For those of you that have ordered from out of state, what did you do and how far did you have to travel? My cooper is in Ohio. I am from Utah. The distance is over 1750 miles. The price for delivery is $1200. I'm thinking maybe I should fly there and then drive home. What do you recommend I do?

 

It seems so many people order their Coopers out of state? Why?

I would do whatever is cheapest. Maybe take a cheap bus or train trip?

I'd drive the car back so that your car will be broken in when you get it home.

 

Well, the reason I ordered from out of state is because if I'd ordered it from Mini of Murray here in Utah, I'd probably get it in March of 2005. This is about 8-9 months earlier than that! Another reason for ordering from out of state is the price. Some places are charging higher than MSRP.

 

It really depends on what your comfortable doing? Personally I would not want to break in my new car on a long trip driving on the interstates. Just think about all of those big trucks and flying debris!! I did fly from Atlanta to Wisconsin to pick up a special edition Mustang and drove it back. It was lots of fun, but the car was already broken in. It's your call.

 

Yea but you can make a road trip out of ot. By the time your home the car is broken in. I bought my last car (92 mazda protege) and drove from Fla to NY the very next day. It lasted me 200,000 miles till the ac took a dump and I traded her in. If you would enjoy the trip then do it. If you dont want to take the drive then ship it.


Flying is always cheapest. You may also consider the auto train. I did that one time and rather enjoyed it.

 

Drive it!


I've done the same in reverse, driving on vacation out to Utah from Ohio. Beautiful state you have there, I particularly liked the Provo River valley around Heber City. Fly into Ohio and take US 40 back home. It would take about four days (one more than driving the I-70 borathon route).

Just do it.

 

Boge, I would also say to fly to Ohio and drive your new MCS back to Utah. What a perfect excuse to turn your new car purchase into a roadtrip vacation.

In the end if you decide to drive back home in your new car I URGE you to consider the purchase of either a Vinyl front end car bra (www.colgancustom.com) for around $100 or consider one of the pricier ($400-$500) 3M clearbra alternatives in the market. DO NOT and I repeat, DO NOT let your new MCS see the highway until you buy some kind of rock chip protection.

The MINI's paint is soft by nature and after a 1750 mile roadtrip by the time you get home your bonnet (hood) will be ruined, so ensure to buy some kind of front end protection before taking it to the open road.


Otherwise enjoy and again congratulations! The road trip is the "Icing on the cake"!.

 

I agree with Cooper4us. What a great way to get some miles on your Mini. I've always wanted to do this. If you have the time take a route that gets you off the highways from time to time and break up the trip. Take some side trips and do touristy (sp?) things. Either way enjoy your new car. Let the road trip begin!!!

 

I live in central Virginia, and bought my car through Mini of the Hamptons in N.Y.. The nearest dealer, in Richmond, wanted $1000 in extra charges and quite frankly I would rather not reward such predatory tactics. I will take the train out to MOTH and drive the car home. My daughter will meet me in D.C. on the way. The two of us will have a good old time!

 

I am from Wenatchee WA and purchased mine from Cleveland. Reason, here in WA the wait was 8-12 months. Back in April of 03, it took about 6 weeks from order time to sitting on the lot in Cleveland. My girlfriend and I took a cheap flight for $99 one way and and spent the next week driving it home. It was the best time we have had in a long time. We put about 2700 miles on our car and no problems. We saw all kinds of weather, snow, rain, wind and some sun. As far as the clear bra, once we arrived home, only one small chip on the lower front. All in all I would say take the week off and go see some of this great country, take your time and stay off the interstate as much as you can.

Exposed

 

I'm in So. Cal. and as a lot of people know, So. Cal. mini dealers really rape you... that's the reason why I ordered mine from Julie of Classic Mini from Ohio..... they charge MSRP and I get to order the exact Mini that I like.... the $1200 shipping seems to be fair since it's travelling in a closed container.....

:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:

Casper is coming!!!
2005 PW/B MCS
prem. pkg
h & k stereo
xenons
front fogs

 

I'm assuming you're having your car delivered w/ a few other MINIs since I'm paying $1100 to ship with 5 others. My MCS sat at Classic MINI for over a month for others to be produced and delivered to the dealer so they can ship it out. Unless other MINIs that you'll be shipped with will be arrive at the dealer fairly quickly, I'd suggest you just fly out and get it yourself. Unless you like waiting, but I doubt that.

 

Barnabas,


Damn, you waited a whole month?! I would have gone crazy. I just emailed Julie at Classic this morning to see how long after my MCS arrives (it gets to the US on the 23rd) it will take before it ships out, approximately. If it's a very significant amount of time, I'm going to have to go the driving route, even though I didn't really want to do that. I guess I'll just cover the whole front with that blue tape.

-mike

 

There's way too much concern about "ruining" your bonnet. Just drive it and enjoy it -- it's just a car!

fwiw, I have over 10K miles on mine, 75% at freeway speeds. No plastic stuff. And just 2 very minor paint chips (I'd have to point them out to you...). Just keep your distance from trucks!

I highly recommend the fly/drive delivery method which is how I got mine.

 

My MCS arrived at Classic MINI on June 28th. I should have it by August 6 (this Friday!). I did go insane, and beyond. I don't know what state I'm in now. My car and others got produced wayy faster than Julie expected, and it COULD have shipped out during the last 2 week of July, but the shipper couldn't reschedule (original schedule was for 1st week of August) so ended up waiting more.

So Julie can give you an estimate, but beware they might come later than she says, or even earlier. All depends. And the shipping company Concours trasnports seems like they can't reschedule since they're busy doing stuff all over. I suggest save the money, buy a leather bra (temporary measure) fly out and drive it home. Then get it fitted w/ clearbra, unless you opt for that from the dealer.

You do NOT want to wait for over a month after your MINI reaches the dealer. Trust me. If I had the time I'd have flown out to get it...

 

Yeah Barnabas, I'm starting to feel like I will end up flying out with my girlfriend. I would have little future need for a leather bra, and it would be a lot cheaper to buy a roll of that blue tape that people use to protect their cars on the track, etc... That might be the way to go. Anyone know anything about that tape?


-mike

 

drive it home

 

My problem is that I don't *really* have the time, although I may have to make the time if it means seeing my MINI a *month* earlier.


-mike

 

I ordered mine from Roadshow MINI in TN. I'm from SoCal. I flew there on Sept. 4 and made an 11 day roadtrip out of it. By the time I got back home I had covered 4,500 miles. I broke in my MINI the first day!

If I had the choice to do it again, I would!!! However it's not without it's risks.
Towards the end of my trip, I got hit by a rock as I merged onto the expressway. It was a pickup ahead of me that caused it--and $450 later was the repair bill--too little for my insurance to pick up.

But being able to see the USA, meet very interesting people along the way, bonding with your car in a way that's very different from just driving in known territory back home is awesome. I'll never forget the fun I had. Plus I stayed with some MINI enthusiasts I met on MINI2 for my first few days, and that was super cool--Thanks Stephen & Kathy if you're out there!

Also, I've heard horror stories of MINI's arriving by truck, only to discover that the dash was the wrong color, or something else was amiss!! What do you do then??? Ship it back?? Refuse delivery????

I got the factory NAV and it was indispensible!!! Being able to find restaurants and my way around without fear of getting lost was a huge relief, and I could just enjoy the Motoring experience!

Finally, if you know any MINI Cat lovers out there, see if you can have a cat litter box! They are these rectangular bucket things that fit perfectly in the boot. I got one on my trip from a relative I met along the way, and I now had a way to wash my car from a bucket with a lid! I stuck some sponges and a California Blade inside.

Richard

 

Well I had mine delivered and regretted it

I didn't realize what a problem these transport companies could be, and I didn't think that paying for covered transport was needed

To cut a long story short, I bought from MINI of the Hamptons (who were great), and contracted Pyramid Transport to ship the car to CA.

BIG MISTAKE!

The car was delivered on an open transporter




It was so dirty when it arrived, I couldn't believe it!

And then if that wasn't bad enough, the idiot truck driver had pushed the car behind my MCS too close, and their plate had scored my rear bumper!



It took 8 months to get any money out of Pyramid at all, and then they didn't pay for the full repair

I wish I'd flown to NY, and driven her back across America.

It would have been an awesome trip, and I'd have missed out on months of grief....

Chris.

 

I drove my '03 MCS home to LA from NY in October of '02. Loved every mile......

 

Now that sucks arese..the paint being messed up like that

 

I'd drive mine from Ohio to San Diego but don't want to burn that many days vacation on the freeways with big trucks. Just ship mine in October in an enclosed transporter and let me decide what roads I want to break it in on. I drove to Monatana last September in our new Lexus RX330 and the front of the car has a ton of chips in the paint and a few on the windshield from the rocks on the road....

 

One word...XPEL