I fourth that! DO IT!!!! Please?

 

Prob not enough for them to care...

 

Well, they did lose MarkM, now didn't they? :smile: So, that's one. I'm not thinking about the person after Mark who would buy over MSRP, I'm just wondering about the person who walks out and buys elsewhere.

 

All of this is true (the PT Cruiser went for $10,000 over, here in San Diego, when they first came out and now big rebates).

The thing dealers need to learn is that people will remember. When the market has been satisfied and all dealers have two, three, or 12 sitting on their lots who will you buy from then?

Earl

 

Congrats Mark - your gonna love it!

Anyone? This markup thing seems to be California only. At least I haven't noticed it anywhere else, is this true?

 

Last year when I was checking , the MINI Dealer in Las Legas was charging $2,500 or more over sticker. Scottsdale, too. Anywhere that demand far outstrips supply.

Midwestern and east coast dealers are not similiarly afflicted since the demand is way less.........who's gonna walk into the dealer showroom in the middle of a snowstorm and drive out in a cabrio with the top down?

As long as the CA and west coast/far west dealers continue to charge so much over MSRP, I'll continue buying my MINIs at Classic. So far, the Bay Area dealers have missed out on 4 sales from me (MCS; MCS with JCW; MC with CVT; and MCS Cabrio with autotrans.)

Charlie

 

Now here's a weird idea. After thinking about this for a minute, as far as "lost customers" go, it seems to me that these CA dealers are actually gaining customers. Here's how:

Let's say Dealer #1 can sell all the cars he gets, and he sells them at MSRP. Let's also say he's got a 6 month waiting list and I want a MINI. Now I have to ask my self, how badly do I want that MINI? Do I want to wait 6 months, or do I want to spend more money (remember, this hypothetical dealer is selling at MSRP) to buy the car elsewhere and ship it or drive it back? I think a lot of people will either wait or buy off the lot, rather than pay a premium to own their MINI right now.

Now let's say Dealer #2 (in a different area) is asking $2500 above MSRP. And just to try to keep this apples vs. apples, let's say he gets the same allotment of cars as Dealer #1. Some people (including me) will go out of state and bring it back because they can save money. It's like the dealer is offering me an incentive to "import" a car!

The end result? Dealer #1, who sells at MSRP, ends up with about the same amount of cars in his locality as he sells. Dealer #2, who sells at a $2500 markup, ends up with all the cars he sells - plus a few more that are "imported" by people like me! (Plus, of course, he makes that $2500 on each sale!)

I've read that car dealers typically make more money off service and accessories than they do off new car sales. If this is true, Dealer #2, who sells above MSRP, ends up with a larger customer base and makes more money, with more cars to service and more accessory sales!

I think I'm right aren't I?

I had heard that some people haven't gotten treated very well when buying a car out of state and then bringing it to their local dealer for service. I was pleased to find that I got treated very well at my local dealer. Now I think I know why. "Thank you for bringing your out of state car to us for service!"

 

Actually they didn't miss out on any sales........they probably sold them over MSRP and made more money........now they will make money from service......ain't it ironic And the more cars they can sell the more they will get in their next allocation. MO MONEY MO MONEY!!!

 

Lombardstreet:

You could be right assuming all dealers get the same allotment. I don't know if they do or not but it seems to me the dealers that can sell more cars would get more cars to sell and therefore have a higher customer base.

 

Congrats, Mark Welcome to NAM

And yes Midwest dealers do mark up Cabrios. MINI of St Louis wants $1500 over MSRP That's why I bought mine in Memphis:smile:

Snow What snow Haven't hardly had any here in St Lou this winter

Lois

 

I didn't mean to imply that all dealers get the same allotment - that was just a "given" for the sake of my hypothetical argument.

I assume different dealers get different allotments. I mean, you couldn't expect a dealer in Chicago to sell as many cars in January as one in SoCal or Florida.

Does anyone know how BMW/MINI decides this? I would assume it has something to do with previous sales, etc. I note that my local dealer just got a TON of convertibles in last month. Must have been about 20 of them!

 

Dealers that add a markup to the MSRP do not lose customers, at least in SoCal. They sell their entire allocation with no difficulty, and in addition they buy cars from dealers in softer market areas. Last February when I was shopping for my MINI I noticed that a large number of the cars were originally destined for other dealers - typically midwestern and southeastern dealers. The original dealer is listed in the lower left corner of the sticker, right below the VIN. The MCS that I bought was originally allocated to Vista MINI in Coconut Creek, Florida.

I was happy to pay the $1,800 markup to get the car that I wanted immediately and without the complications of buying from an eastern dealer.

In my several years of doing business with BMW dealers I’ve found that all that I’ve had dealings with give service preference to owners that purchased from that dealer. Preferential scheduling seems to be universal, providing a free loaner only to in house purchasers is almost universal, and free car washing is often reserved for local buyers.

I have only dealt with two BMW/MINI service departments, but I’ve never felt that bringing in a MINI was any different than bringing in a high end Bimmer. The same (indifferent) service seems to apply to all.

For excellent sales and customer service, in almost fifty years of buying new cars I’ve never been more pleased than when dealing with Longo Scion in El Monte. The total time spent in selecting the xB (choice of colors and manual or auto tranny), settling on the price of the trade-in, finalizing the paperwork, and receiving the keys was about two hours - - and would have been 30 minutes less if we didn’t have to wait for my wife to deliver the trade-in’s title. When taking the xB in for an oil change without an appointment I was made to feel that I was their most important customer. BMW could take lessons from Penske!

 

No problem - I understood the "given" in your hypothetical argument. I was responding more to the following line I guess and I thought it was still possible that they lose customers in the long term. Heck I'm probably just confusing this more!

"Now here's a weird idea. After thinking about this for a minute, as far as "lost customers" go, it seems to me that these CA dealers are actually gaining customers.

 

Yes, I see your point. And I've wondered about that myself. That's what I don't understand - if a dealer sells out their allotment every month, how is BMW/MINI going to know if they could have sold 2 more cars or 20? "Losing customers" doesn't really seem to mean anything when a dealer sells all the cars they can get. (At a markup or not.)

Unless BMW/MINI uses their database to track cars. They can see that my home address is in Northern California, and I purchased my car in Cleveland. Do they look at this and say, "See, that's a car that Niello could have sold - we should increase their allotment"? Or do they say, "Damn, those guys at Classic are selling cars all over the country - we should give them more!"?

I have no idea how this works!

 

Good luck in the name! ...as for the other two issues... Those are two items about which I guessed wrong. I though I'd want to add an arm wrest when I first got my '03. But, after driving it for several months, I found that I usually had both hands on the wheel anyway. I might use the storage space in a central armwrest, but probably wouldn't actually rest my arm on it very much. So I've never bothered to add one.

When I ordered my '05, I could have waited a few weeks more and gotten the LSD for $500, but I didn't think it would make much difference. Now I wish I waited. You can add an LSD, after market, but its gonna cost a lot more than $500. The new gearing makes it so easy to spin the front wheels, I think I'm going to miss not having one. Time will tell, if I decide to bite the bullet and get one installed.

 

You're not alone there! There is only one dealer in the State of WI - in Milwaukee. I ordered mine in late November (no markup), it was built almost immediately and I picked it up before Christmas. There are lots of Mini's here in Madison and I assume most came from the Milw. dealer. They had few in stock, but I got the impression they sell everything they can get! What they can get I don't know.

 

Same here. Thought I'd want an armrest, but I've got 5500 miles on my car now (including 2700 miles from Cleveland to Sacramento, and daytrips to San Francisco and Monterey) and I don't miss it at all.

In fact, it would get in the way. I've become an expert at swinging my water bottle back between the seats and landing it in the rear cupholder! Can't do that with an armrest!

 

Good thoughts here. I too agree about the MSRP + mark up.

Many of us are fortunate enough, like you, to recall a shunt or two. Some of us are not. Your mention of spinning your S2000 on a mountain (public?!) road and having another car hit you is terrifying. You are very lucky that the occupants of the other car were not seriously injured. Perhaps from hereon you can exercise the limits of your MINI's adhesion on a track. Drive safe and live long.

 

Yes, I was foruntate that nothing happened to anyone serious. I was NOT out playing with my S2000 on that mountain road. I was not testing the limits. I was just driving along--somewhat cautiously after a heavy rainstorm.

I hit some water and hydroplaned. I touched the brakes which put me into a spin.

That's it. It happened so quick. I was in complete surprise as it was happening to me.

I know that i should not have touched the brake. I should have driven through it and attempted to counter steer. Hard though when your car is on ice skates to think to clearly. I ride a motorcycle and I "kinow" the right things to do. It is sad that I didn't do them when the time came in the car.

I am nearly convinced that had I been on my bike that day--my S2000 would be solid and I would not be a MINI owner.

Thanks to everyone for the welcome!

I need to learn about LSD--the legal kind! I guess I had one in my S2000. Some one posted about the wheels spinning when they had a LSD. Can you explain this a bit more? Is there a more appropriate forum for my question?

-mark=

 

If you start a new topic with "LSD advice" or someother you ought to get lots of informative posts. But posting in the a.m. gets more response.

 

Lots of threads on LSD - do a search a read up!
As a primer, MINIs LSD allows a 30% differential in rotation between the front wheels before it transfers torque to the spinning wheel.

In my experience, if you don't know what an LSD is, you don't need one. :smile:

 

Hi Mark,
We actually went to Long Beach Mini on that Saturday morning to buy that exact Cooper S but we ended up buying a dark silver Cooper S convertible. We probably just missed each other, small world. Any ways congrats on your new Cooper S!
George

 

We just ordered our mini from Scottsdale and they are only charging sticker. I guess they've changed their ways.

 

Wow.. I even heard that story from Tony. He told me that the person that wanted it decided on another. I am glad you did what you did because I would not have puchased the convertable. I had decided at that point on a hard top

Love my red beast!

-mark=