OK, so I've been doing a decent amount of research on used Mini's. I'm finding that dealers are charging new prices on Coopers that are three to four model years old. You're probably all aware of this. Dealers did this with the Scion xB's, claiming the demand was very high.


I'd like to get a Mini, but will have to go private party to find a good deal. (not to mention the tax savings.)

 

Tax savings as in the tax on the price differance of dealer verses private party sale ?

 

The dealer is more likely to charge the higher price. That tax savings.

 

We saw the same near-list prices on cars with 30,000 miles on them in our area too, which is why we eventually just saved up and ordered a new one.

The 'deals' that we found were priced low for a good reason- not to say that you can't find a good used Mini, but there certainly seems to be far fewer Minis around for sale than other cars.

We looked for a used Durango just recently, and even restricting our search to black or dark silver and with leather interiors we looked at seven of them in one evening just driving the local used car lot strip. IIRC, at the time I could only find three used black or silver Minis in the state, and two of them sold before I could even look at them.

 

Well, I must've been looking at the wrong time, since it looks like I might have to eat my words a bit... A search with Autotrader now shows 37 silver or black Minis within 200 miles, but they start at about $17,000 for 03-04's with around 40,000 miles, even from private parties.

There's still too many Durangos out there... It's a good thing they don't wave or I'd have worn an arm off by now

 

Brecht Mini in Escondido,Ca...(where I am) Has TONS of new and used Mini's. I test drove one several months ago, but wasn't ready to buy. I swear they still have the same car I test drove and it's the same price. But, I don't expect them to drop the price.


I've gotten some advice elsewhere and pretty much been told it's better to order a new one. However, I do like the look of the '06's and earlier.

 

Get a new one.. you're right - the 'old' ones are almost the same cost.
And even if you get a deal - you may pay for it in any warrantable service.
Go new!! (if you can..)

 

If the price is close, buy a new one, and gain the benifit of the free service & warranty.

I was looking at a 2004 MC40, two dealers were looking for about 22,500 for a car with 15k miles. for another 5k, I got a new Cooper-S with the options I wanted.

 

I bought my '05' MC, one owner, very clean, with leather, NAV, Winter Package, Sport Package, IPod ice-link, not a ding, with 37K miles, Car-Fax guarantee, for $13K 6 weeks ago. It just needed new tires. They wanted $16K as the "internet Special".

I've bought a brand new set of take-offs 17" s-lites with Goodyear run flat tires from a member for $500, local to my area, so no shipping charges. And, I bought chrome trim rings for the dash and doors.
The rear side interior panels and lift gate have some scratches (I think the previous owner used it for their dog, I guess), so I woiuld like to replace them. Then the car will be mint.

 

BTW, check them out on e-bay. There are some fairly good deals there.

 

I searched for a used one for two months, hoping to find a deal. It never happened, and I'm glad it didn't!

 

Why do you say that?

 

As a matter of fact the demand for the old style of xB's is very high because people who were wanting the Boxy design now have to look for used ones since they no longer make them anymore.

 

Shop around. The area dealer had Mini's of various years and packages for the same price as my '06 with 16K miles that was fully loaded. It seemed odd to me that a car with more miles, older model year, and comparable packages had the same price. So shop around, I got mine from a non-Mini-dealer source.

 

Because I paid almost the same for a brand new one that was exactly what I wanted.