haggling, negotiating, price gouging - fun stuff!

I'd rate myself as above-average, in terms of the cluefulness around the car buying experience. I picked up last vehicle in Los Angeles and I was quite content of getting it $3000 cheaper, than the cheapest quote in the bay area.

So I started asking around for quotes on the mini cooper with local bay area dealers and also some dealers in southern california. SoCal is a big car market, and one has a lot more choices on the options, given the huge inventories that dealers have.

To make a long story short, after a few hours on the phone/email, haggling on pricing, pitching one dealer against another and getting the price down by about $1500, I was ready to put my money where my mouth was.
BMW of mountain view seem to match our lowest offer from Sacremento, and keeping convinience in mind, we decided to go with them.

Today, we put down our $1000 deposit on the car, after double checking all the options/configurations on it. The dealer says its going to be a January 2008 production with a late february delivery!

I'll start tracking the progress on that in a couple of weeks. Right now, heading back home to pack. We're going away for 2 weeks to Austin to visit my sister and her family. Should be fun!!

Choices. Choices.Choices - Internet, a boon or a bane?

Ok, over the last week I've been going nuts, thanks to miniusa.com , where they let you customize your car - down to the very last bolt in the engine(ok, I am exaggerating). But almost close. I built atleast 7 or 8 cars, with different colors, wheels, packages, interior options/upholstery etc.

I finally submitted my proposals to the future owner. And the winner is: A Chilli RED with white racing stripes. Here is how it probably will look like.

Specs on the puppy.

Paint

• Chrome Line Exterior
• Chrome Mirror Caps
• Chili Red Body Color
• White Roof/Mirrors

Premium Package

• 10-Speaker. Hi-Fi Sound System
• Automatic AC
• Dual Pane Panoramic Sunroof

Sport Package

• Sport Suspension
• Dynamic Stability Control
• 17" Web-spokes (Run Flat Perf.)
• White Bonnet Stripes
• Performance Front Fog Lamps
• Xenon Headlamps w/Power Wash
• 6-Speed Getrag Manual

Cockpit

• Sport Seats
• Chrome Line Interior
• On-Board Computer
• Center Arm Rest
• Cloth/Leather: Rooster Red/Black
• Alarm System
• Leather Sport Wheel w/Multifunction
• Rooster Red Color Line
• Interior Surface Piano Black

Accessories

• Black Carpet Floor Mats (4)
• Black Rubber Floor Mat (boot)
• Chrome Bonnet Scoop

Time to start shopping around for a good price.

Mini Clubman - what is that?

So,we were almost ready to pick out the options on our spanking new Mini Cooper S and Ashish, a friend of mine and a serious car enthusiast, who knew about our Mini affinity, emailed me and told me that there is a newer, bigger version of the Mini Cooper - The Mini Clubman which will start shipping in 2008.

Dang, back to research on miniusa.com. Mini had very little info about the car, but none of the dealers had it. Looked up some other websites, which had spy shots of the car. The Clubman looked cool. It had 2 rear barn doors and also a club door on the passenger side, for easier access for the rear seats. It was also longer by 10 inches and wider by another 6 or so, compared to its predecessor. Any extra room, would help I thought. Right?

We didnt want to decide on it, wihtout actually looking at it. We were almost ready to give up on the clubman and move on, but then it struck me. The SF auto show was going to be in town. After calling several dealers, if they're going to show the Clubman on the floor, and not getting any response back, I called the auto show organisers to no avail.

Finally jumped on a few mini forums, to confirm that infact the SF show will have a clubman for display!! Cool!
picked a weekday, and did an early morning run to SF with Sumati and Rishon. Took a good peek at the clubman. It looked quite cool and nice. The space was definitely going to be useful.

Unable to decide, we decided to sit on it for a day or two. Oh, given that my son has become a car freak, it was almost impossible to get him out of the car show. He kept running towards every brand like a maniac. He insisted we sit in a few - so we sat in a Lexus GS300, a Land Rover and a Ford Mustang.

I started calling the dealers for quotes/timelines on the Clubman. Looks like there's a hype about this and all dealers are charging a $3K premium on it. In addition to it, the car itself cost another extra $3k than the regular Mini. And they couldnt guarantee a timeline at which they could get the car. April, May, may be? And $6k definitely didnt look worth the small space increase.

Screw you all, we're going back to Plan A.