I was in the same situation (my lease on a BMW X5 was up in June 2009), but I placed an add on Craigslist, and found someone to take over my lease. The whole process took 3 weeks, and she picked up the car yesterday. I offered to pay the next 3 payments as an incentive.

My Mini is on order now and should be coming sometime in July. I got a regular MC but with lots of options, and it came out to $25,400. The Clubman is not that much more, so if you eliminate a few of the options, you should be able to get a Clubman for around $23-25k. If memory serves me right, the Clubman is about $1900 more, but it comes standard with DSC which is $500 extra on the MC -- so really the difference is $1400.

 

 

If you buy off the lot, you don't need to put down a deposit, right?

 

You're doing it wrong. It only took me about two weeks before my wife said "just shut up, get what you want and don't talk to me about it anymore!"

 

Hah, so true, so true...

 

It was easier than that for me. Here are thes steps I used to get into my '08 R56

1. Visit the MINI dealer and obsess about them for four years.
2. Visit the dealer so often that they know you by name
3. Constantly talk about the MINIs, Buy the Itlaian Job DVD, constanly remind her of how much you want one.
4. This is the important step. Total you car in an unexpected March snow storm.
5. Take the wife to test drive one. After she is impressed with the car. Order it.

Over the four years I spent pining away longing for a MINI, my wife never would get into one or go for my bi-monthly test drive. She always said they were too small, not safe [blah blah blah]. Finally whn I convinced her to buy one after my wreck, she had to test drive it and she was extremely impressed. So impressed that two weeks after ordering my R56, we ordered a Clubman S for her.