I am about to pick my car up and I wanted to see what I should check on (first time buying a new car).

Unfortunately the dealer I am picking up from does not have a great reputation, but is giving a great discount, so I want to make sure everything is in place

 

Have your checklist of items that you ordered. When I went to pick mine up, the wheels were wrong and I was so pissed, that it took me 20 mins before i realized they didn't give me the chrome bumper trims either. It was all corrected, upgraded me on the rims and ordered the chrome.

 

oh yeah......if you put a deposit down on the order, make sure it shows on your purchase agreement. My wife realized a month later that we didn't get the $1000 back or even credited. I've always wondered how many people forgot about the deposit like me.

 

wow not sure what to say
i didnt have any trouble at all with my transaction
Classic MINI in Mentor Ohio
is awesome about going over every detail on the car
and the finance guy is on the ball
good luck to ya

 

Make sure the stripes are there (if ordered)

I went to pick mine up and looked at the car about 7 times when sudenlly I realized...no stripes. My sales dude was shocked...he hadn't noticed it either. Had to take it back to get them installed at a later date.

 

I didnt order so what is there is what I get, but I had seen some people complaint that there was a damaged bumper in one car and it kept getting switched between cars!

I did look at the car again yesterday and I noticed a sort of ticking sound when the engine is on idle. The guy at the dealership said it was the exhaust and it is normal... do you guys have that in your MCSs too? Does not seem very normal to me and I do not want to get a car that might have problems...

The car already has 265 miles on it... quite a few test drives

 

It is not totally unusual for a new car to have some clicking from the exhaust system as it heats and cools, sometimes the heat shields can do the same thing. Does the clicking vary with the speed of the engine or does it stay the same? If it varies with engine speed it most likely is NOT the exhaust and should be checked out.

Is this something that you hear from inside the car? Does it go away after the car warms up?

It is common for the exhaust system to tick or click when cooling down after a hot run, sometimes there might even be noises from the brakes as they cool down.

265 miles isn't so bad. That would be like 26 or 30 test drives at my local dealer, maybe less.

There are some customer selectable preference settings that the dealer can set for you. Such as; daytime running lights, auto-locking doors, auto-unlocking doors, temperature readout (F or C) and several others that I do not remember. Make sure that they do this at no charge. They are all listed in the owners manual or I am sure that you could do a search in here or MINI2.com.

Good luck. Enjoy!

 

Cool, thanks!! That is reassuring. I like sports cars but I've never owned one so sometimes I am not sure what is normal or not (my VW cabrio does none of those things). The noise is heard from inside the car... I heard it after I drove the car a bit, while I was parked playing with the navi

 

Like everyone else said, make sure everything you ordered is there.

Take all the time you need to examine the paint and body. Run your fingertips over the paint, feeling for changes in texture that might mean a respray. Look for excess cosmoline that they damn near cover the cars with for shipping.

Check under the hood for anything obviously amiss, any drips on the ground under your new car, any interior issues like stains, scratches, etc.

As an aside, you're not getting a sports car, but rather a "hot hatch."

 

That clicking may be the on/off of the fuel injectors, mine does that if you listen closely enough.

Check for al forms of body damage, tire wear, etc... but remember unless you're showing the car and covering it with a velvet cover every night it's gonna be outside a bit...

Check fluid levels - just to make the dealer know yo're checking everything. Never hurts.

USER PREFERENCES - a key item there!

One thing some folks have complained about is the Mini "feature" where you can open the windows and sunroof with the remote. Yeah, it's cool and impresses your friends, but when you bump the remote in your pocket, briefcase, purse, man-bag, whatever while you're walking away... and it's raining... you won't be so pleased. I had them deactivate that one.

Check the other features you can customize and have them done before you pick it up - the next time you see the dealer may well be your 10,000 mile oil change, and that's a lo-ong way away!

 

Well in advance of your delivery date, you should review this list, and also:

1. find a copy of the owners' manual and read it over at least once, so you are familiar with the features on your MINI and can ask relevant questions when your sales-person goes over them

2. ask your sales-person how much time will be taken in demonstrating and discussing the features on your MINI, and demand more if it's not at least an hour

3. let your sales-person know if you:

• want any of the'memory' options programmed as part of the dealer prep
• don't want the front license plate holder installed
• want the window sticker saved for posterity

• bottle of coolant to top-off the radiator overflow reservoir (if the cooling system "burps" an airlock out)
• extra oil filter for mid-interval oil change (if you choose to do this before the recommended 10,000 miles)
• extra quart/liter of Castrol synthetic to top-off the oil level during the break-in period (if the engine consumes some during the first few thousand miles)

 

This is really really helpful! The Motley Fools link is not working. This one is: http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/people/k...Checklist.html

There's also a whole car buying guide if anyone else is interested here:

http://www.fool.com/car/car13.htm

Having said that, I am going to have the supposedly exhaust noise checked. I haven't heard it in any other mini i've test driven.

 

Also have a look at "moving things" in the cockpit. When we picked up Gromit, my wife was just kind of playing with the visors, and found that one of the small bolts that hold the side visor on, was snapped. The service department was able to fix it on the spot before we took delivery.

 

When I picked up my MCS everything was fine. But when picking up the PW/B MC there were a few things that were not up to par.

The advice posted above about having your check list of items ordered is a good. But be sure to look at the surfaces, especially the roof. If it's black, you see will any imperfections right away. Check around the windshield washers for any stains from the washer fluid. This is mostly apparent on the PW.

The door sills on the MC were scratched from either install or from the people getting in and out of the car in transit. The dealer was to send us new sills a few days later, but we never got them and that was about 9 months ago and several e-mails later. When the MC goes in for the 10K/1 year service we plan to jump on them for that.

If the dealer owes you something, like the door sills for us, be sure that is written in the paperwork for "Things the dealer owes buyer" and don't sign off on the car until you have this in writing.

One thing the dealer will spring on you when you pick up the car is the extra warranty things you can purchase such as for the tires, leather, extended service warranty, plus many more. These all will cost you an extra $300 to the sky per warranty. We did not know about any other these extra items until the time we sat down with the bean counter of the dealership to pay for the MINI. This is the time they try to sell you all these extra "policies." So ask ahead of time so you know how much extra $$$ to bring along if you want/need extra coverage.

If you have stripes installed, inspect them. Look for bubbles and check to see how straight they are. The MC has black stripes but have a white edge. They were supposed to be solid black but they ran out and offered to replace them at the 10K/1 year service.

Lastly, at least what I can think of so far, if you are an out of state buyer, be sure the dealer doesn't try to charge you for taxes on ANY of the extra options you are buying that are included in the price of the car. This should be taxed by your home state when you apply for the license and title. Now if you go back to the dealer a day or week later to have some other option installed that was not included in the purchase of the car, then you are liable to pay the state sales tax to the state the dealer is in.

Hope this helps. I'm sure there will be many other posts on this thread for everyone to benefit from.

 

One more thing, some dealers may ask if you want the front license plate holder drilled and attached. Others might say they are required by law to do it, but remember it's YOUR MINI and if you don't want them drilled, tell them NOT to do it. You have decide if you want to deal with the law on this matter as I know CA and a few other states are strict about this, but you can always drill it yourslef later if it becomes a problem for you in getting stopped by John Law.

Another alternative solution to this is to tell the dealer you plan to buy an "offset" plate holder that goes into the tow hook and you don't want the bumper drilled.

 

In CA, some dealers make you sign a waiver that you didn't want the bumper drilled for a plate.

 

Check to be sure you're lifting with your legs, not your back.

Sorry, couldn't resist. The advice others have given above is sound - I followed much of this advice at delivery and had no issues - but had good piece of mind knowing I had been thorough... I also sent my MA the checklist I would use BEFORE delivery day - so they didn't act surprised that I was being so "thorough"...

 

There was a thread about this on the R56 board:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ight=checklist

I printed it out and actually went line by line--only variances I found was no jack (since remedied), and not enough windshield washer fluid. Other than that the car was fully prepared and up to specs. I really appreciated the checklist!

 

I guess that's why the British say they are "collecting" their MINI instead of picking it up, 2500#s is more than most of us can handle.