HELP! I have been posting too much and I think I'm running out of ink...


:cool:

I can't take ANY credit for the playlist. My best friend Ted Ottaviano (from Book of Love...THE 80s synth pop band) put it together for me.

I loved Book of Love - no wonder he had great taste. And yes I concur - M83 is wonderful!

It's the bill for that Mini you just bought :D

Last of the Andes Highway crew gets thier Mini in about 15 hours :D :D :D

Congrats cool!!! Team Andes Highway motors on!!

HELP! I have been posting too much and I think I'm running out of ink...


:cool:

Nice work!! LOL...

Woo Hoo :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Took delivery th is morning. The folks at Global are very nice....and I am Soooo happy.

Here's some pix

ME - :D :cool: :D

Still smiling :D :D :D :D

Will do, Scott. I did tell her I want the glove box organizer, too, guess I'd better double check that it's there.

BTW, the window tint thing turned out to be a rather circular situation: I thought the MNS price was too high ($895), didn't know what brand of tint it was (all Debi knew was that it had a "five-year warranty"), so I decided I'd go with an aftermarket installation. Researched tints, eventually narrowed it down to just a couple of high end tints, and finally decided on Huper Optik Drei. It's widely thought of as the best (with regard to heat transfer), is non-reflective and fairly light in appearance (traits I wanted) and carries a lifetime warranty. It was also said to be almost twice as expensive as most high end tints (which run $200-$300 installed), but with the summer heat situation you and I live with, I figured it might be worth it.

I emailed Huper Optik for information on a local installer and they had the Phoenix area distributor call me. When I told him it was a MINI, he said that the three tints I tested at MNS over the heat lamp ARE Huper Optik-- the high end of the three being the Drei. I told him they wanted too much for it, and he said he'd call Debi and get the price knocked down by a couple of hundred bucks. Either he didn't, or (more likely) he wasn't able to reach her (I rarely can), so when the car arrived, she knew nothing about it.

I'd since discovered that all MNS tinting is subcontracted to Danny's Car Wash-- so I called them directly, told them I had a MCC and asked for a quote-- $650. Called Debi and left a message on her machine, told her if she could do the Huper Optik Drei for $650, I'd take it; otherwise, forget it. When I talked to her today she said that they'd agreed to that price and it was being done as we spoke.

I'll let you know how it works when it starts getting hot!

Denny


Good research! They forgot my glovebox organizer - oh, so sorry, not in the paperwork as it's already been "costed out" - so I bought one right there on the floor - yes it was on the signed spec sheet but who knows. About phone calls, ditto. Good to hear they worked with you on the tint and I'll be curious to see/hear how it turns out. All in all it's been fun but you have to check twice & be organized :) Scott

Woo Hoo :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Took delivery th is morning. The folks at Global are very nice....and I am Soooo happy.

Here's some pix

ME - :D :cool: :D
EXCELLENT looking!! I bet it was worth the wait, wasn't it??
Enjoy!!! :D :D :D

I am still in the clouds with my Mini :D

I've been so amped today my eyes have been dialated a little... :rolleyes: I'm having a little trouble concentrating. I should have taken the day off work :rolleyes:

Too much excitement in one day. :D :D

I am still in the clouds with my Mini :D

I've been so amped today my eyes have been dialated a little... :rolleyes: I'm having a little trouble concentrating. I should have taken the day off work :rolleyes:

Too much excitement in one day. :D :D

Uh, oh! You're not going to explode are you? :D :D :D
Beautiful car!

Not yet :p :indi:

Ken - Let's go to Road Atlanta and burn some rubber :D :D :D

I hope you are enjoying you Mini as much as I am. :rolleyes:

Slowly calming down now...

Ken - Let's go to Road Atlanta and burn some rubber :D :D :D

I hope you are enjoying you Mini as much as I am. :rolleyes:

Slowly calming down now...
This is the voice of reason talking: :)

Tut, tut, no burning rubber for 1400 miles.

Only then do you get to be a crazy person.

:D

Woo Hoo :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Took delivery th is morning. The folks at Global are very nice....and I am Soooo happy.

Here's some pix

ME - :D :cool: :D
Looks GREAT! Looks like you went with the cloth floormats! I like the rubber ones..but the get dirty in about 3 seconds!

Ken - Let's go to Road Atlanta and burn some rubber :D :D :D

I hope you are enjoying you Mini as much as I am. :rolleyes:

Slowly calming down now...
I'm actually thinking about doing the MINI driving school thing....Once work slows down and I'm past the darn break in period..I'll be in MINI driving heaven!

. . . and a bit of a pricing snafu. My dealer quoted me $1007 for the JCW suspension install--about a month ago. I asked her again about a week ago, and it was the same price. Today, I get a call saying that she didn't charge me for the springs--they're $400 extra!

Whaaaaaaaaaaa?

So, now, the total install, including the alignment will be $1400.00. I said, "But what about that original quote that you gave me twice?" She said, "I'll see what I can do . . ." We shall, indeed, see!

Anyhoo, I'll be flying out to SLC tomorrow at midday.

Cheers, everyone!

I am still in the clouds with my Mini :D

I've been so amped today my eyes have been dialated a little... :rolleyes: I'm having a little trouble concentrating. I should have taken the day off work :rolleyes:

Too much excitement in one day. :D :D

Great MINI gaminicool. It looks great! :cool: Great choice of color and wheels, I ordered the same thing.

. . . and a bit of a pricing snafu. My dealer quoted me $1007 for the JCW suspension install--about a month ago. I asked her again about a week ago, and it was the same price. Today, I get a call saying that she didn't charge me for the springs--they're $400 extra!

Whaaaaaaaaaaa?

So, now, the total install, including the alignment will be $1400.00. I said, "But what about that original quote that you gave me twice?" She said, "I'll see what I can do . . ." We shall, indeed, see!

Anyhoo, I'll be flying out to SLC tomorrow at midday.

Cheers, everyone!

Have a safe flight and happy motoring all the way back! The end is near :)

Debbie, that's interesting about Charleston. I guess the DotC need their cars, too . . . ;)

BTW, when I was getting ready to place my order, I was amazed by the number of cars on SC lots. My mother lives in Columbia, and I actually contemplated buying there and road tripping home, but, that would have been a bit extreme. Besides, it wouldn't be the same w/o waiting at least a couple of months :rolleyes:

Wow! That would have been quite a long ride home! Small world though - currently, we live about an hour from Columbia. All of the lots we went to did have a lot of MINIs. There was a big selection, but with so many possible options, I just couldn't find exactly what I wanted. You're right too - waiting is part of the experience! :)

GAMINICOOL - SWEET! Hyper Blue looks nice on the convertible. And...we have matching wheels! I like my web spokes. With the way they are contoured, they are very easy to clean. I like those dual guages outlined in chrome too. Very nice - hope you are having a blast today!

Debbie

So, how many March Builders bought out of state like kellzir, amOeba, Searocko, and me? Who am I missing?

I bought in Salt Lake City, UT, but I live in California. This way, I will get my car 6 months earlier. Heck, had I stayed with East Bay MINI, I wouldn't even have my order in yet! Any similar experiences?

P.s.: The clock is ticking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . T-minus 65 hours. Wow, did I just write "hours"? Amazing!

I'm just back from many days and nights of work-related travel, in places where internet access was not easy to acquire... Sorry to those who were waiting to hear from me, I'll be posting more when I get back into the right time zone. (I'm about 9 hours off right now!)

I had to respond to this: I did NOT purchase out of state... South Bay MINI is only about 20 minutes from my home, so I made a real nuisance of myself during the waiting period. I felt obliged to point out that yes, you can get a MINI at MSRP in Cali, without waitng forever. South Bay's wait for an MCS is up to about four months now (order to delivery), which is still a lot better than most places around here that don't jack up the price. (Mine was delivered in almost exactly two months! - Thanks Jamie!)

No worries, just wanted to clear the record. Please forgive lack of coherence... I can't remember when I slept last...

Good pics of Murray on the way!

Missed you all!
_Dave_

Just enough time and energy for a couple of things: I changed my avatar image, because 8 weeks after I my credit card had been charged for the "ZGZAGZ" plate, California DMV sent me a form letter that it had been rejected. They thought it was promoting marijuana abuse. Ahem...

Anyway, I've ordered (and been charged for) a different plate, and have updated my avatar as well. Hopefully everyone reads it properly as "Love Drivin'", not something else, and hopefully DMV agrees. If not, I'll be trying again.

Also, here's another pic of me and Murray.

_Dave_

Oops! Sorry, Dave. I realized soon after I posted my original message that you did, indeed, get you MINI in SoCal. Mea Culpa! :eek:
I'm just back from many days and nights of work-related travel, in places where internet access was not easy to acquire... Sorry to those who were waiting to hear from me, I'll be posting more when I get back into the right time zone. (I'm about 9 hours off right now!)

I had to respond to this: I did NOT purchase out of state...
Missed you all!
_Dave_

Thanks, Kellzir! Hopefully I'll have some interesting pics of the trip. I actually just bought a Canon Elph (I also have an iPod Mini--I guess I'm just into "small" these days :D ).

Have a safe flight and happy motoring all the way back! The end is near :)

All in all it's been fun but you have to check twice...

I thought we did-- but we still missed something. :(

We got there early, but Debi wasn't busy and the car was sitting there under cover, so we got started. First thing my wife noticed was what appears to be a scratch in the tint on the passenger side window, as well as some small bubbles. Debi looked at it and called in somebody else for an opinion, they said to give it a few days, the sun would shrink it up some and the bubbles will disappear. They tried to polish out the scratch, don't know how successful they were, final disposition was to give it a good lookover in about two weeks, and if we weren't satisfied they'd do it over.

Everything else looked good. The glovebox organizer and mats were there, and the only thing we noticed during the walkaround was that the "Passenger Airbag Off" light remained lit. They eventually took the car down to the service department, and after an hour or so brought it back, saying nothing was wrong with it, it had just been turned off somehow during the memory programming process. However, when we got it home, it's showing "off" again, and the light doesn't extinguish with an adult passenger in the seat. Is anybody else seeing similar symptoms? In any case, looks like they'll have to take another look at that.

The drive home was beauteous. Had to keep the windows up (due to the fresh tint job), but the top was down and I love the car. Brought a CD filled with mp3's and played The Who at high volume all the way home.

Put the car in the garage for the night, and then found what I missed. The plastic cover on the driver's side A-pillar has a crack in it!!! Had to be there at the dealer, but we never saw it. I left a message for Debi just to get it on record asap, although I can't imagine they'd try to make a case that it was damaged after delivery.

Oh, and when I went over the financials after getting home, I found (in addition to the $388 doc fee) there's a preprinted $5 charge for "waste tire disposal". Since I didn't leave any tires there to be disposed of, that seems a bit gratuitous. I guess they had to recoup the cost of the two pens and package of mints :rolleyes:

Denny

With regard to the window tints my last car had small bubbles in the tint and they all disappeared in about a week or two.

Oh, and when I went over the financials after getting home, I found (in addition to the $388 doc fee) there's a preprinted $5 charge for "waste tire disposal". Since I didn't leave any tires there to be disposed of, that seems a bit gratuitous. I guess they had to recoup the cost of the two pens and package of mints :rolleyes:

Denny

This is something that NY state recently implemented as well, except it's $5 per tire, so we get nicked an additional $20. We recently purchased another car for one of our daughters and got hit with the same fee by that dealer so it looks to be real. The idea behind it is to prepay the disposal fee in case you have some other way of getting rid of used tires, but it's just another way of the state applying another tax under a different name.

T-minus 49 hours.

Zip

Great MINI gaminicool. It looks great! :cool: Great choice of color and wheels, I ordered the same thing.

You have great taste :D Although, I'm glad you're on the the other side of the country :rolleyes:

GAMINICOOL - SWEET! Hyper Blue looks nice on the convertible. And...we have matching wheels! I like my web spokes. With the way they are contoured, they are very easy to clean. I like those dual guages outlined in chrome too. Very nice - hope you are having a blast today!

Debbie

Hi Debbie - The car drives like a dream :D I've had to pinch myself a couple of times :D I've got the loaner again today tho as its back at the dealer getting Lojack installed. They are also installing my CD Changer :D I live in the city and the whole alarm thing is useless... :rolleyes:

There may be an issue with chattering sound from the clutch so they are checking it out while its back. I may not be used to how the car sounds tho :rolleyes: The cup holder sqeaks bad so they will tighten that down also. I've only got 30 miles on the clock :D Friday it goes to the best window tint specialist in Atlanta for legal tint :rolleyes: I want to reduce the glare while motoring topless.

The only down side is that I can't roll down the windows - or take the top down for three days to let the tint dry - Oh well - I guess I'll just have to polish her up real good Sunday - It's going to rain on Saturday :rolleyes:

Mike


Ken - glad you are enjoying your Mini. You should consider joining Atlanta Mini Club :)

Atlanta MINI Club is one of the best in the country. :cool: