In Which I Spend Way Too Much Money

Polite people call me frugal. Those not so inclined just say cheap. But I like to think I just know what I like and know what I want. Regardless, I am in need of a car and I have decided to act out of caricature. Despite my reputation for parsimony I am going to buy a new automobile and I will spend far more than I would otherwise consciously feel comfortable spending on a glorified piece of transportation.

I am purchasing a new 2009 MINI Cooper Convertible. Why? Not because I wanted a MINI Cooper Convertible that's for certain. The MINI is a car that evokes a lot of strong emotions in people -- when I first saw one as an option my initial thought was, "erk!" -- and typically the first words that come to mind are not friendly ones. Nevertheless, if you get past the fact that a MINI Cooper Convertible is a MINI Cooper Convertible, and actually evaluate it for what it is, it's actually a pretty good little car. I wanted a well priced convertible with good gas mileage that could seat four, and the MINI convertible does all this and more. Certainly much better, at least, than its closest competitors the PT Cruiser Convertible (seriously?) and the VW Bug Convertible (no thanks, grandma.) It even comes bike-rack friendly. Fun and practical!

What's been really great, however, beyond the excitement of shortly having an awesome new automobile, are the emails I have been getting from the BMW/MINI dealership. I initially emailed them in order to get more information on pricing and availability in addition to a few questions I had concerning compatibility with the bike rack, and this is what I got:

Email #1 - Generic automated reply from the "Sales Manager" expressing his "pleasure" in the fact that I was interested in purchasing a new 2008 MINI Cooper Convertible -- never mind that I had specifically requested information on a 2009 (they are very different cars) -- and asking at what point in the car buying process I felt I was in. None of my questions were answered. I did not reply.

The next day I got ...

Email #2 - A personalized response from one of the "MINI Sales Pros" stating that we had two options. One, I could come down to the dealership to test drive a convertible, and, two, I could come down to the dealership to test drive a convertible. There may, in his defense, have been more to option two than I state, but unfortunately I was unable to translate from the native jibberish, "... We still come out and play with the MINI’s just so you get the little missing ingredient on your MINI experience and without much of me telling you about my boring life or my un-skill pets we jump on to ordering your master piece (a MINI that you design) so the chefs in Oxford start baking it." What? I did not reply.

The next day I did not get any more emails so I went back to email #1, replied, and reiterated my initial questions. I got a prompt response with ...

Email #3 - A standardized, Hi-def, and quite shiny email notifying me that I could learn more about and place an order for the new 2009 convertible on the official MINI website. It seems they had just updated it.

I looked it over and decided that, if the terms were right, yes I did want to purchase a new MINI convertible. So once again I replied, curtsied, and asked the same questions. I got ...

Email #4 - A brief, original composition actually answering one of my three listed questions. Sort of. A completely new dealer, pro, manager, whatever -- I had received emails from about 3 or 4 different ones now -- let me know that yes, they did have bike racks -- which I already knew and had explicitly made known in my email -- and that if I wanted to know more about them I should look at the site -- which I had already informed him did not directly answer my question. Basically absolutely nothing I did not already know myself. He did, however, as all the other emails did as well, suggest we promptly get the order in soon.

Feeling that actually receiving a direct, coherent reply was getting somewhere even if it did not directly answer any of the questions posed, I replied, thanked him for his response, and relayed the same questions one more time. He sent me in turn ...

Email # 5 - A direct answer with helpful, actionable information. Brilliant! And to top it all off no sign out with, "let's get the order in soon" or "let's motor!" It seems all it takes is a little bit of slow, persistent berating .

I still had a number of questions concerning the details of when, where, and how, however, and not wanting to continue the email dance for another three months I decided to head over to the dealership myself one afternoon to ask in person. The guys there were all polite, well dressed, and probably all completely uninformed about the cars they were trying to sell. Incompetent one could say, but I am pretty sure they were competent enough in what they do. Needless to say I got enough information to feel comfortable making my purchase and so went home to do so. I put in my specifications on the web site vehicle designer (over 1,000,000 possible option combinations!) and received a punctual reply the next morning stating ...

Email # 6 - "Wow, I like your creation!" My creation being the basic model convertible with Hot Chocolate (brown) paint and a bike rack stuck on the back. Yeeesss.... Wow indeed.