Midwestern MINI of Columbus, Ohio

[MiniMoke]

Just put in a call to Midwestern MINI for a test drive. Salesman said they are not offering test-drives of the S until June! I find this hard to believe! I can test drive a Cooper (call back and make an appt. Monday, he said).

I said I was on the list somewhere, (pretty high as I called last year in June) salesman said "yea, we are working through the list, you should get a call soon...

Did they sell all their prespecced Ss to those Ferrari owners? Not even a Demo S left for test-drives? Strange...

[minimott]

I believe that so far MAG has only gotten two Ss and one is in the showroom, the other in back. The salesman told me that once they get the pre-specced Ss then they'll call the people on the list. I'm not defending MAG, I'm just telling you what they told me. As for test driving the S, I'm going down to Cinci to do that and I told MAG that. You should do the same.

minimott

[MiniCooperS2002]

I'm going down to the Midwestern dealership tommorow to see my first MINI up close, and to sit in one. They said they have one car available for test drives. I wish Classic would get their act togther, they aren't even getting cars until April 22nd, and are only 75% done with the dealership. If you have problems with them, just be happy that you can see the cars! I live two minutes from Classic in Mentor, and it's so annoying to not be able to see any MINI's there.

[jcam711]

I'm on the list of one of the Ohio dealer's but way down (somewhere in the 300's I believe - was told their allocation was less than 300 so a year wait if everyone ahead of me bought a car). I was on the east coast this week on business, stopped at the Mini dealer *hoping* I could at least sit in a car. Well, they let me BUY one. Just arrived home, 550 miles, 10 hours (on board computer showed 38.5 miles per gallon). (I would have made it home faster but varied my speed every 15 minutes, and was held up at least 15 minutes at gas station by small crowd of admirers).

I wanted a Cooper - not an "S". (They did not have S's available and the list for those was delivery in fall at earliest). Also I didn't have a rigid idea of what I wanted. They'd contacted the people on their list and some wanted S's, some wanted specific spec's, some hadn't returned their call. So there were ten to choose from and I struggled between black w/white roof or silver w/black roof.

I'm thrilled with my car - it is silver w/black roof and bonnet stripes, premium package #1 w/sunroof, multi function steering wheel, Panther leather - heated seats, and a few other goodies. Dealer was great - they were super busy but they treated me well (I paid sticker and there were no required dealer add on's). There weren't any problems with me being out-of-state (although I may have to do the Ohio registration myself).

Some of the rest of you may want to consider calling around to the out of state dealers ... I got my car a year early (Xmas in July!) and had a fun ride home. And I'm guessing I have the first Mini to be seen in Toledo!

[MiniMoke]

Thank you! You will be doing MINI fans in Toledo a great service!

What a cross you will have to bear, introducing the unwashed masses to MINI. Just think of all those people staring and the fingerprints. All of the untold accidents happening as you distract people and the cloud of mayhem you leave behind in your wake!

Actually, I am full of envy... sorry I had to go on like that...

It's good to have someone else on the forum from Toledo.

[jcam711]

Well, it hasn't been THAT bad driving around town <grin>. But I have attracted some attention, especially from the Brit's living here. It is going to take some getting used to having people staring and pointing at my car (as the driver of a 93 Saturn SC2 coupe I'm anonymous). A kid at Barnes & Noble shouted "look, Mom, at that funny little car."

But thanks, MiniMoke, for the welcome. I was totally surprised that I could buy a car in New Jersey - hope I don't have problems down the road with service etc.

[MiniMoke]

When I stopped in and asked Yark BMW if they were considering a MINI franchise, they said they were not considering it. As it currently stands, we have to drive to eather the Detroit dealer (99 miles) when they open in October or Columbus.

Hw are state taxes handeled on an out of state purchase? Did you pay New Jersey state tax?