Who is the Best Dealer?

[KenL]

Hi All,

Although I'm not ordering my next MINI for a few months yet I am very interested to hear who the best MINI dealer is in Scotland.

I'm particularly interested in who offers the best trade-ins which since there is virtually no discount to be had on the new car is the way to get the cheapest deal.

Also what was the dealer like in terms of delivery times and keeping you informed whenever you asked any questions or changed spec.

When ordering my next MINI I plan on taking a couple of days off work and visiting as many dealers in Scotland as possible and ordering from the one who offers the best deal.

I look forward to reading everyone's opinions.

Thanks,
Ken.

[KenL]

I'll go first :)

I ordered my ONE in May 02 and took delivery in July 02.

I visited two dealers, Dunedin & Eastern in Edinburgh. I had a three year old Punto 85SX with 35k on the clock in good condition. I was looking for about £3.25k as a trade in.

DUNEDIN:
Offered me a pathetic £2.2k for my car :disapprove: so this was enough to put me off ordering from them. Sales guy was polite but not interested in haggling so off I went. Their delivery date was similar to Eastern as they could get me a car by July.

EASTERN:
Their sales guy (Bill) was very honest about how they would deal with my car. As there was no Fiat dealership in the group they would offer the car around to other traders. He phoned several while I sat there and the best he could get me guaranteed for when I was trading in was £2.7k. Although this was less than I wanted I ordered the car but advised that I would try and sell privately, this I did and got £3.75k for the car

Bill was very good at answering my queries and kept me up to speed on when the car would be delivered. In the end the car came a few days early.

Overall I thought the sales experience at Eastern was good apart from not getting anything thrown in for free except a bunch of flooers

[Julz]

I would definately recommend John Clarks in Dundee, their before, during and after sales assistance is excellent!!

[Big Gordy]

I would definately recommend Iain Brown at Menzies, Stirling. He know's his mini stuff inside out as he used to work in the parts department. Don't know about trade ins as I didn't have one. Much to Big Col's annoyance I got the TLC, rubber mats and 2 mini keyrings flung in :approve: Being a good guy I gave Colin one of the keyrings Linda and Wullie have both delt with Iain as well. Oh and when I couldn't make it in to collect the car he delivered it to the door and went through what everything did to my wife and son in the driveway. Top bloke :approve:

[Wul]

Interesting Ken! What are you thinking of getting this time?

Well - I emailed all the central scotland dealers via the MINI website and got their expected delivery dates for an order placed at the start of june 02 - both eastern and dunedin came back with septmeber - douglas park in hamilton came back with july.

So at the start of june i ordered my coop with nearly 3k worth of extras - tried to haggle for discount, extras, anything at all really and all i got was a polite - sorry but because of the demand we can't offer anything at all - as i had no car to trade in and was paying cash(biggest switch transaction ever ) i still got nowt!

Anyway Margaret at DP was very helpful with my enquiries during the order process including adding the cd prep as i was still wet behind the ears at that point so i had no complaints then.

Come delivery time dates were kept pretty well and went through to collect the car on a tuesday night after 6 - they stayed back to go over the pdi with me. Got a huge bunch of flooers and that was it.

Gripes at this point - they polished the car and got white residue all over the skooshers, trim and bonnet vents - not chuffed at that - also car arrived with squint steering wheel and pdi never picked it up!

Anyway - most of you know the down hill spiral of faults on my car from there so won't bore you with that :blackeye: but needless to say DP's service was no better or worse than Dunedins - they did pick it up from work (bonnyrigg) once and promise to drop it back that night - however that failed to happen so i had to borrow a work car for a night to get home. Gave up on them and started taking it to Dunedins.

Finally - as i'm on the mailing list for DP they are now sending me offers - latest one was to trade-in for a new MCS and get £1000 off and free TLC. Not bad really.

So Ken....the decision is yours!:)

[Bazthemod]

John Clarks in Dundee is excellant cant fault them!:approve:

[KenL]

Wul,

I'm planning on either MC or MCS (lightly specced) depending on how much dosh I've got, how much I can get as a trade in for the ONE and how much the prices go up after the slight facelift next year. Defo waiting for that now.

I like the sound of £1k off an MCS from DP.

Please keep the experiences coming.

[GAJ]

I was wet behind the ears too but seemed to fair the same as most other folk.

I only went to one dealer - Dunedin. I had no trade-in and was paying cash and knew that there was high demand so I reckoned that discounts were non-existent so couldn't be bothered trying other dealers. Also I was promised a car five weeks after I orderd it! (ordered in middle of Oct. 02 - took delivery middle of Nov. 02)

I too ordered about £3000 worth of options. I would have haggled for 'mats and flaps' but mats were included with the Chilli pack and the flaps are mingin' (IMO!)
I feel that I wasn't given the best of advice about options when I was ordering, I was a stranger to MINI2 at this time. I knew nothing about CD Changer prep. and this was not mentioned to me, I was told that the MFSW only gave you CC, nothing was mentioned about the audio controls (big regrets here!)and I wish I had known that if I didn't order DSC or ASC&T I would have a gap in the switch panel.

I changed the spec. once during the wait (added trip computer, took the options to over £3000!!) without any problem and tried later to change the interior trim but was too late as my chassis no. had been allocated. Quite glad now though cos I was going to change to Alloy Patina but now think I prefer the silver.

Dunedin also sorted out my 'GAJ' number plate for me which was easier for me than them registering it and me having to transfer the number later.

The car was ready on time and the hand over was as it should be. I was in the showroom for over an hour that day and couldn't wait to get away! The car was spotlessly clean and the only wee fault I found was that the footwell lights didn't work. I made my first of what has proven to be many visits to the service department the next day and the lights were sorted.

As for freebies, I got a couple of keyrings and a wee presentation case of whisky miniatures, which Cheryl's dad scoffed!
Overall Dunedin aren't too bad - with the exception of the arrogant bu%%er on the service desk!

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!

[Big Col]

My mate Dave is a quality dealer. No dodgy gear from him, decent weights.

Note to any police who may frequent the site in order to investigate Wille M's pimping, I have no mate called Dave, I don't do drugs and my tax is in the post!

[KenL]

Gaj - I didn't know about the CD prep either but Bill at Eastern put it on for me 'cause it was FOC.