Massachusetts Auto Dealer

Posted on by Ian C.

Although Vin has now left MINI of Peabody and gone to BMW, he of course still loves MINIs, and told me today of an article in Massachusetts Auto Dealer October 2007, a nice write-up about MINI of Peabody (see also an article written in the same publication a few years ago).

The article discusses the success of the “small dealership”, reporting them as “the number one franchise in the United States” (clarifying “since 2002 the dealership has sold more than 4,000 MINIs, the most of any MINI dealership in the US“):

It’s a great article, talking as much about the MINI culture as about selling MINIs at the dealership:
… the psychographic of MINI customers: statement-makers, outside-of-the-box thinkers, an artistic group that’s typically very fun and interactive [?]
… much of the success comes from repeat business; the dealership has customers on their fifth MINI … [!]
… customers love the dealership …
MINI is more than a romance, it’s nearly a religion

There’s also a great side box about Hrach, an unabashed full-blown Mini-holic, a Mini legend

I wonder what other Massachusetts dealerships make of this article?! 😉

8002 again

Posted on by Ian C.

Now that we’ve completed our purchase of a second home in Florida (just a few miles from Walt Disney World), we headed down at the weekend to check everything out – and enjoy sunny weather 🙂

One thing to note … we purchased the home “as is”, including all the furnishings and fittings that you see! The original owners (2000-2003) rented the property, and the second owners (2003-2007) may have planned to, so the furniture is “simple but effective”! We’ll probably update things in the future, but for now we’re just getting used to everything 🙂

 

The street:

But I thought it was a MINI …

Posted on by Ian C.

I got a package in the mail, about GBMINI#6 … from BMW … it says “Congratulations on your decision to purchase a certified pre-owned BMW“:

Strange, but reminiscent of early days with GPMINI!

I spoke with Kerry at Herb Chambers MINI, and she’ll get corrected – it seems to simply be a matter of mailing out the wrong envelope, since the MINI dealership computers confirm that the car is CPO / MINI NEXT.

In a very vaguely similar vein, GBMINI#6 might have thought it was a Dodge today and not a MINI or a BMW! She spent much of the day at Herb Chambers Dodge in Peabody – I delivered her there this morning so that new “clear bra” protection could be installed; Kerry arranged for installation there to save my trip in to Boston:

Unfortunately things didn’t perfectly! The installer had been told the MINI was at Herb Chambers Chevrolet, so waited for the car-that-never-showed … eventually the Service Manager at Dodge tracked down the error and got the MINI to the right place.

But then, the hood part of the protection was apparently damaged so couldn’t be fitted – Kerry told me this but no-one at Dodge knew, so I got a call that all was done and assumed they’d got a fitted the correct part – but no … when I retrieved GBMINI#6, it was protected “below the belt” but still naked above! Hopefully, this will get finally sorted some time this week.