[milliethemini]

While some of our American cousins are still paying over MSRP for their MINIs, have to drive long distances to a dealership, and might be driving the only MINI for miles around, I know that in other parts of the world, the opposite is true.

Take my fair city of Vancouver, BC for example. It's gotten to a point where a classic Mini generates more interest than the new MINI!!! On my daily route to and from work, I usually come across 5-6 MINIs a day.

And just half an hour ago, I dropped by my neighbourhood gas station to fill up. As I was doing so, I passed by a DS/W MCS parallel parking into a spot. Then, as I finished filling up, a CR/W MCS came up right behind me, and out popped a middle-aged lady, who didn't even look in my direction, and began putting gas in her car (I almost laughed out loud - I smiled at her and was almost going to say something complimentary about her choice of vehicle, but she was totally OBLIVIOUS to her surroundings, or that there was another MCS right in front of her. She looked like the sort of lady who drives a full sized Mercedes, not a MINI. I couldn't help but notice that though her MINI was fully loaded, and even had bonnet stripes, I got the sense that she had never floored her MINI ever ) And to top it off - as I was driving away from the gas station, a LY/LY MC went zipping past me!

So, 4 MINIs at one spot in under 5 minutes. That folks is what I call saturation And none of them waved back

Would YOU define your city/town/neighbourhood as being 'flooded' with MINIs?

[LiddleD]

wow millie, i haven't noticed that large of an influx in Mini's yet, but I must say I have seen a couple here and there, which is more than there should be! the last thing i want is to see what happened to the chrysler minivan, happen to the Mini. not everyone should own one ...hehe...no offense to those who own a minivan, my parents have one, so i can make fun of 'em.

here in PoCo tho, i've only seen two others. for all those listening from PoCompton, let's keep it that way.

~ Darren

[COOPERation]

I noticed a lot of others over the weekend...so many others with white contrasting roofs...

Oh wait...sorry...that's snow on those roofs and those aren't MINIs...my mistake.

[valnmike]

If I time it just so, I will see a BRG/W MC on my rout home from work; and we wave to each other. I often see other MINIs on the route as well and most of them wave. But this is the DC area and there are 3 dealers selling lots of MINIs. Perhaps this area is more enlightened than I thought I would not say the area is saturated though.

[chughes163]

As you can imagine, Oxford is PACKED with Mini's now due to:

The staff at the MINI plant leasing/borrowing them
Rich house wives buying them
Trendy couple's buying them
Oxford residents supporting local trade and buying a locally produced car

[Hat]

yep seeing loads in & around leeds/ west yorkshire now. Trouble is its always dark travelling to & from work so there's no chance for any waving

[randap]

Bizarrely, when driving my old MC (Tommy) I saw other MINIs all the time. Now I have Tommy2, it seems every MINI owner in the Notts / Derby area has gone into hiding.....

[ButtonIt]

there are 3 down my road, I see at least 10 on my way to work (20 minute drive). Bu then I do live near BMW HQ.

[Kandid]

Last month I saw only one MINI - it was PS/B MCS ... oh wait it's mine

[stryder]

Sorta sad, Ironically my experience is that the areas in the US where people are paying over MSRP are the most popular areas. I was in San Francisco last week and saw 6 MINIs around Berekely in about 10 minutes. The Bay Area and Southern California have certain dealers over MSRP because there's high demand, but there's also lots of MINIs (though there's lots of all cars there in general). On the other hand, here in Cleveland they're still pretty rare, I'll see one or two a week, but the dealer is selling to places like CA since they have order spots open. Of course its still totally different from the first 6 months I had my car where I saw maybe 4 MINIs total... so there are definetly more. And the sales data keeps showing growth, so I'm not sure what Jack Pitney's promise of not overselling really means...

[ncdave]

Saw three yesterday which was a record so I can't say that we are even close to a saturation point. Most days you don't see a single MINI on the road. On a brighter note, most of the MINI owners around here are really enthusiastic and wave all the time.

[NEMINI]

I live in a very small town of maybe 100 families, when I ordered mine I thought I'd be the first and only MINI .... wrong! Three weeks after I ordered I see in my neighbors driveway a brand new DS/DS MCS finally 3 months later I get my Cooper thinking okay at least I am the only Cooper in town. WRONG! again. I look in said neighbors driveway again and his wife now has a CR/W Cooper to go with his MCS So I am one of 3 in my smll area :sad:

I got the car (DS\W MCS) in Feb, and from then till now I think I have seen 3, or maybe 4 other mini's. Probably because the nearest dealership is a 2.5 hour drive. Every other Mini I have seen has waved, I guess it is still exciting to see other MINI's since it doesn't happen often.
-Andrew
Oh yeah, my neighbor has a classic mini, does that count?

[randap]

My parents have a 2nd house in deepest France. The village is tiny. I've been there twice in my MINI. The first time I saw no other MINIs at all, in the 8 hr drive from Calais via Paris, or back via Orleans.

The second time, I saw a French MINI delivery truck on the motorway leaving Paris, who flashed and waved after we passed. I also saw a MINI driving around on the way home near Chartres.

Imagine my shock therefore, at finding one of the villagers in the middle of nowhere had a MINI just down the road from my parents' place. Then imagine my mirth that the owner was in fact British, also at his holiday home.

[MINIRANDOLPH]

Only 2 others in my town that I know about. Some days driving around I've spotted 2 or 3 of them going back and forth to work.Other times I've gone a week without seeing any others.Don,t forget to flash your high beams or give thumbs up to fellow MINI enthusiasts.

[bentley/cooper]

I think it is definately a matter of how close you are to a dealership. I live in York, Pa. which is not known for being very progressive, but I am seeing more Minis all the time; probably 12-15 as near as I can tell. The reason is most likely the fact that Mini Of Towson is only 45 mins. down the road & is selling cars at MSRP with no waiting list.

[Actual Size]

Our little hamlet of Walpole, NH (population 3600) has 5 MINIs to date and I know of at least 10 more in Cheshire County. Seems like it's getting a bit crowded around here .

[gypsyslady]

Local MINI dealer is about 25 minutes away. I see other MINIs around town maybe once a week and saw one on my weekend 600+ mile road trip across two states. I think alot of buyers are coming in from a good bit away.

It always makes me smile to see another MINI owner on the road --because I know there's another happy MINI owner laying the rubber down.

Don't think it would bother me if all my neighbors had one --maybe because I think it'd be spreading MINI joy....

[gtshnzr]

We have three dealers here in the Windy City, and one just right down the road. I see 1-4 every day, and the same BRG/W one every morning @ about 6:40 am on the way to work. Adn them my daughter's friend has a red one with white stripes. But we play a game with the kids, counting MINIs vs. H2 Hummers. There are still more Hummers around here than MINIs, so that's a good thing.

[milliethemini]

Okay, just to emphasize just what a small small small MINI world it is in my part of the world, I actually have a follow-up to my story.............

I dropped by my MINI dealership at lunchtime today (it's 10 min away from my workplace) to talk to the parts advisor about tires for my MCS. Then I walked over to the McDonald's across from the dealership to get some lunch.

As I'm munching away, I start looking over at the MINIs parked in front of the dealership - and almost choke on my burger!!!

Lo and behold, there's the very same CR/W MCS with the bonnet stripes parked in front of the dealership, that was driven by the little old lady at the gas station the night before!!

As this point, it suddenly occurs to me that I have seen that MCS driven by someone before in the dealership. So I finish my lunch, walk over to the dealership, pop into the showroom and proceed to say to X, one of the product advisors there,

"X, did your mother happen to be driving your MCS last night? And did she stop for gas?"

Let's just say X's jaw dropped It was his mother, and she had borrowed the MCS to go somewhere (so my gut instinct that she looked like a fish out of water in the MCS was right ). To make things even funnier, apparently the reason she was so engrossed at the gas station was because she couldn't figure out how to make the gas pump work, and ended up phoning up X from the gas station to have him tell her how to make it work!! I feel bad for leaving the gas station, not realizing the problem she was having

Strange, but true............yet another MINI Adventure.