I placed an order with my dealer back on 6/20 for a new MINI to replace my 2006 convertible. They said it'd be a 10-12 week wait.

They say they are about to submit the order now and my car will be a 2009 instead of the 2008 I was expecting. Can't complain about that! But the change in 2009 pricing bumps the car I wanted up by another $500 and it sounds like they expect me to simply pay the extra money.

Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do?

Granted, $500 is kinda minor when you look at the total price of the car. But it's just the principle of the thing. I own my own business and I know that in a similiar situation I'd not ask my customer to pay that extra $500 even if it came out of my own pocket.

At the very least it doesn't seem fair, and I am pretty sure that if I wanted to I could simply walk away from the deal and be fully entitled to get my deposit back.

 

Best you could do, in my opinion, is express concern over the issue and state that you want the car with the options you requested for the price that you agreed on (sans the $500). If they tell you No, just get it anyways. Sounds like you don't want to walk away.

 

That is probably the best I can do - but I definitely am open to walking away from the deal. I don't need this car that bad, and there are other dealers in the area.

 

Did they tell you up front it would not be ordered right away or did you agree on a later order placement date? Did they tell you up front there might be a price increase by the time it was ordered? When I ordered mine it went on the books that very day so I paid the current price at that time (actually they knocked off $1k off of MSRP) even though by the time it was delivered there was a price increase. An up front dealer would eat it to lock in the deal.

 

Guess my dealer does things differently. When I ordered it, they just took a deposit and they told me that their next production slot was 10-12 weeks away. And it sounds like they don't actually have to submit the actual order until the production slot is coming up - which is soon.

They never mentioned that I might be getting a 2009, or that I might expect to see a price increase.

So your dealer ate the price increase and gave you $1k off? Geez. My dealer gave me $300 off as a "repeat buyer" but that was it. They'll probably even charge me for floor mats again.

This is why I am getting more and more angry about it - they could have just knocked off the $500, bringing the total they are knocking the MSRP up to $800, and still be making a decent profit.

Of course even if I cancel, the dealer will quickly use my slot for someone who'll be paying full MSRP and it won't make a hill of beans to them (and they'll probably still fight to keep my deposit). Corporate America sucks.

 

You are probably correct about selling to someone else.
I have had this with a couple of popular cars when I was buying. The last time the sales person was very nice but said as much. It was hard to argue with 'we can sell the car easy if you don't want it' when I asked for a discount.

Also, look at it this way, you are getting a year newer car so $500 is not that bad. You will probably make it up in resale when the time comes.

 

In case anyone's interested, the dealer wouldn't budge - I wound up cancelling and getting my deposit back.

It may seem silly, and if it were just this one thing, I'd probably have not made a fuss. Overall I've always liked my advisor and the dealership. But there were other small incidents in the past were I felt they did some things that were a bit unfair, which I mentioned to them but which they ignored. So when I add up everything, it just seems foolish to give more money to this dealership. My MCSC will do for a few more years.

 

^ on the plus side you get SC whine, burble and top down motoring for a few more years

 

If you don't mind the ask - what dealer? I just received my production number from Mini of the Mainline. I had placed the deposit on 7/12 and received the number on the 28th. Yes, the price went up, but from my understanding at the time I placed the order Mini was in limbo about the '09 model year anyway. So I knew it could happen. I really want the car so I'm waiting. I think they allowed for the delay in the time frame I was given (I hope), because I have already sold my car and will be renting a car for the next 2 months.