Holy smokes. Just last week I was looking at Momentum Mini and saw a few MCS models I liked.

Today? All sold out! Who says no one is buying cars.

 

Maybe they only had three models to choose from!
Seriously, at one time, Moritz Mini had only four models available and no Clubbies! This was about three months ago. Hmmm, were MINI sales a bit high that month?

 

Fuel efficient cars will always sell. Gotta be great to be a mini sales guy, eh?

 

Seriously they had about 8 or so. I guess with such a small inventory it's to be expected.

 

Yeah, my mom bought an '07 cooper s a couple months ago & those sales people were busy with potential customers all checking out the minis. I even saw an old guy (probably 80+) trying to get into the back seat of a cooper and that was no bueno at all.

 

The online inventory isn't very accurate.

 

Email me anytime for a dealer referral.

eric@bumperplugs.com

 

Yeah, if I wasn't satisfied with my sale I would have the Mini dealer's website reported for bait & switch, since they claim dozens of new cars and only had used ones on the lot, over and over.

 

MoTW is sold out, too--all except for 4 cars people decided not to buy due to the...minimal...dealer service network. They have demos, though.

 

Thats kinda funny that Momentum is completely sold out. East Bay in SF are had around 10-12 brand 09's just sitting out in the front. I was there around 11 PM last night just browsing. These cars were NOT spoken for. Only one used one on the lot that has been sitting there for atleast 3 weeks.
Also Mini Of Concord in SF area had around 5 08's not spoken for that were brand new but only 2 or 3 unspoken for 09'.

I guess it just varies where you are and how big of an allotment that the dealers are getting.

 

Assuming the "Momentum MINI" that nota was speaking about is in Houston, I could give you one possible explanation. Unlike SFO, where distances are fairly short and there is mass transit, Houston is spread apart, and there are no busses to speak of, and no trains at all. It's not at all unusual to see 30 to 45 mile commute distances--pretty common out here in the suburbs, actually--and there are no real alternatives to cars or carpooling. My own husband's job is about 40 miles away. Fortunately he drives the company vanpool (15 passenger), or we'd be in a bad way, too. One other possibility is that Houston is the land of Stupid Useless Vehicles and pick-em-up trucks, whereas California is a more established land of small, sports and "green" cars.

One other possibility--Houston has been much more insulated from market downturns--our economy is better right now, for whatever reasons.

And of course, allotments--we probably have always been on the low-end of the scale.

 

The dealer in my area has been sold out for months with the clubman and most of the time for the MCS hardtop.

The manager says the MINI is positioned in the middle- upscale from the economy type imports with many luxury features and options but at the same time much more fuel efficient than the big name more powerful luxury sedans.

So buyers are coming from above and below the price scale. Fun to drive, enough power, enough space (clubman), fuel efficient especially the base cooper, good price vs the competition, and easy to drive/park.

 

OOPS! Yes you speaketh the truth. I was referencing Momentun Mini in Houston.

I started looking because a friend and I went to see the BMWs 0.9 APR.

 

I beg to differ on commute distances in the Bay Area. I grew up in the South Bay and people in Houston are just now living with conditions that have been in the Bay Area for 25 years. Commutes from Livermore to San Jose/Peninsula are about 60 miles and there are many who drive it every day (BART and CalTrain don't run that direction).

Us Houstonians who drive from the Woodlands/Sugar Land/Katy to downtown and other environs are just now figuring out what real traffic is!

 

We have overstock in Fla the trend seems to be ending....

 

WOW are you kidding I went to service my car there last saturday and they had a good 25-30 cars on the lot thats amazing considering the cheapest Mini they had on the lot was $23,000 and the most expensive at 41... thats intense they had about an equal amount of coopers to cooper S's, few JCW's on the lot, and few clubmans.. so within saturday afternoon monday and tuesday they sold all thier inventory......

 

I think this may be the biggest reason here in Houston. We've been lucky so far and fared better than a lot of areas. Our housing market didn't get overheated with relatively conservative underwriting here and no HELOC greater than 80%. High oil prices have helped Houston too, although starting to fall and could cause some local issues. Scary times.

And only getting worse...

I was up there Monday of this week getting service and they had some used ones available (not sure how many, maybe 5-10), but my understanding was all new ones were presold and they didn't have any 09's for sale, other than to order.

 

yeah they had a couple used ones and demos when I went, I only saw a "sorry I'm sold sign" on this lightining blue jcw but who knows, but dang they sold alot of cars within 2 1/2 days