It seems like dealers are selling a lot of used cars now. Some have even turned into used only dealerships.
Are the Dealers paying less for trade-ins now?
Are they buying Mini's outright from people that can't find buyers?
How is the used market?
I assume the Dealers are still having a hard time with sales?

 

Some dealers (especially the used only ones) buy used cars from auctions. There's some decent deals at these if you know what you're doing and usually they're only opened to dealers. Otherwise dealers get the cars as trade-ins on new cars. A lot of new car dealers don't profit as much from their pre-owned inventory so they'll often sell them at somewhat lower prices to move them off the lot quickly, or sell them directly to one of the used only dealers.
My dad got an excellent deal many years ago on his pickup truck because it had just been traded in at a new car dealership that day so they never had to prep it for resale, insure it as part of their inventory or anything. He was basically doing them a favor by taking it off their hands so quickly and it just happened to be what he wanted.

 

As I understand it, the dealerships keep the good cars they get on trade. The ones that aren't so good go to the used car lots.

 

'Zactly.........

When I was the new car manager at a Porsche dealership, anything over 80K miles or of really unproveable provence went to auction or to a pot lot - I kept the good stuff for my own sales staff. That way I always had the cream of the crop, and while others could point to lower prices, I always had the best, nicest, lower mile, warranty-able cars to sell, and they always brought good money.

I also used to call people who had their cars for sale out of the paper and have them bring their cars in for me to look at, if it was nice I made them an offer and I successfully bought a lot of nice used Porsches that way - this worked for me in two ways - I had nice cars to sell and I eliminated some competition.

I don't think it's any different now............our dealer currently has 2 used MINIs on their lot, an '07 and an '08........I expect they'd be a buyer for a clean, serviced, low mile car any day.........

 

It looks like Mini of SF has at least 60 used cars but only 7 are Mini's
http://www.minisf.com/VehicleSearchR...earch=preowned
,,,maybe I should look at the Beemrs

 

used car sales are any dealership's bread-and-butter. when I sold cars I made a pact to sell one used car a week, becuase the commissions on used were much higher than new (unless it was a 'vette or XLR roadster). One used low-mile car a week: $700 take home on avg.

My dealer has at least 10 MINI Next CPOs on their lot.

 

My Dealer has 6 Used Mini (various models) and 73 NEW (2009) Mini's. Considering I just checked their website and have never been able to pull up their inventory of either new or used before today.