The idea's been floated past the Sales Managers at both Towson and Sterling, neither appear interested. Apparently the thought that customers are returning long after their sale is complete to socialize and talk about their cars doesn't send the message they are looking for to their prospective customers Go figure

 

But shouldn't they be looking to us to help advertise via word of mouth for cars and well as for parts and accessories? I know they make a killing on the parts and such and not really the cars themselves.

 

Henry Ford was once quoted that he could give the cars away -- enough would fall off and need to be replaced in the first few years to pay for the cars and then some -- if he only lived long enough to know what us MINI folk do to our perfectly working bits.

Hugs,
PB

 

Thats like if you ever talk to Apple about the ipods. They might sell millions of them might there is no money in them. The money is in the accessories.

 

Apple Apple Apple bread!


And I will bring the cash for the loaf I took home before Christmas

 

????

 

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday. We had a really great turn out and it was fun to see old friends and meet new and prospective new members. And, yum, apple coffee cake!
Special bonus - being the first to see Tom's photos of the DCMM Holiday Party and that VERY intense foosball game!

 

Was there any new news on the Tate Mini move ?

 

I asked one of the salesmen about this and they said its something the owners are looking into. The place there looking at moving to is very close by.

 

you know...it never even occured to me to ask. I don't think they're moving. However, they might be expanding. If they were going to actually move, I think someone would have mentioned it to us.

Allow me to echo Jen's sentiments....thanks for coming, eveyone! The next breakfast will be March 19th.

 

I asked about the move to Rick ( the sale mgr.) He was surprised to find out that we (Mini club people) knew about the move. He said that IS not an immediate move. The Mini people are talking and discussing the project as a new a location needs to be built (MINI only, no BMW) because the current one is too small and there is not enough room for cars .. It appears that the new place is off Route 97 a bit closaer to DC. I did not pay attention to directions though.
Bummer is going to be farther for me ( from Annapolis at least).

Nice to see you guys on Saturday... met new Mini owners and Mini owners in waiting... Saw pitcures of the mighty Fusball games (it was clear from the pictures why I lost ... just look at Paul's relaxed non chalant expression compared to mine !!)


MD STREGA2

 

Anyone know of a US dealership where MINI and BMW have been spllit apart by such a large distance ? Will this be a first ? Will this be good for bad for us MINI owners ?

 

I don't know of any, but last year when I was up at Towson it was mentioned to me that they were considering building a separate building for MINI service
only adjacent to their existing service buildings.

I don't know if anything has come of it.

When I was up there for my recall, they were working on moving the MINI service offices across the drive in bay from the BMW service offices.

 

I was on the Towson site recently (BMW or Mini, I don't remember) and I found something about them opening their won body shop too. I mentioned this to the people who replaced my rear bumper (the people who mini/bmw of towson send all their body work to) and they said they heard the same thing but haven't seen any progress towards that happening.

Last time I was at Mini of Towson though (middle of Dec 2004) the mini service person/office was right next to the big service bay area. relatively large glass office looking into the service bay (which is huuuuuge).

 

for the first question.
I think the dealership in Orlando is a stand alone dealership. I did a search by zip code at the BMWUSA site and the nearist dealership was 4 miles away and had a different name. There was a second dealership in the same town 8 miles away. I limited the search to less than 10 miles.

for the second.
The BMW techs are not trained on MINIs. It is likely that the MINI techs will have more bays to work in and more room for parts, tools and what not. I do not see this as anything bad for MINI owners in general. It will be bad for some people in terms of the drive and better for others just as their current location is good for some and bad for others.

It could be bad for BMW in the case that some MINI owners have moved up market from their car when thinking about a larger car for what ever reasion.

 

heh, i would like to see the argument for the I97 location being closer to dc....i guess you could look a the bird eyes view, but the reality is it is further from dc in time and convenience.....and ditto that for anyone in the annapolis area. 97N doesnt have any exits till till rt3, millersville/crofton. so if you avoid rt3(recommended considering the number of lights and heavy commuter traffic) you would have to go to 97.....which is 5 minutes or so from the existing location. if you avoid 50, which is one of the better commuter corridors in the area, you could go up bw-parkway to ft meade and cut over from there, again, i would find this surprizing if it was faster than 50......although it might be depending on how you come out of dc.

as far as the tech issue, yeah, dedicated techs would be nice....then again a set of ramps and a couple wrenches is probably more convenient then a haul up I97.

so lets take some guesses as to the possible "real" reasons they are looking to do this.

1. they want more DC/Baltimore market share by moving closer to an equidistant point between the two, without losing their existing market base in annapolis.....and i say this because obviously Baltimore is the goal, because a better DC/Annapolis location would be 214/3/50 bowie area. I find it hard to believe they are moving just to expand...they have a lot of unused parking space that could easily support an extra building or two.

2. they want to support the DC owners a little better by getting away from the rt2/rt50/bridge backup that occurs every summer.....and with bridge issues, will likely get worse.

3. they are losing business because they dont have enough inventory on the lot, and need more storage. well, here is a definte possiblity.

4. some of the stuck up annapolis bmw owners are getting tired of sharing coffee with us low-ly mini drivers.....come on, have you seen the looks the 7-series owners give you when you walk in the sitting area.

5. bmw is preparing to dump mini, much like they did land rover, because the cost of warranty work on the first few years is killing the bottom line.....and mini is soon to become a ford. go ahead laugh, but bmw does have that track record.


hmm, any suggestions for ramps?


....and people wonder why my callsign is Grumbler.

 

There's a healthy distance between Prestige MINI and Prestige BMW in Mahwah, NJ. (Quarter to half mile if I remember correctly) It seems to work out pretty good! Prestige MINI is regarded as one of the better dealerships in the US. They do an exellent job at supporting the northern NJ MINI community. Also, inside the dealership, they have a 'glass wall' looking into the service bays. If they set up the proposed dealership like Prestige, it would be a good thing, I think!

-Paul!

 

I would be very suprised if that happens. Yeah, the '02's I'm sure are costing BMW a couple bucks, but with the much better than expected sales that MINI is doing, I'm willing to bet that MINI is keeping a very healthy bottom line.


I think that someone needs a hug!

-Paul!

 

I've never wondered.

 

Grumbler,

Sorry I answered ...

i think you need a drive of some sort to get all your anger out ...

MD STREGA2