Hello everyone. I'm going to be purchasing a new Mini soon and I was wondering what kind of experience anyone has with haggling on price. I know that Mini has tons and tons of custom options and I plan on taking advantage of them. I know how much the list price is for the final configuration from the Mini site but I not sure if there is any room for price haggling on the final price.

Any feedback you can give me about your buying experience would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Are you planning on purchasing in IA or vicinity?

 

Yes. I live in Marion and I plan on buying from the new dealership in Des Moines. I think I might have met you during the Swamp Fox Parade a couple of weeks back.

I talked to you about your custom gauges. I was with my son. We both were in scout uniforms.

If this was not you, my apologies.

 

My experience...from two different MINI dealers (back in 2008)...no haggling. You pay the price as stated. I suggest order your MINI with exactly what you want!

 

We saved about $800 on a new 2012 - here's how it went down:

We stated what options we wanted, but he had only one car that came close (but had add'l options we didn't want).

He played with the mo. payment options trying to get us close to our price, but couldn't get close enough.

We told him we'd have to pass and order the exact model we wanted through a closer dealer (this dealer in question was 5hrs away).

He called back 30 mins later giving it to us at the price we wanted.

The moral of the story: I think in some areas where MINIs sell very well, you may have no room to haggle. In our case, we made it 100% clear that he would lose the sale if he didn't come down and so he caved.

For what it's worth, here's some "tips" that may help with haggling:

1. Once you know the price you wish to pay (say, $1000 below MSRP), call dealers from all over - as far as you're willing to travel. Tell them you're ready to buy today if they can meet your price. This is how we bought our Honda. Two dealers said no, but the third (about an hours drive away) - said yes and we made the deal that day.

2. Try to make a deal at the end of the month, as some dealers are trying to make their monthly quota and will be more willing to take a hit on price to make hit their quota.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the great advice. I plan on ordering a custom setup with many options and I plan on paying cash. (I've been saving my pennies from a while now.)

This leads me to my second question. Has anyone ordered a custom Mini and how long did it take to get it? If I want to be driving my Mini by June 1, 2012, when do I need to order it?

 

Yes, that was me and I remember you!

#6 provides some good advice; probably dependent on how healthy recent sales have been at any particular dealership. Generally speaking, there is a bit more negotiating room for cars on the lot than with custom orders -- but discounts can be extracted in either case. I was able to get close to $1K off of a $32K+ sticker at Motorwerks in MSP. Part of that might have been due to the fact that I've been a loyal and supportive customer of theirs for many years...or maybe not.

Good luck with your purchase!

 

Jim, I custom ordered my '11 MCS (thru Motorwerks) on 6 Dec 2010, and took delivery on 27 Jan 2011. That included the time for dealer installation of the OEM driving lights, clearbra, etc.

 

I have heard one custom order took 14 weeks to receive!

But I think the average is 8 weeks. The wait time was why we were so anxious not to order but to do everything we could to buy on site. We were very close to ordering one but got lucky!

 

When I ordered my mini from Willis, they said generally 7-8 weeks. My order went through Sep. 1 and my mini showed up Sep 29. I am not sure what normal would be. I didn't have any dealer installed options. All basic stuff from the factory.

PepperWhite/Black top/6sp-manual/spoiler/sunroof/cold weather pkg/premium pkg/headliner/traction control/15" wheels

I am absolutely loving the thing!!! I had never driven one until I got behind the wheel of mine (with 4 miles on it) sitting in the showroom and driving it home. Everything cool that I have heard about them was dead on. I love it. Factory radio sounds great and it has an AUX input to allow me to use my iPod for tunes as well.