I want to buy a MCS and have it here for my wife's "BIG" birthday Sept. 11, 2005. Looking at the green one and brown leather seats. I went by twice in Fife and sat in the MINI's I haven't drove one yet. They seem to be nice at that dealership.
Thanks for any input!
Bruce
PS: I live in Port Angeles WA. :green:

Hey Bruce. As is the custom, I now grant you a full quota of eleven green reputation dots.

I had good initial impressions of Northwest MINI, too, and bought my MINI there (just got it last Saturday!). Despite a temporary goof (that took way too much of my time to get straightened out), they did a good job of getting my MINI to me, and the delivery was a joy (the first few pics at http://photos.shanemcr.com/cars will give you an idea of the delivery experience).

However, I should warn you that my MA told me they are no longer taking orders for MCSs at the moment due to excessive wait times (>18 mos.). I suspect Portland isn't much better, but you might give them a call. Others on this site have posted messages indicating that the wait times are *much* less in other markets (east coast, midwest), so you may want to order from Ohio or somewhere, then take a vacation to get it home. Or you can have it shipped for a few hundred dollars. Somewhere around here there's a thread about a group buy where a bunch of folks from CA bought MINIs back east and had them all shipped out.

Good luck, and enjoy! The wait is worth it.

Mini of Murry in Salt Lake is also a good option.

The people at NW Mini are very nice and friendly, and if the wait time wasn't an issue, then sure, they would be a good dealer to buy from. But like shanemcr said 18+ months is a bit much. I too have heard a lot of people say that they "may" not be taking new orders for the S.

Mini-Bruce, on Sunday the 13th there is going to be an autocross out at the Bremerton raceway. I know a number of MINI's will be there. You are certainly welcome to come out if you would like to get more owners’ opinions. I think it’s from 7:30am to about 1:00pm.

Thanks for the invite, I'll be working this weekend (I work ever other weekend)! Hey is there somewhere to look (on the Net) that it's "Easy" to see what's happening in the MINI NW??
Thanks for the info.
Bruce

Hi Mini-Bruce-

I spoke with the Mini dealership in Fife last month and they were not taking orders due to wait times of over 18 months. The Portland dealership has a 10 month wait for the MCS. I decided to get on the waitlist in Portland since I'm not in a huge hurry for a new car...more time to save up for extras!

Another option would be to have the car shipped or driven from a dealership back east.

-Rob

Mini-Bruce, check out www.psmini.org, this is the web-site for the official Puget Sound Mini Motoring Club. We post all sorts of upcoming events and meetings. There is usually something going on about every weekend. Mostly auto-cross events and drives. But once a month we have our "meet-up" where we all come together for lunch. This month's was at the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville. We had 22 Minis show. I think next month's (which will be on the 10th) will probably be somewhere in the south end.

'Doh! Redhook is like a mile from my house I cant believe I missed it! I went on the first "Fill the Ferry Run" but couldn't make the last one, Thanks for the web addr, looks like I'll be more informed from now on.

To stay on topic, NW MINI is a great dealership, and the wait times show it. If I were going to do it all over again I'd wait till the Jan '05 production run so you can spec a LSD from the factory, and get a new color, but Its all what you want, and if you get a MINI it will be smiles all around.... :) :D :cool:

*waves at all the wet Northwest MINIs with dirty bums*

I got wait-listed with Salt Lake in Feb, and my MCS is on the docks waiting for a ship to the US at the moment. Both Fife & Portland could not have gotten me a car before the end of the year. If you want to make Sep. you are going to have to order VERY SOON from anybody. Only other choice is go with somebody like the Hamptons, take one of the cars off their lot, and have it trucked out. I DOUBT Salt Lake can make Sep delivery (probably Oct or Nov at this point), but they are the closest location that even has a chance of it.

Now if you wanted a Cooper rather than S, I'm pretty sure they could help you.

Thanks camminich! I didn't now about psmini.org, either.

Happy to spread the word. The concept of psmini has been around for a little while, but we just receantly got everything put together to make us official. We even have support from the dealer NW Mini.