Seriously, for those wanting to splurge on a MINI getaway, I'm a tad bit shocked that this option isn't on the menu yet. Imagine the delight you would have picking your car up to take a self-guided tour wherever you want to go. I'd suggest Southern Germany, Switzerland, and Northern Italy. Then, head to Monaco of course.

Not sure where they would offer pick up. Munich seems to be obvious location. Although, I'm sure that many of you would like to pick your car up in Oxford. Though, I'd guess that a U.S. spec car would make more sense being picked up in Munich.

I know I'd head to Nurburgring.

 

This remains a mystery to many of us, particularly because BMW has such a well-established european delivery program.

 

It is very strange. I guess they would also have to do it by model since some are built in England and the Countrymans in Austria.

 

My guess is they don't do it because the only practical place to pick one up is Oxford, and the car's the wrong side for the roads there.

Driving a car on the other side of the road has never been a problem for me, but I could think they're worried about liability.

 

But why not have Munich ED fpr the Countryman made in nearby Austria?

 

MINI has been quite adamant about this - there is not nor are there any plans to ever offer European delivery...

While yes, the Countryman is built in Austria and not in England, the "home" of MINI is Cowley in the UK. For liability reasons MINI will not offer factory delivery due to concerns regarding delivering left hand drive vehicles in a right hand drive country.

Yes - MINI could get around this by offering delivery in Germany, but doing so defeats the purpose of the program. European delivery programs aren't merely a matter of "sign this, take this, here are your keys, goodbye..." European delivery is in many respects a celebration and indoctrination of the brand. BMW's European Delivery's take place at BMW Weldt, are full day programs and the actual delivery of the car is just the culmination of a full day's worth of brand enhancing activities. Mercedes program is the same...

With MINI having no connection to Germany other than BMW corporate there is no culture, no manufacturing or anything else to create the delivery experience that is common for these programs.

You CAN visit the MINI factory in Cowley. There is a visitor's center there and they offer tours of the factory. To my knowledge there aren't any tours of the Magna-Styr plant in Graz where the Countryman is built.

 

I tried to do the tour in Cowley on three different occasions and each time they were unable to accommodate my family. Either they were closed for a holiday, retooling or booked up. Very slow in getting back to me as well. Not very impressive as far as I'm concerned.

We've done the Welt pickup with our Bimmers: absolutely fantastic experience. And while you can make the events last all day if you'd like, you can also just skip to the presentation of the car keys and get the heck out of there and on the road. On our last car pickup back in February, they had added a big MINI display area which led me to believe that they weren't exactly ashamed of the badge and might actually start working it into the Welt ED. But since they don't do European Delivery for Rolls-Royce either I guess we shouldn't feel slighted.

 

You can book the factory tour online now, but it tends to get booked up a ways in advance. That was a bit annoying last year when we worked out the JCW would be being built while we were in Oxford, but couldn't get on a tour while we were there.

 

I toured the MINI factory when I was in the UK a couple years ago. It was awesome! I think I booked it over the phone and didn't have any issues, but maybe I just got lucky.