I am currently leasing a BMW 335i that I will be transferring to someone else around August 15th. My next car will be a MCS (09 I suppose at this point!) and I want to order it right away because I am in LA and it might take months. However, there is still the possibility that the person who is taking over my lease will change her mind and I may not be able to transfer the lease at all or it may happen later. So anyway, my question is this: when you order a MCS, do you need to put some money down? How much is it usually? If you cancel the order, do you lose that money?

thanks,

franck-

 

Most dealers require $1000 down to place your order. I believe that if you cancel, the deposit is refundable. With things the way they are now, your dealer would have no problem whatsoever selling "your" car off the lot.

 

Try to minimize your deposit. We did $500 on ours. We did ask every dealer asked for a quote about their deposit refund policy. One dealer said that the deposit would be refunded once the car sold. I placed my original order with him in person, gave the $500, went home and called within the hour with a roof top color change. He said no changes. This was on a late Saturday afternoon when the order had not yet been forwarded to the MINI Gods. I said I want to cancel my order. He kept my $500 for two weeks before I drove out and had them credit the credit/atm card while I stood there.

I ordered the car the next day from MINI of Fairfield County. Did $500 down there too. Made about a dozen changes between order and production, to everyone's benefit except my bank account's. But it was worth every penny. Sweet!

 

The dealer let a deal walk because you wanted to change colors? Wow.

 

My deposit was $2k

 

Since you're in LA, I would check out Long Beach MINI or Nick Alexander MINI. Heard great things about them both; they are supportive of owners beyond the purchase. Find out their policies on deposits (mine was a refundable 1K, but that was an entire year ago, and the times, as they say, are a changin'. . . ) etc.

 

I put down 500, that seemed to be the standard as nothing else was discussed. This was at MINI of Concord though. And I made 10000 changes, and even cancelled the order and bought one off the lot because I couldnt wait (didnt have another car to drive). They ended up reconfiguring and selling that other car in about 2 days.

 

Our local dealer wanted $2K. We thought that was excessive and settled for half that. We've made several changes with no problems. Our sales rep. has indicated however that after a certain date no more changes will be accepted and the order becomes a "done deal."

 

Yep. New Country MINI in Hartford. On a deal worth almost $40k, and as I said, on the same day that we ordered it, and on a Saturday afternoon to boot.

 

Most dealers require at least a $500 deposit and I believe by California law, they are required to refund you your deposit, in the event that you cancel your order or decide not to take delivery of the car. I forgot exactly how it works, but as long you don't have any type of contract signed, they are required to refund you the deposit.

 

I was told in person that the deposit was $2k, then told over the phone a couple weeks later it was $1k. This was Mini in Phoenix (which I assume is the one you're talking about).

I was told that once you get a production number, no changes can be made. And, I think that makes sense, seeing how you're dealing with a factory queue at that point. I understand that the dealer accessories may be changed later, though -- the factory has nothing to do with those.

 

I read an article discussing the plug-in Mini Cooper which will be either sold or leased in the U.S. in 2009. But the same article stated that the demand for Mini Coopers keeps growing resulting in an ever increasing backlog. They just can't keep up with demand.

 

We placed our order in early July for the August build. At that time we also received a production number. We have made several changes to the order with no problem. However, with the exception of Dealer installed options our order will be locked in as of July 25th.