I plunked down my $1,000 deposit the other day ar Irvine Mini in Southern California. They told me that they would be putting in their orders next week. However, when I called Long Beach Mini to inquire about ordering from them, they said they wouldn't just take orders from people walking in off the street...they were working from their "Interest List"...and based on my signing up today, they said they MAY be able to place my order at the end of July or more likely at the end of August.

So here's my dilemma...is there a chance that Irvine Mini will come back and say..."darn, we couldn't order your car this month cause of our allotment...but we'll put it in next month." Are they taking the deposit and just figuring that its better not to tell you that they can't place the order right away?

Long Beach Mini told me that their allotment of cars was 30 to 35 a month. Are all dealerships the same?

 

I made my deposit at Irvine on 6/11 and was told yesterday my order is going in the end of this week. Irvine has been very straight with me to date. Phil is my rep and he seems to be a straight shooter. When I put the deposit down he said that based on the number of deposits that were pending I should make the next order, and so it is. He also said I should get the tracking information within days of the order going in. I guess the time of truth is coming soon.

Waiting on my Indi Blue/Black, Premium, Sport, Leather & rear radar for the wife.

 

I bought my MINI at Irvine. The deposit is refundable without obligation. So if you don't get a production number within an acceptable time limit, you can always ask for your deposit back.

 

When picking up our MINI from Sacramento's dealer, they said they would be receiving about 30 cars a month (but the cars are all first-come, first-served).

And the SF dealer told us if we ordered beginning of June, they'd deliver to us mid-September. However, the other dealers in the Bay Area told us mid-Nov delivery. I figured the only way SF was able to accomodate us earlier is because their $2000 markup was not attracting as much interest/deposits as the dealers' with the $0-$1000 markups. SF even had some MINI's on the floor which were unclaimed!

 

When I went done to my dealer, MINI of N. Scottsdale, they told me their allotment of MINIS was going to be 300 the first year. They said their was 1100 people on the 'list'. They ask me if I was interested in ordering one, I said yes. They wanted a grand for deposit and 2 grand for an order. What the heck, I pulled out my check book and my print out from the MINIUSA website and said this is what I want. He took my print out walked over to the computer and did my order right then and there. Gave me the MSRP price and a build date of July 5, 2002. And I thought I was going to have to wait at least a year. This all took about 15 minutes, not bad.
This was back in May, now their out at their new place, it looks state of the art, Bimmers downstairs and MINIS upstairs.




Pure Silver blk rf & mrs Cooper S