That may be but I guess my original point is that you cannot always trust the dealers inventory listing on the web for a variety of reasons.

 

What's proving to be one of the best business decisions in automotive history was when BMW decided to dump off Rover to Ford, but retain MINI under the BMW umbrella.

Golden egg indeed! They knew....

And re dealer "inventories" on the web: 9 times out of 10 they are out of date. Always best to just call. As gas prices climb, there are fewer MINIs on lots, used, demo, or new. Web inventories dont always reflect this. But an MA should always know exactly what's there, or can find out.

 

>

 

It may be your particular part of the country that has limited stock.

I just pulled up the two closest dealers to me withing ~100 miles, and the larger dealer has 27 New MINI's and the smaller dealer had 10 New cars. I didn't bother to check for used cars but, I'm sure they have a number of those as well.

Time for you folks to take a trip to sunny FL and purchase a new car.

 

Fermin MINI of Tampa Bay lists 65 new 2008 MINI's on their "AVAILABLE INVENTORY" website.



Might be a good idea to first telephone toll free 1-(888) 214-6041 and ask my MA Oliver Morris, who has given me excellent service.

 

MINI dealership websites are controlled centrally, not by individual dealerships. And yes, a side effect is that stock listings online are out of date.

 

That's what I thought.

 

That's what I knew

 

Not true of our local dealer. While there is content that comes from national sources, the dealer website inventory updating is done completely locally (I know the people who update it). I know enough from them to know that their website is run similarly to other dealers, but that each dealer has some latitude in how things are done.

The bottom line that applies here is that new car inventories on dealer websites are generally not completely updated at all times.

 

Just came back from MINI of Sterling... their website lists 8 Cooper, 12 Cooper S, 6 Clubman & 1 vert..
What was there was 0 vert, 1 Clubman and 7 Coupe/Coupe S... all were sold and since dealership is closed on Sunday suspect will be the early next week deliveries. Point is site lists 27 MINI in inventory and 8 actual cars on the ground and pre sold to boot. There were 3 used MINI (all R50 models..and were in very good condition). Hoping to see our MCS (Me'lo) sitting there next week for delivery
Michael

 

Yup, the "specialness" of the MINI will fade as it becomes mainstream. I'm told that it has already happened in Britain. Sometime ago, an old friend visited from England (author of Crystal Quest, and Carmageddon video games). As you might gues, he is a car guy. Showing him my MCS invoked very little enthusiasm. He said they were very common in England.

 

Fear not - the specialness is not in the car, it is in the owner!

The original Mini was a mass market econobox remember. Some folks took it racing, and others took it for personalization - most took it to work and gave it no thought at all. This generation is not different.

Though there are many folks on NAM, and each is car crazy in their own way, we are still an eccentric minority. That's the special part!

 

MPG!

 

Again, not a reliable indicator. Our Clubman, which was orderd by us on 3/28/08, and NEVER "AVAILABLE INVENTORY" is still showing on MINI of Sterling's "AVAILABLE INVENTORY" this morning (we took delivery on Saturday). Likewise, if you go counting vehicles on the lot, you will be counting a whole bunch of SOLD vehicles awaiting delivery.

Concur with your make a call sugestion. Since it only takes $1k to place an order, you might find a car that was ordered and the customer failed to get the financing they needed.

 

You waited 3 1/2 months for your car?! Wow, that's patience!

 

Yep, and with all the confidence of 48 hours of ownership it was well worth the wait!

 

This is great news and makes me glad I bought my MINI last year. MINI of Towson had more than ten Cooper S cars on the lot, and four built exactly the way I was looking for them, it became a matter of color, and a couple of options. After a year and four months, the MINI is still one of the best cars I have owned and continues to get better as the mileage improves (almost 50mpg on gently winding roads at 50 mph, routinely over 30mph with mixed city/highway driving)

Go MINI!

 

Or you can get lucky...my wife wanted a dark grey with all the options...we found one and it also had the JCW body kit installed...

Mine...I wanted a red/black...guess what...not only did I find one with the options but it was a left over 07 so I got a great deal on it.

So...while custom orders are great...you can get lucky if you know what you want.

I'll have to update my pics, I recently got mine tinted and she looks incredible!

 

I was lucky to find exactly what I would have wanted to order and she had 12 miles on the clock at the end of my test drive.

Actually better, because I would have ordered the armrest, MA told me that the Euro Armrest was preferred and he was correct

 

I went to the dealer in Boston, MA for service. I got there early and walked around. The Mini showroom was empty. No cars. I found a few (four or so) all sold. It's weird to see an empty showroom. This is part of a multi-euro dealership, BMW - Mini - Porsche. Plenty of BMWs and Porsches for sale. I bought my Mini as a used CPO car at Mini of Peabody, they had maybe ten or so 07 CPO cars, plus several new 2007 with no miles and quite a few 2008 MC and MCS models as well as, plus 5 Clubmans. This was the second week in April of this year. Timing is everything.

 

The dealer I got mine from is one of the largest in the country (if not the largest) they've got a warehouse next door - it was full of minis (100+) when I went by (probably how I lucked out finding *exactly* what I wanted on the lot)

Looks like that warehouse is probably empty now as they only show 29 in inventory.

 

Just think how it would be if gas was pushing 10 bucks a gallon like in parts of Europe.

 

The dealer in Charlotte, NC only has 2 cars on their entire lot. That's it.... nothing else.

Makes it hard to sell cars when you don't have anything on the showroom floor.

Mark

 

We should sell them some of our $4 a gallon gas and use the proceeds to drive down gas prices!!!

Warning: I am not an economist.

 

You're on form tonight.