ohhh no i know wut your saying now.. the only thing im talking about is the apr.. but him saying that theyll take back the takeoff for the convince package is just messed up.. once they get the downpayment in that price that they gave you cannot change. if it does then your getting ripped off. the only thing that can change is the apr.. oh and hopefully he got the out the door price and not a added up price cause then they can just add wut ever they want and call it taxes

 

Ok this was hard for me to follow. Sorry. But I was actually talking about apr + any package deal in general. Ex: If I put a downpayment when 1.9% finance is the deal but when the car comes in its 3.9% + a freebie, I am supposed to be locked in to the 1.9. But if a deal includes %apr + the freebie, its the whole package. They can't change the financing package on you if the car comes in later because that would change the cost of the car if you have to add what was supposed to be free.

 

i am officially lost

 

Me too!

You're saying that the down payment at time of order in no way guarantees the financial offer being offered at the time of order. (ie 3.9% apr + a free cold weather package). I think you're also saying that even if the apr goes up when the car is delivered, they still have to give you the freebie (ie cold weather package) but they can make you take the higher apr. Is that right?

I am saying that the down payment at the time of order will lock you into whatever apr and/or free package (cold weather package) is offered at the time of order and that it doesn't matter what's being offered at time of delivery. I am also saying that its unfair (possibly worse but I'll refrain from comment) of a dealership to tell a customer they have to take a financial deal that's worse for the customer at time of delivery because the offer existing at time of order has expired.

I think that explains what we're saying.

 

yep thats wut were saying.. has anyone picked up there mini recently that can tell us what reall happens with your apr and packages?

 

When I picked up my Mini 9 months ago, I was given the apr at time of order. At time of order, they told me I was locked in to the financing being offered at that time.
What did your dealership tell you?

 

I am not part of this back and forth, but my order "contract" explicitly said I would be eligible for any finance incentives (apr + packages) that were available at the time of delivery, not at the time of order. I spoke with a few dealerships before I ordered and they all told me the same thing. In fact, as I recall, the Mini web site is pretty detailed in stating something similar. I also posted the question on other threads in NAM and they agreed that the time of purchase is the time of delivery, not the time the order is placed. Of course as in all things, I may be misinformed.

 

Thts wut my 3 dealerships told me..

 

I think like anything, the more people you ask, the more opinions you get. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that everyone's experience is uniform.

 

I was told the same thing about time of purchase/delivery. I would get the incentives available when I pick up my car, not when I place the order.

Now, I'm sure if you wanted to put your down payment (above and beyond the $500 custom order fee) down before you got your car, the dealership/MA WOULD be more than happy to start the financing and all that, to ensure you get the incentives at the time you order... BUT, then you'd also have to pay a monthly payment or two before your car even arrived, because once the financing starts (which is what your down payment is directly applied to) you are on the hook for your monthly payment, whether you've taken delivery or not.

That probably also leaves the door open for things like getting totally boned if an option becomes unavailable after you start paying, but before your car is built, and the price gets affected...I'm sure the dealership would try to work something out, but there'd probably be somebody at MINI corporate who would be significantly less than pleased about it.

 

I picked up in Feb and got the Feb deal....but ordered in Jan...got better financing and 1 item free.

 

so i guess its the date of delivery unless otherwise

 

If its date of delivery for others I don't understand why I was locked in at time of order.

 

I picked up my car 2/19/11 and was told by the finance department I had to pay the going rates for February, which was a worse deal for me and ended up costing me more than when I ordered 11/30/10 because they had end of the year deals going then. Your down payment doesn't mean you will get the rates current at that time, it only secures payment for MINI to start production.

Yeah, it can suck for some of us!

 

My impatience has truly kicked in at this point. Production "started" on 2/16. It has not moved into the body shop as of today. I've called ASK MINI several times and no one can give me a reason as to why its taking so long to really get started. They refer to the completion date of 3/4 but when I say that I'm a repeat customer and that they usually take 8 days to complete, they still cannot tell me what the hold up is, nor will they tell me what will happen if the car isn't completed by the 4th. It's frustrating to not have information.

 

yess i called my mini assistant and asked him if im getting the deal from when i ordered and he said yess but they really arnt supposed to do that. they get yelled at from mini corp. but he sayed since im his first order deal he wants everything to go by smoothly.. yayy for newbie salesman and he said he couldnt lock in the apr though but this month it actually drooped by 3 percent so im getting a better deal with the apr im getting 0.9 apr.. yayy

 

Yesss!!! My MINI arrived in Honolulu today! My MA said I should be taking delivery by Monday or Tuesday sooooo excited! Took care of the financial stuff last Tuesday so now when she comes in it will all be fun! Also I ordered a no holes front tow hook license plate bracket from Go MINI Go so they don't have to drill my front bumper.

 

Did he say that's what the APR deal is going to be for March? 'cuz that'd be totally cool, since the 3% jump from the 0.9% in January had me a little bummed out...

 

it shoudl be on your mini dealers website he said

 

My dealer said they won't know the March incentives until the 1st or 2nd of the month...

I'm hoping the incentives are better next month, 'cuz I don't qualify for ANY of the February option credits!

At any rate, my clubbie should be on a truck in 2-3 days and I should be picking it up next weekend!

 

Just took delivery of a nearly identical MINI - you'll love it. My production schedule was nearly identical to yours. Sit tight and be prepared for an agonizing couple weeks of waiting. It was at this point my MINI fell off the radar - MOL updates were completely out of date, and the dealer had no idea when the car was to arrive. I was literally on the phone with MINI customer service, begging for an update when my MA called with the good news - until that car showed up at the dealer, nobody could tell me when it would arrive. As for dealer incentives, I'm pretty sure the dealer is in the dark until the first of each month, too. The incentives are designed to move inventory, not so much for us folks who can't manage to find something we like on the lot. Oh well. Definitely worth the wait, but aggravating none the less.

 

wait so you picked up ypur delivery?

 

Yup! I'm a newbie here and meant to quote SkaBob re having nearly identical Minis - my apologies. But comments re waiting and having order and delivery straddle the month apply to all

 

Yep...sorry I started all this negativity around the fact that BMW Fin Services plays around so much with their deals. I think that it really blows that they don't lock in your rate when you put your down payment (like you do when you lock in a home mortgage)...that way you know what the terms are and there is no monkey biz. If you get a quote (like I did from my MA in December) at the bottom it will say something like "deal good until the end of the month" and does not promise to stay the same. The thing that burns me up is that they also stay secretive about what is happening the next month too so we have to play the wait and pray game. Stinks. And is not very "Mini-like".

They pulled the same sorta thing with the JCW Aero Kit...now it is going to be a factory option (i'd expect for much less then it is now) but they won't say what the price is going to be. So I am going to spend $3k to put it on now and learn in a week how much I could have saved by waiting a month...the smart thing for them to do would be to release the new price when they announced the factory option and offer same price to those of us yet to take delivery.

For all the work they do making us feel warm and fuzzy about the mini experience...they drop the ball here. We are smart. We share experiences. We learn from each other...and we expect to be treated better than this.

With all of this said...I still can't wait for my new JCW!!! Does that make me a hypocrite? Or just a consumer willing to overlook some issues I have with the way cars are sold?

 

So my MCS is scheduled for completion on March 8. I asked my MA today when he thought it would be delivered, and he didn't think it would be til April. Does that sound right that it would take more than three full weeks from completion to reach the dealer?