Took the blue beast in for a new window motor yesterday and was surprised to see only 2 minis on the entire lot! Guess they are selling pretty quick eh?

 

Think it's close to the same everywhere - South Atlanta only had 4 and 3 were pre-sold, no new clubmans until October

 

Over at Checkered Flag? I was there a few times this weekend test driving Minis. They only had two on Saturday and by Sunday they were both gone. Apparently one of them was only there for 4 hours.

 

Heh heh heh....WE'RE TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!

 

MoP said they went from a couple hundred a few months ago to less than 50 on the lot now. My MA says a lot of it is due to gas prices (obv) but also that Toyota is asking (and getting) $5k above MSRP for the Prius.

 

I went by my dealership a few weeks ago and there were maybe 5 cars in the dealership but most of them have been sold. My MA told me that at the beginning of this month there were 20 MINIs at the port waiting to be delivered. X uh oh x is right, MINIs are taking over the world...

 

Well, its nice to see that after 20 years BMW STILL
has not solved the problem of making a window motor.

(sarchasm)

It's also interesting to see the honda and toyota
dealerships gouge the american consumer (in my opion).

Enough never seems to be enough for them.

Maybe its all of them.

(I do agree however if the price says $5k extra dealer profit on it,
and you agree, then that is your fault)

 

I noticed the same thing last week when I went in for service. There were hardly any MINIs in the lot. All that they had were order/prep cars, demo/testdrive cars and cars that were in for service. All MINIs had to be ordered!!

 

2 MINIs at Roadshow last week...both were already sold. It was really strange to see all the BMWs on the MINI side.

 

Tom at Roadshow said that they sold 60 last month and couldn't keep tham on the lot!! I went by last week to pick up something from him and had 4 people swarm MY car while I was inside!!! BACK OFF!! She's MINE!! hehe

 

This topic reminds me of Paula Cole.

 

Meaning her #1 song Where Have All the Cowboy's Gone.

 

I posted this over in the Electric MINI thread but it was a bit OT there. This is a quote by Jim McDowell, Vice President of MINI USA, appearing in a Free Press Auto Critic article earlier today:

“Mini will add 2,000 to 3,000 vehicles to the allotment its U.S. dealers get this year, he said. Sales for the brand, which BMW owns, soared 33.9% to 26,400 cars for the first half of 2008. Minis have been selling in a mere four days on the lot, and the company is out of inventory in the United States, McDowell said." [emphasis mine]

 

Woohoo! Make my used Mini continue to be in high demand! There are days I love the basic economics of supply and demand.

 

i hope we see mroe WAVE...

 

Yeah, as long as you're on the supply side and not the demand side!

 

I don't know how exciting it was to own a classic Mini back in the day, but it sure has been a blast being part of the MINI scene. This gas crunch is just the latest thing to launch the MINI into the public eye. An MA was telling me that folks come in simply looking for a fuel efficient car, but the test drive is what generates enough OMGs to sell the car. That is cool.

 

Gosh, maybe I will put a For Sale sign on mine, park it at the local MINI dealer and enjoy the show.

I was parked on the curb by a traffic signal.

A guy in an $80,000 Mercedes was stopped, "rolled down" his window and asked "Pardon me, can I ask you how much that car cost?" Obviously wanted to get one.

PayPal me $10 and I will tell you my response to his question.

 

Good with the bad. I suspect some of the gas guzzling BMWs are sitting on the lots. Even though people who can afford to buy a $70,000 BMW don't worry about gas prices, I suspect that some don't want to be, or perceived as, energy wasters.

Toyota is enjoying Prius sales [along the lines of the MINI: supply and demand, dealer markup, etc.] but just announced they suspended production of Tundra trucks and Sequoia SUVs.

IMHO no one at Toyota or BMW are celebrating stellar sales of the Prius and MINI, they are more relieved that those models are stopping the bleeding.

I wonder if BMW has considered ramping up production, regardless of quality control issues, or if they refuse to do so because of limited output of manufacturing facilities and not wanting to compromise quality.

I believe Toyota, to meet demand and increase sales, has changed some plant being built in the U. S. from manufacturing Tundra trucks to building the Prius.

Maybe BMW should do the same, build a U. S. plant. But isn't BMW building a new larger MINI plant, or did they already do that?

 

The only caveat to your post, MichaelSF, is: don't you think this would negatively impact the quality? And the special-ness of MINIs made in Oxford? I mean, take a look at some of the "need help" threads about some of the quality problems that have started already... I hope BMW and MINI keep it a select and quality-controlled market, no matter how much money they can make...