i don't know if this is correct forum for my question. it seems that after you send in your car specs to the specified dealers of your choice by way of miniusa dot com, they will get back to you in about a day or so. either its a generated e-Mail or an actual personal response. its seems 2 out of 10 are actual responses from a person.

they'll then ask you when you want to come in and how you'd like to pay.
that's it. they already assume you'll come in and pay whatever price is listed per MSRP.

so here's my question: when you reply back to them asking them to give them your price that you want to pay and/or you give them the quote that another dealership just gave you, are they NOT responding because they don't want your business? or is it that they simply can't meet/beat the offer?

 

When I started shopping for my Mini I test drove at one dealership,
then tried the "carpet bomb" email approach with other dealers in
the area, trying to get a price quote.

I found in most cases I just received basically form email replies.
To actually get prices/quotes I found it best to take the time to
call the dealers I would be most likely to deal with.

Ended up making a deal with a dealership 9 hours away, and ended
up changing my mind when I found it was all about price... not customer
service.

Went back to the dealership I had a great rapport with, explained
what price I had found elsewhere, and came to a fair compromise.

Paid a little bit more, but feel I'm getting much more in return.
(Though I did save off of MSRP)

I did not go into it planning to try to play one dealership against another.
Original plan was to buy from whomever offered the lowest price, all
things being equal.

I tried not to waste too many MA's time. If you think about it. The
replie's your getting may be because the MA's think your just "fishing".

Try calling and working with them. They may surprise you.
(Although many dealers are married to MSRP... which has been discussed
to death on the boards here at NAM btw.)

 

hmm.... i guess it all comes down to finding out who has the best customer service (sales AND service depts). customer service is number one. too bad there's no real way to determine who is the best available in the area (yelp or nam?) and whether they'll change their tune AFTER you get the car.

thanks for the reply.