UKPylot’s MINI Blog

Debi emails me to say it is still available.

Over the weekend I decide that the 2002 MCS sounds great and I tell Debi that I will send her a deposit if she just tells me how. But she tells me she won’t take a deposit, that its first come, first served. I can’t get there until Saturday, will it still be there?

So I’ve played with the MINI configurator and I know what I would really like:

• chili red
• sports and perf packages
• union jack roof, or maybe the chequered flag (for nostalgia’s sake)
• has to be an S

I speak to a couple of dealers and get various markups quoted. One is for $3600 over invoice but for that I do get some mats and a luxury warranty – whoo hoo! I’ve heard good things about Scottsdale MINI in Arizona. Debi replies to my email saying there is no markup but the wait time for a new S is about 9 months total time. But she adds that they have a 2002 MCS with 10K miles on the clock for sale if I am interested…. the stats are exactly what I want.

I’d wanted a MINI when they first came out – what Brit wouldn’t want to be part of a recreation of history? But tales of huge markups, poor sales attitudes and long wait times put me off.

But I keep reading about them, seeing them in San Diego and now I know someone who is picking theirs up real soon. Enough of this dithering, that downpayment on a Cessna 182 I was saving for can go on a spanking pretty Cooper S.

So, did some research, sent some emails to dealers and now I wait.