I am a noob on this forum, and I have a bit of a dumb question. I have never ordered a car before (always bought off the dealer lot) and was unsure of the process. I assume (you know what that means) that you go to the dealer, make your decisions on options, commit to buy and make a deposit of some sort. I have been through many pages on the site and did not find a thread that detailed how this works.
So my question is... How does this process normally work? I will be choosing a dealer here in the next few weeks, as I want to get my car in August or September. I live about 100 miles from 3 dealers, Columbus and Cleveland in Ohio and Pittsburgh, PA., and I want to be prepared before I get there.
To let you folks know what I am interested in, I plan on getting a Countryman S with All4. I have a family, so I need to be able to haul kids, but that doesn't mean I can't have fun doing it. I will be getting the 6 speed manual (see last sentence) and plan on having the car for a while. Any advice you might have would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rob

 

Hey Robrown! Welcome to the party!!

The process is pretty painless. You will go into the dealer and sit down at the computer with your MA and basically build your car. The system is pretty identical to the configurator you’ve no doubt become familiar with already. Taking your own printout you’ve made on the configurator would be a good idea.

Once you’ve completed the build, they will give you an official build sheet that has line items of every selection you have made and the price. You will do no other paperwork, financing, or make any down payment other than your deposit until after the car has arrived at the dealership. At that point, it’s pretty much the same as if you had picked the car off the lot as far as the rest of the transaction goes.

Trust me, the hardest part comes AFTER the order…the painful wait!
If you have other questions let me know, and good luck!

 

what he said, also be sure to check out the 1st gear section and the topic of how to track your mini. Read the initial post, there is a ton of information in there and from my own recent experience its accurate.

I just bought my first mini as well, never had a mini before, it was a totally new experience, that met all of my expectations, love my mini.

 

Subzereo,
Thanks for the information. I figured it wasn't too crazy, but I have never done it before. I am ready to go get the car on order now, but I have to wait until the boss is ready. Since it is a day trip to go to the dealership and check out the car, it will probably be in early June.
There are a lot of options on the car that I am not 100% sure of right now. Most notably Mini-Connect and Lounge Leather. I want to try them out before I decide to check the box. Once I have tried them out, I will make my final decisions.
Thanks again,
Rob

 

Ojedam,
Thanks. I will check out that thread.
Rob