Delivery Day : Behind Story

I had planned this day in a few weeks advance. (The Delivery Day was Saturday, May 21, 2011.) Rather than simply going to the dealer and picking up the car, I wanted this day to be somewhat eventful throughout. First, getting to the dealership. Since I normally do not use much of public transportation in Los Angeles,  I took this as an opportunity to travel via one and enjoy the city from a different perspective. Second, point of interest. Downtown LA. Also coincidentally, RedBull Soapbox race was happening in DTLA that weekend. Sweetness! Contitune>


With the appointment set up at 1:30PM, the total duration of the journey by public transportation to get to the dealership in Torrance on time was around 2h 16min according to Google Map. If you haven't noticed, the Google Map also gives you couple options in mode of transportation - By Car, By Public Transit, By Walking, and By Bicycle. It is generally known to be quite reliable in terms of accuracy. We left around 9AM to allow ourselves plenty of time for walking in Downtown LA.

The first Metro Bus, 94, arrived pretty much on time. The joy of using public transit is in the fact that you are driven and it allows you to enjoy the scenery. As there were no loud passengers, the ride was quite peaceful and uneventful - perfect receipt for what I call "Bus Therapy".

After around 40 minute bus ride, we were dropped off at Pershing Square, Downtown LA. The RedBull Soapbox Race's track is set up on nearby 5th St. and Grand Ave. The streets are quite lively with shoppers, tourists, and spectators alike. Yes, I am in the city! The view of tall downtown buildings from Pershing Square is incredible. It feels very un-LA if you know what I mean. Walking surrounding area also lends plenty of great photography opportunity.

While we were too early to witness the madness of crazy racers in costumes coming down the steep hill in a funky make-shift looking soapbox cars, the vibe was definitely uplifting with live RedBull DJ mixing out rave tunes.

After spending some time walking around and grabbing some food to feed our hungry body, we hopped on to Metro Raid 740 that will take us to the dealership in Torrance. The interesting thing is... this bus will go through what could be considered as somewhat 'rough' neighborhood of Los Angeles - South LA or South Central LA.

The houses have metal window bars across the whole block, the neighborhood has very 'sketch' look to them, only restaurants I see are nation's fastfood chains, there are 'thugs' walking around...I certainly would not be too keen on driving my new Countryman through the neighborhood. On the bright side however, they have the cheapest 100% hand carwash I've seen in LA!

After about an hour of bus ride, it dropped us off near our dealer, South Bay BMW/MINI. It is a huge dealership with contemporary building and large lot. However, it ain't what you'd call a flagship BMW/MINI center as the giant white building is very conservative and business-like with no flare or dynamic feel in appearance and the showroom is rather small for both BMW and MINI for the size of the dealership.

 As I walked to the MINI side of the dealership, I thought there it was! (pix above) Right in the front waiting for us..... just to find out it was actually the identical twin (minus Heated Seats) to my Countryman. You see, this would have been actually mine and taken voyage in Volance Leader if I didn't add the Heated Seat option right as the car went into production. When my dealer, Steve Marx, Fleet Manager, South Bay BMW, found out that the car is in production and adding an option was no longer available, he kindly offered to put in a brand new order for me with Heated Seat! It resulted in two almost identical cars produced one week apart and being at the same dealer. The interesting thing is, someone bought it and was taking a delivery on the same day as me!  What a coincidence.  - Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet the owner nor take a nice shot of our two Countryman side by side.

As everything was prepared in advance, only thing I needed to do on the day was signing papers and getting the key. Steve went over the details with me before introducing me to the finance manager for final sign off. This is the moment when lot of people become vulnerable and sign away optional protection/extra warranty and etc, coughing out more $$$ than intended initially to sometimes needless packages. He offered me 4 package options, ranging from $1500 to nearly $4500. While the basic tire/wheel protection package at around $1500 sounded tempting - it is basically an unlimited replacement warranty for any damage to wheels and tires for 3 years - it is way too much money for a low chance of me ever using the plan. Besides, while expensive, replacing 18" Pirelli Runflat tire is at around $250-300 a piece. So it just did not make much sense to me. I've heard you can negotiate this plan to around $800-900 level.. but still I would pass it up and take my chances in the wild. The ultimate eye-popping $4500 package (that's about 14% of my car's MSRP!) include mentioned tire/wheel replacement plus extended warranty, 3M window tint (less heat for inside - had an interesting demo piece) and some other what seemed unnecessary protection plan.

I did not add anything he offered to stay with the originally agreed price. To note, I was able to use $1000 OFF Certificate I received from MINI by attending MINI Rocks the Rivals test drive tour. In the end, the final purchase price for my MINI Cooper S Countryman was nearly 10% off of MSRP. (more on this in a separate post) I am very happy with how it all turned out and timing of $1000 off promotion from MINI could not have come any better!

With all the paper work sorted out, Jason Bray, Fleet Ambassador, who works with Steve Marx, took me out to my Countryman, all ready to go under the canopy covered are for BMW delivery.

[in progress article - to be continued]


However, complete set of photos from the day are on Flickr!