There are a number of posts here and on the British forum that mention a $500 or $600 price reduction/compensation for owners of cars that were imprisoned. We're going to be taking delivery this week sometime and I'd like to know if this is something the dealer did or whether it's a policy coming from Mini. If you got a price concession, or asked for one and were refused, please tell everyone about it here.

Note that I'm not talking about the $500 DriversED thing, since that's Mini policy and documented on their web site.

In the back of my mind I'm thinking that Mini has made the $500/$600 "concession" official, but some (more likely most) dealers will think that it looks a lot better in their pocket (imagine that) than it does in the customers' pockets.

 

I called MINI and asked about that citing some specific examples of folks that have reported receiving credit for accessories. I was told there is no such policy.

 

i just asked my MA what mini could do to keep the customer happy. i was asked for a list of what i might want and got just about 600 in stuff from my mini dealer

 

Mini USA is doing nothing directly. It has been reported here for a while that you should work directly with your dealership if you're looking for a deal. I think most who asked got a MINIMUM of $500 and some received more.

That said, if you waited until this point and your just hoping for Mini to "do the right thing", I don't think I would hold my breath. Silence and pretending the delay (and the poor EPA results) are not happening seems to be their preferred method.

 

Mine just got finished production last week (order was placed mid September). So I'm guessing no goodies for me?

Anyone that ordered recently get any goodies for asking the dealer?

I had a bad experience with one of the guys at the dealer, so I'm kind of hesitating to contact anyone at MINI of Portland.

 

I hope the hp part of hp79 doesn't stand for Hewlett-Packard

 

My car just came in and I asked my dealer about any credit for accessories due to the 2+ month wait ---- nope. Would have been nice, but I'm not the demanding type so... I wasn't expecting anything so I'm not out anything. He said they have not received any directives from MINI to offer anything.

 

Nope, it's just initials of my name.

It's silly that some people get $750 off MSRP right off the bat, while I had to spend my time negotiating for just $250 off. This is without all the AARP or Dirversed discount. One sales person I met at Portland MINI told me unlike other brands, MINI uses no haggle pricing (yeah, ri-----gh----t), and that's why I won't see any lower prices when doing a custom order. He even told me there's additional dealer installation fees when adding bonet stripe and 16" wheel upgrade. (I was talking about the $1500 Sports Package which is all done at the factory, or at distribution center at the latest.)

He also said other MINI dealers in CA offering things such as $750 off are either 2014 model (which is not true), or they are inflating the MSRP so it looks like a good deal. Does he think people are dumb enough not to look at the MSRP shown on miniusa.com using the configurator?

Anyways, I don't have a good impression with the only dealer in Oregon, at least with that one guy, and the finance manager that gave me wrong numbers on my lease pricing. I hope the car is much more satisfying than the dealer experience.

Oh, and congrats to those who got the $500-$600 worth free accessories. I'm buying my own, just the front all weather mat.

 

It's all about supply and demand as to how much can be negotiated. If you live in a large metropolitan area with many dealers your chances are better. Unfortunately for you, you have one supplier and enough demand that they don't need to offer incentives to sell cars.

With that said, your dealers' salesmen sound shady.

 

Welp, we took delivery Monday afternoon 6 Oct. No freebies. Got the DriversED promotion without any issue. So while I'm not ecstatic with the outcome, it was more or less what we agreed to when we ordered, minus the two month delay. And even so, that delay was a whole lot less than what some of our British friends have experienced (e.g. "MidnightBlue") that you can see on their forum.

 

When the MINI made its debut in 2002 there were only two California dealers who sold at MSRP (East Bay and Long Beach) ... all others marked UP their cars. The wait list at the MSRP dealers was up to a year long.

 

Without the delay you wouldn't have gotten the $500 DriversEd promotion so it all worked out.

Briefly, what is this British delay you are referring to if you don't mind me asking?

 

Some person ordered a car, and soon afterward they told him it would be 2-3 months before he got it. Not a bunch of people that I saw, just one person who posted. When I bought my 2007 sticker price was the rule. A few places tried to mark them up, but I don't think too many paid it. My point is that getting a 2007 R56 discount was rare. As time went on of course there were discounts on lot cars. I got $2500 off mine but it had been there for 8 months and listed at $41.5k, big deal. My 2007 MCS was $30k.

 

You're probably right about DriversEd.

There are a couple of posters on the British Mini forum that have been waiting since Spring for their cars. No exaggeration. They've been jerked around something awful, apparently.

 

The diesels?

 

The diesels apparently had a significant delay all their own, but I was referring to a couple of posters there who'd ordered some relatively tricked-out 3- and 4-cylinder gas models. They've literally been waiting since ordering in March - May. They've been handed quite an impressive variety of excuses.

 

I'm getting $1000 off. Not sure if that is from dealer or Mini but the dealer said everyone affected by the delay is getting the same deal.