I'm excited to join the wonderful world of MINI ownership. After months of going in between a Prius or hybrid Civic, my wife made it plain to me that she wanted something with more "personality." I personally never thought I'd be a MINI owner, but when I saw the MPG's for the Clubman, it suddenly became very evident that this is a car we should be considering.

We ordered a Chili Red Clubman (non S manual) that will be built in mid July for an Aug/Sept delivery. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and seems like everyone was charging anything from $1,500 to $2,500 in mark up. The only dealership (Concord) that was charging msrp didn't have a delivery date until some time around Oct/Nov. I bought mine from East Bay (Pleasanton) MINI (for an Aug/Sept delivery) and had to work hard to talk the sales manager into msrp and no $2,000 mark up. How rediculous is that, huh? Having to talk someone "down" to msrp. Anyways, so go the laws of supply and demand. I even asked if they could throw in a free tshirt and they said you've already beat us up enough...whatever! Anyhow, I've never been this excited to be a on a waiting list and have tons of questions. Look forward to contributing and getting advice from this community. [/SIZE][/FONT]

 

Welcome to NAM!

I also ordered myself a PW Clubman S a couple of weeks ago. Mine will be built in July (haven't received a build week yet) but should be delivered first week of August. Can hardly wait to take delivery in Germany (I'm Air Force stationed overseas)... we might be on the same ship because it usually stops at Bremerhaven to unload German MINIs. See ya around!

 

First of all, congratulations!

Secondly, welcome to NAM! I myself have been a lurker and only recently joined, so you and I are both new.

Anyway, I am also from SF and I was wondering how your dealership experience was. I'm looking to order a Clubman soon too (non-S manual like you) and was wondering how you went about negotiating for MSRP... it seems everywhere is dealing with mark-ups or long arrival times and I don't want either... any tips?

Thanks, and congratulations again! I hope to see your Clubman the City when you get it.

 

Good Luck to you all,


Larry

 

i think u made a right choice.. well done on bargaining down to MSRP

 

Welcome to the club!!! The waiting is killer...

 

Congrats!

 

Welcome.

If you read enough here, you'll learn the answers to questions you never thought of asking. It is a great place to satisfy your craving for anything MINI while you wait.

 

CONGRATS and welcome...

pst... everyone knows the Chili Reds are the fast ones.

 

When I placed my order last week, it was a better situation because there happened to be one Bay Area dealer who was charging msrp (Concord). Given that East Bay MINI was unwilling to budge from their $2k above msrp, I told them thank you for the time and the wonderful test drive, but if you guys can't do below msrp (or throw in some options), I was going to take a drive up to Concord and give them my order. When I told them this, the MA said okay, but that he wanted me to meet the sales manager in case things didn't work out at Concord. So I met the sales manager and told him I was about to drive to Concord and submit my order. He then pointed out that they had an Aug/Sept delivery timeframe vs Concord's Oct/Nov timeframe which was true. I told him if they could do msrp, I'm prepared to place an order right now. He paused and then told the MA to write the order at msrp. Beyond that, I couldn't get any extras, not even a t shirt!

But given that as of this week, I hear even Concord is charging a mark up...any leverage you may of had is diminished. I would recommend finding an out of area MINI dealership that actually is still charging msrp and trying to bluff your way into an msrp deal with a local dealership if you don't feel like actually making a trip to the out of the area dealership.

 

I received the same '2K over MSRP' quote due to 'high demand' at East Bay - and the demand is high. However, if you make it clear to them that you are perfectly willing to go elsewhere, they will come down. When we bought our first MINI, we put down a deposit at EBMini to get on the waiting list and were told it would be 6 months to a year (back near the end of 2002). I eventually ended up cancelling at EB and ordered the car from Mini of St Louis. When it arrived (9 weeks later), I flew out and drove it back - 2500 miles. After we discussed this, they agreed on MSRP.

Good Luck, and Happy Motoring