i am a recent college graduate who is highly interested and will most likely purchase a MINI Cooper S. i have already been to universal city MINI a couple of weeks ago to test drive the car and it was a blast. it was such an experience test driving the car that i had forgotten all the things i wanted to ask the dealership (i.e. ordering, waiting, deposits, etc). so i went to the irvine mini dealership and asked them all the questions that i wanted to ask and i came up with a bunch of answers from them that i want to check with all you socal mini owners

when i asked them about waiting period for orders, they told me that it usually takes 12 weeks for orders to come in. is this pretty accurate for some of you socal people who've ordered from dealerships?

even though they were telling me these things i wanted to know they informed me that they weren't taking orders for a while since their list was full (???) and that MINI was only making 6000 Mini cooper Ss for this year. the dealer sounded like he knew his stuff but i was also thinking that he was psyching me out to hastily buy a mini from the lot.

... so IS it true that mini is making only 6000 cooper Ss this year? i also want to know if other dealers in socal are doing the same thing that irvine mini is doing in not letting people place orders?

and one more thing... i've heard from other posts that some people have gotten their MINI in irvine for msrp. i went there and all their minis had a 2500 mark-up. what gives?

any help and answers are appreciated. thanks a bunch!

I REALLY WANT TO GET A MCS!!!!

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Quick fact!
7/5th of all people don't understand fractions.

 

All you have to do is to check the "Dealer Rating" portion of this site and you'll soon find out that Universal MINI does not have the highest rating. Judge for yourself and read them. I got mine from them.

MiniBlue

 

I ordered my S from irvine mini last august. I was supposed to get production number in october, but got pushed back all the way to the end of january. They said that it was do to the amount of S orders that they were able to place each month. I guess mini wasn't allowing them to place as many S orders. I think they said that they went from placing 30 a month, to like 10. As for getting one at MSRP there, i doubt it. When i placed my order, i was told that I had to pay $1495 above MSRP (but that included the lojack, perma-thing, and floormats). So I guess they raised there mark up if they quoted you $2500. When they said that it takes 12 weeks for an order to come in, did they mean from the time you put a deposit to when the actual car arrives? It took about 5 months for me to receive a production number after i put down my deposit. Overall. I had a very good experience dealing w/ irvine mini (Dave K. was my M.A.). It just took a lot of patience, but it's all worth it cuz my mini arrives this april!!! :smile:

 

thanks jeremyP. i wasn't really sure if they meant that the 12 weeks started after i get a production number, but i guess it is! as for the out of state thing... i don't think that i'll go all out of my way to order a mini out of state for MSRP . i guess imma have to just bend over and pay above msrp :smile:

 

I'd recommend you order from out of state.

Get exactly the car you want, pay a reasonable amount, and have them ship it to you. Better yet, take a road-trip/break-in vacation and pick it up! I used and liked Mini of the Hamptons in NY, but there are closer dealers, I suppose. (I'm in NJ)

There really is no reason to spend more than $500 over MSRP because you can ship the car for less than that and still get it faster. Convenience of the local dealer isn't worth more than shipping since a good but distant dealer will bend over backwards to make it convenient for you. Any dealer can (and must?) service your car after purchase.

Good luck!

Wactuary

 

I say shop around also, you can find what you want and then have a nice drive to get through the breakend period.........lots of dealers around selling at MSRP.

 

I agree with Wactuary and mini-rolls. I live in Seattle and got my MINI from the Utah dealership. From order to pick-up, less than 2 months. No markups. AND, the road trip home was a BLAST!

 

MINI of the Hamptons sells at MSRP, and has all in stock.

It really galls me to hear people are being forced to pay over MSRP. Vote with your money! Go someplace else. There are plenty of dealers east of California.

 

Yeah, shop out of state. I'm sure someone out there has the exact MCS you want right on their lot, and they'll ship it to you