Hey all,
I've been lurking in these forums for a while, and I love it. Anyway i've been trying to buy a MCS for a while now and I live in California. As you all may know the markups in California are horrible, 2-5K ONTOP of MSRP? You gotta be kidding me. Not to mention the 6-12 wait time on the queue for the "perfect" Mini. Well from reading on Mini2.com I learned that buying out of state would be the best option for California shoppers, I pretty much systematically called each Mini dealership from west going to east asking if they sold at MSRP and which Minis they had on the floor, hoping i'd get one that was a match. From what I found, most dealerships outside of California (and parts of Neveda) sell at MSRP, but there are usually only one or two cars on the lot, mostly convertables and coopers. My search ended at St. Louis Mini where they had the mini I was looking for on the show floor, almost to the exact specs I would have sent to the factory, which are:
Dark Silver Metallic MCS
Sport Package
Premium Package
Rain Sensor/Auto Dimming Mirrors (Xenon lights are great if you are the one driving, but not if you are in front of someone using them
)
Black Leather Seats
Its BEEEEAAAUUUUTIFUL
I almost cried when I heard they had "MY" MINI there, so I immediately dropped a deposit of $600 to reserve the MINI from other prying hands and I just passed the credit check (I believe i'll be getting a 7% interest rate, i'll know tomorrow, this is good right?) so i'll have my MCS this weekend, hopefully. I'll be having the car delievered from St. Louis, Missouri to San Jose, California which costs about $800, the beautiful thing about that is my company is picking up the bill for the delivery since I am moving from LA to San Jose because of the new job and they offered me relocation assistance, and the car delivery counts as a "relocation expense" woohoo!
Another interesting thing is I read a post a while back about a Motoring Advisor who got hired when he finished college because he was buying a Mini. Funny thing is I was speaking to that guy and pieced together clues over the conversation and figured out that he was BlueMCS on the MINI2 forums, what a pleasant surprise! We hit it off and just chatted like old friends. Great to talk to another MINI enthusiast
Anyway, i'm excited to get my MCS and i'll be reading these forums even more vigourously than before, and for those who live in California looking to buy a Mini, look out of state, and try St. Louis Mini first, they sell at MSRP, ask for Devin
-Avery Wong
