First post, did a several searches and could not find the answer to my question.

I am in the market for a new small car and the Clubman has my attention. But I am concerned...

Seems that the dealerships here in northern VA have crazy low milage Clubmans, like less than 5k miles for cars that are 2010 or 2009. I test drove one today that was a 2010 with 2500 mi. What is up with this?

Are these cars just polarizing or are they most likely lemons? Is this common in other markets?

Bill

 

Most likely service demo's, our local dealer only allows theirs to get 5-7K on them before they sell them.

Why don't you call the dealer and ask them where they get those cars? Put your mind at ease...

 

+1

i specifically asked about it when i first test drove my clubman/r56 and they said it was the service vehicles as they dont like to let them go over 5k

 

We put 11,000 something miles on our clubman in just over 6 months. Great car.

 

I just purchased a 2010 clubman with 2900 miles on it. It was a car that was driven by a BMW executive for 1 year. They had 2 other exec clubbies on the lot. So far it's been great. You could tell that whoever drove it babied it. Ther was another one on the lot that just seemed beat.

I know gm used to call these pep cars and they sold them to employees.

I think you could get a great deal just drive the car and look it over closely. I ended up getting a really good deal on my clubman this way.

 

Probably exec cars, as people have mentioned. When I was starting to look last summer I found a lot of these at NoVa dealers.

Which dealership are you using? I looked at Alexandria (Passport) and Sterling, went with Sterling after Passport tried to really screw me. I had a GREAT experience at Sterling, would go back again.

 

That is good to hear. The car I drove was at the dealer on trade. It was a regular mini auto, so it may have been too slow or too small for the person.

The hunt is on.
BB

 

wahoo_shoe, missed your post when I last posted.

I went to Sterling yesterday and they threw me the keys to new clubman s to take out. Pretty good experience. I want to go by Passport as they seem to have a large selection of cars. I am not in a hurry, so I may go by there and see what they have. I am trying to decide between the clubman, convertible, or maybe a non mini of some sort.

Bill

 

Noooo! Not a non-MINI!!!

Dave

 

Purchased my 2010 Clubman at Mini of Baltimore County. It was a "special purchase", executive car with only 3500 miles on it. It was in pristine condition and pretty much loaded at a great price. Had her for a month now, and am VERY happy!!!!! This IS the way to go, folks!!! LOVE the service department...A dealership is only as good as their service department! AWESOME car at a great price, with all the perks of a new car.

 

REALLY???? do not make that decision until you have test driven a mini!!!!!!

 

Drive a bit further and check out Mini of Baltimore County...got my 2010 Clubman there..nice experience...HUGE inventory!

 

BMW has an short-term employee lease deal. It's a way to feed cars to their used car sales and lease programs.

 

BikeisDusty-

I sold my '06 Cooper with 6500mi. and I was the original owner. The car didn't have any issues, I just happened to live less than a mile from anything I had to go to for four years. But you're going to want an S no matter what if you're looking specifically at a Clubman.

 

But all the BMW execs work in New Jersey. Why are the cars being sold in VA?

 

Purchased mine in Maryland. For one thing, there just aren't that many Mini dealers here on the east coast so...

 

I suspect they dump a lot of those cars here in VA since DC metro area seems to be a big market, and with only two local dealers, it's easier to keep high prices. That was my impression from last year when I was looking for used S and shopped at both Alexandria and Sterling. I've ended up buying one on in NJ, saving at least $3 grand.

 

I learned yesterday that Passport Mini in Alexandria is the largest Mini dealer in the country. So I guess that since they have large volume, they get first dibs.

I went there yesterday. I was not impressed by the car selection, even though they have like 200 cars. They seem to generally order 2 flavors with multiple colors of each car type.