaurdless of milage. If production is expanded, this will no longer be true.

 

Yea for Analogeezer joining the MOA!

 

How long did it take at MoS to get a production number after ordering a Mini within the last past months? And how soon could you access the owner's lounge after getting a production number? Please let me know, I waited for a month before getting a production number and it has been a week if not more that I can not log in to the owner's lounge because my production number is not recognized by the website. From what I have read once you have a production number you should be able to get into the owner's loung right away. This seems unusual to me but maybe others are experiencing the same.

Thank you.

 

I didn't order from MoS, I ordered from MoA but my production number showed up with the correct model and options about two days later (I ordered on a Wednesday mid-day, checked on Friday afternoon and my order was in).

My order is still not scheduled for production but I only ordered a week ago today....

Not sure what kind of car you ordered (maybe the S is scheduled for later production) but a month to get confirmation seems a bit long.


Analogeezer

 

Yes, I am getting the S model. I really don't mind waiting but it frustrates to wait without really knowing why. I have called my MA and he keeps telling me to "give it a few days" yet others like you Analogeezer have had a more reasonable wait time even though as you say the car is not being built yet, but at least you know that much.