Spent my 40th birthday hanging out in the local Barnes and Noble yesterday looking thru the magazines (exciting huh?). There are Mini related articles in both car and driver and road and track. One of them (forgive me for not remembering which) was about a writer that had ordered his Mini and had to drive 90 miles to pick it up. Great article and I'm sure many of you can relate to that "first" trip. Hope you all get a chance to see these articles. Enjoy.

 

That article about picking up the new MINI is Peter Egan's in Road & Track. He's mentioned several times before that he's been thinking about buying one. I'm glad he did. I had a 200 mile drive to my dealer to pick up my car so I can relate to his logistical problems, but, like Egan, I have no doubt that it was well worth it.

Mark

 

Mine was an awful 1400 mile flight to the dealership and a heavenly 1400 mile drive back. Loved catching the country on my drive from MINI of St. Louis to my home back in Utah.

 

Why did you go all the way to St. Louis for a MINI? Surely that wasn't the closest dealership to you!

 

I also had to travel about 90 miles one way to test drive, put down a deposit and then return to pick up my MCS, I loved every mile of it especially on the way back home after I picked it up.

 

Probably due to the size of the waitlists at MINI of Murray, Schomp MINI, and Baron, plus the MSRP+ pricing at most dealerships in California. Just my guess based on the situation I found 2 years ago which lead me to fly to New York to buy mine when I lived in Colorado.

 

Yep, that's it. If I had wanted to order one from MINI of Murray, I would have had to wait about 5 months longer, even though they also sold them at MSRP. Devin at MINI of St. Louis actually contacted me when I went on a nationwide search and offered me a car at MSRP with an August build date.


In addition, my wife and I just had a new baby boy (MINI me) and I wanted to get all the driving in I could prior to the birth so the novelty could wear off some by the time the kiddo was here.

I had actually been perusing eBay, as I eBay Motors is usually the absolute best place to buy a used car, but found that the MINIs hold their value so well, it didn't make sense for me to go used when I could order one exactly how I wanted it for just a couple thousand more.

 

Here in Sacramento, the dealer is adding $2500 above MSRP on new cars, which affects used car prices as well.

I test drove a used 2003 MCS with 23,000 miles on it. It had heated leather seats, which I didn't particularly want. Otherwise, it was equipped just the way I would have specc'd my car. They were asking $23,500! (To be fair, the MA indicated there was some room for bargaining.)

Instead, I ordered a brand new 2005 MCS from Classic, with exactly the features I wanted, for $23,800 - only $300 more for a brand new car!

Of course my wife and I also had to fly to Cleveland and drive the car back to California. ("Had to"? No, more like "got to"!) We stayed with friends and family all the way back, so lodging and most of our meals were free. The whole trip - plane fare, gas, food, and one night in a motel - cost us about $700. So for $1000 above the price of a 2 year-old, 23k mile car, we got a brand new car, specc'ed exactly the way I wanted, and a great vacation visiting friends and relatives just before the holidays!