So this was going to be my new MINI . . .
We went and test drove them about 3 weeks ago and I was undecided for a bit. To be honest I did my usual geek thing and ran a 5-year cost of ownership on my truck versus the MINI and a couple other vehicles and on a pure dollar for dollar comparison it's cheaper to just keep driving and maintaining the F-150, even when I pushed maintenance up to 1.5X the expected cost and gas up to $6/gallon.
But eventually the "I want something fun for the spring" factor kicked in and so I started playing with options on the MINI website.
The sales guy was very helpful, tried to locate something close to what I had custom selected. But I figured with the order period not so long (only 6 weeks) why not just get exactly what I want since the pricing wasn't very different. So I went back and forth with two dealers on the pricing of my customized MINI for about a week and a half. Finally the other day I got to a price I could accept and decided to pull the trigger. Gave the sales guy my info, filled out credit app, etc. And maybe 30 minutes later I get a call and an email telling me that when they went to place the order they were told by MINI's East Coast rep that Laser Blue was discontinued effective for March 2012 production. Not a big deal since I had been waffling between Laser Blue and Laguna Green so I got back to him to change to Laguna Green.
Well, yep you guessed it, Laguna Green has also been discontinued. While I don't blame the salesman I was working with, for MINI USA and even the Warwick dealership this is really poor business practice and may very well have cost them the sale because none of the other color options have me that excited, my confidence that MINI knows what the F its doing is gone and I'm just plain pissed off. So now I'm back to the beginning considering all of my options.
You would think that when the manufacturer decides to discontinue a color that they would 1) update their website and 2) send a notice to the dealers. It took 3 emails between the dealer and the east coast rep for them to actually get a complete list of what was being discontinued. You would think being owned by BMW that their standards would be a bit higher.
But hey maybe they're selling so many that they don't need my money ;-)
But eventually the "I want something fun for the spring" factor kicked in and so I started playing with options on the MINI website.
The sales guy was very helpful, tried to locate something close to what I had custom selected. But I figured with the order period not so long (only 6 weeks) why not just get exactly what I want since the pricing wasn't very different. So I went back and forth with two dealers on the pricing of my customized MINI for about a week and a half. Finally the other day I got to a price I could accept and decided to pull the trigger. Gave the sales guy my info, filled out credit app, etc. And maybe 30 minutes later I get a call and an email telling me that when they went to place the order they were told by MINI's East Coast rep that Laser Blue was discontinued effective for March 2012 production. Not a big deal since I had been waffling between Laser Blue and Laguna Green so I got back to him to change to Laguna Green.
Well, yep you guessed it, Laguna Green has also been discontinued. While I don't blame the salesman I was working with, for MINI USA and even the Warwick dealership this is really poor business practice and may very well have cost them the sale because none of the other color options have me that excited, my confidence that MINI knows what the F its doing is gone and I'm just plain pissed off. So now I'm back to the beginning considering all of my options.
You would think that when the manufacturer decides to discontinue a color that they would 1) update their website and 2) send a notice to the dealers. It took 3 emails between the dealer and the east coast rep for them to actually get a complete list of what was being discontinued. You would think being owned by BMW that their standards would be a bit higher.
But hey maybe they're selling so many that they don't need my money ;-)
