[BruceK]

Finally!

I noticed today that ground has finally been broken for the new MINI Center showroom in San Antonio. The showroom will added to the south end of the BMW Center dealership building near the airport, and will be separated from the BMW showroom by the drive through customer car drop off area.

With other MINI dealers in distant Dallas and Houston, it looks like MINI Center will be the only dealer serving both San Antonio and Austin (no dealer plans have announced for Austin) as well as the rest of Central and South Texas.

MINIUSA's website now shows the MINI Center dealership opening January 2003 (brought forward from the March 2003 date shown previously). It's only 2 short months before January to build it (or, more likely, 3 full months if doesn't open until the end of the month January).

We'll see......

[Wynn]

Bruce,

That's GREAT! Particularly because the folk at Money MINI, er, I mean Momentum MINI in Houston, have reaffirmed their commitment to charging thousands of dollars in "mandatory options," which is pretty much evil. The manager does say they are looking at how other, near-by dealerships operate, and might rethink their policy, so hopefully the debut of another, near-by dealership will give us more options and help Momentum see the light.

I'm particularly delighted to hear that they might be open in January, of course, because my primary reason for considering Momentum has been their ability to put me in a Cooper S many months sooner than MINI Center. If Momentum is going to absolutely insist upon those markups, I can certainly wait two months to order from good people for a fair price... and I will steer all my friends toward MINI Center, too.

Thank you so much for the update!

Brightly,
wynn

[hocndoc]

They have my wish list from the mini site, and Al told me that they plan to order it later this month.

Here's hoping my red with white CVT with everything but leather seats has a safe neonatal period!

[Wynn]

EXCELLENT!

I'm totally excited about MINI Center.

[BruceK]

Quote:

Originally posted by hocndoc
They have my wish list from the mini site, and Al told me that they plan to order it later this month. ...

That's exciting!

(but a bit confusing, too)

My understanding was that until a MINI dealer is officially "open", no cars are allocated to them -- meaning no customer orders can be placed with the factory.

Do I have this wrong? Or was this just ground rules that enbabled MINIUSA to open about 50 new MINI dealers at the same time this past March?

[BruceK]

Well, it's been fully two months since I started this thread and progress at MINI Center in San Antonio has been glacial at best. About 2 weeks ago the concrete slab for the showroom floor was poured (finally!) and the steel framework construction began about a week ago. To generate interest, a big MINI billboard ad facing the freeway ("The SUV backlash begins now") is now perched right over the showroom-to-be.

My best guess it will open mid-February at the earliest.

[hocndoc]

Well, my Mini is supposed to come in to SC on Monday, the 15th. (It missed the Faust, was loaded on the Figaro on the 3rd) I hope to take delivery as soon as it gets to San Antonin, maybe toward the end of next week.

I'm not sure how this will go, but I understand that as long as they have the dealership, they will be able to deliver and do the maintanance. (I hope, I hope)

Note: I edited the date, the ship gets to SC on the 15th

[BJA]

Hocndoc - when I was down in San Antonio and stopped at the MINI dealer, I spoke to Richard who informed me that they have already sold allot of MINIs. He said they first bought a bunch of MINIs from dealers from out of state who couldn't sell them off of their lots but when they got to Texas they had to be sold as "Used". He said it didn't matter they flew out the door! He then said his allocation for orders in December was quite large and he was able to order from his list. He picked up a printed report and showed me pages of cars showing a 111 production code (order placed) and then more pages that showed 150 and other codes.

You are so lucky ! You had your name on the list and are getting to be one of the first cars officially delivered to MINI Center in San Antonio!

The big steal beams were up for the walls and roof so it will not take long! By the time the cars get here, it will be open. Richard said he would call me when they have their official "Grand Opening".

[hocndoc]

If I don't burst with anticipation, first!

[Wynn]

*grin!* Perhaps we can all meet there for the grand opening; I should quite love to meet you all, and see Bruce again.