HI everyone, I'm trying to become an owner of the Mini-S;

From Miniusa.com Lease calculator
$ 32,000 MSRP
2800 down payment
36.month lease period
12,000miles/year
============
$ 420/per month


After making a visit to the dealer they quoted me 511/month!!! for the same specs...What is going on? A 92$ per month difference...The manager was not in so I left, I plan on going back to talk to him Saturday. Can anyone give me tips or an explanation on this?


Prestige Mini
Mahwah, NJ 07430

 

Congradulations on your decision to get the best car in the world!!!!!! I'd say go to another dealer ASAP and see what price they will give you. Sometimes car salesmen aren't the nicest people.

 

yeah...leasing is just another way to scam you out of your money, why not just buy?

 

The lease caluclator might assume you have the best credit rating. When you went to the dealer, they checked your actual credit score and found some less than best, so you have to pay more.

 

They did not do a credit check, I would have known...Plus my credit is A ok

 

There is something amiss... not sure about your numbers to be honest. the only way I could get the calculator to come to 420 was at 2300-2400 not 2800 down. that said you have to add in the tax. (I put this in the 'Dealer Accessories' section) after that figure in an additional $30/month for some fees and the 'money factor' and stuff. I'm not exactly sure how it works but the same thing happened to me when I went to Main Line Mini. I'm not too sure why the price was more than I thought it should be as I decided against a lease in the end. It's your money so if you want a lease, go for it. try that figure to see where you get. it seems there is $1000 extra added to that lease somewhere. did you get any accessories? if so, the online price doesn't include labor and that will make up the 1000 real quick. Take a look at your spec and see if there are a few things you can live without. Then work your way down with the calculator removing each option until you get down to your number. I did that with my financing and the number in the end was only a bit off from my number. hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions. many of us have been through it and can help! another idea would be to try another dealer in the area to get another quote. try morristown or princeton.

 

Leasing is the lower monthly payment by a large sum of money. If financing comes close to the lease quote I will buy and not lease...I have to speak to the manager to figure it out. Seems like evertime I speak with a sales rep they never know much about the #'s...

 

I'll be calling around all day thursday and hopefully will get someone who will explain everything...who ever that is, I'll buy from them :smile:

 

ScreenCap

420 and if you add the tax 6% you would get +25.2 a month more = 445.2
then take 445.2 and add the tax destinationfee est...those are another 1803 and every 1000 you put down the lease goes down by 20-25$ so then ... we need to reverse the math to bring it up another 40 a month...so in the end with everything included I would be paying 485.2 a month but the dealer quoted me 511 that is still 25.8 off...this could be from the installation charges of the JCW parts that I did not include???

 

Consider buying a $25,000 MSC. (My 06 was only $23,055). With your $2800 down payment you would finance $22,300. Financed for 60 months @ 5% yields a payment of $420.83. If you only wanted to keep it for 36 months your payoff would be around $9500 on a car that would probably still be worth $18-20k. Even if you go for the $32,000 model, with $2800 down your payment should only be $551 (60mo, 5%).

 

I think the real difference you aren't counting is the labor to install whatever accessories you have picked. I see 1180 worth of accessories. what are they? they could easily add another thousand or two in labor depending on what it they are.

 

Your correct...

I am now thinking twice about the JCW parts I added on, and maybe they are a waste of money...

 

well everyone has a few things they add and probably ultimately end up dropping for one reason or another. I'm sure you can adjust everything to meet your needs and find some great stuff you can't live without. Compromise is one of the hardest things with a MINI from what I've found. good luck!

also, my suggestion would be to make a thread posting your specs and let our local miniacs help you fine hone your spec. It definately helped me come to a decision as to what I could live without. also there is so much collective knowledge here that could help you out!

 

I went with the full JCW personally. I know if I don't get it now I probably never will. Plus, $2000 for a new suspension when the old one works like a charm would be hard to get into the family budget in two years as opposed to the final car price being just that much higher .

In the end, I would say for most people get the car you love at first because you probably won't be changing it (of course, make sure you can afford the car with some spare room for "just in case"). The MINI crowd does, of course, have a higher number of modders than the ordinary vehicle crowd - so YMMV.

 

Have you driven both the MCS and the MCS JCW back to back and decided that you absolutely HAD to have the JCW? If not, it's 7,000$ well kept.

Oh, if you need someone's MCS to test drive, gimme a PM, I'm located in the Jerz.

mb

 

please explain this statement, I cant wait to hear the logic behind this.

 

Why don't we just stop the leasing vs. buying debate before it starts since it doesn't necessarily help our friend who started the thread. He obviously has to lease for whatever reason, and we need not judge it.

mb

 

I'm not sure I "get" leasing a car under 30 grand either... If you can lease it through a business and write it off, ok that makes sense but otherwise the numbers don't add up. Especially if you put money down. Now a $70,000 might make sense to lease but the difference in payments on a 25000 car between a lease and a finance aren't that different. You might as well buy. I hate to say this but if you are considering leasing a car under 30 grand you probably need to sort out other financial concerns first. Maybe you can't stand having a car older than ~3 years? I guess that sort of makes sense if thats the case.

I know I'm going to get crucified for this statement but after driving a MCS w/ ~7000 of JCW upgrades I personally felt that the difference in performance wasn't worth the cost. The MCS does great (you gotta keep those revs up!)... The most noticeable difference with the JCW package to me was it had more power at the lower rpms.

 

BTW... I'm not making any judgements about lease vs finance. I'm curious of the benefits of both options too.

 

If I do not get the JCW parts I will surely finance the car...Bringing the price down to 25,000 from 32,000 this makes it much easier to afford the financing (monthly payments).

I have driven the S but not the JCW, If I need the power I'll go aftermarket as i'm starting to read up on performance gains people have achieved.

So talking(writting) this out has completely changed my mind, in the end hopefuly making the better decision...

 

I ordered my car through Morristown MINI and soo far things have been ok. Granted, my contact has been minimal (I talked to a salesman for 1/2 an hour and faxed my setup to him 2 weeks later) but they seem nice. A few people in this part of NJ have recommended the Morristown dealer to me.

In this part of the country you should only pay MSRP plus the $550 destination charge. There are other fees for installation of some dealer installed items (bonnet stripes, ipod adapter etc) but a good dealer should show you a spreadsheet with set prices for each item so you can figure those numbers in.

I'm financing through the credit union at work because they had the best rate but my advice to you is that if you do finance, shop around. The dealers financing department is definitely not the only game in town

 

Racingdynamcs: Hi. I'm a lender and it appears that the dealership is not giving you the same level of residual value for the car upon your return of it at the end of the lease, or charging you too much on a buyout.

On a straight financed deal as follows (your terms): Financing 29,200 at 36 months @ some lease rate, remember lease rates are determined by an imputed method, which is the result of the computation not a factor in the computation, which occurs when the dealer figures out what the value of the car should be to him, not you, at the end of the lease. You essentially rent the car for some period, say 36 months at a reduced rate and therefore, you pay a lower payment until you turn it back in to do it all over again. That's when your bubble will be burst by the dealer.

So on a straight financed deal of $29,200 at 36 months at 5% you would pay $875.15 US per month. To get your payment down to a more reasonable level you would have to put in more downpayment and / or finance for a longer term. At 60 months the payment would decrease to $551.04 / month and at 72 months it would be $470.26.

So it appears that the MIni USA site has a higher residual value for you already figured into the deal. The dealer is using a lower amount so he / she can make more profit on the re-sale they will need to make on the return date or at the auction to get rid of it if its not in good condition. So you loose either way. Also, unless you drive the 12,000 miles or less you loose again because you have to pay the mileage overage at a high rate per mile. That's also where they get you.

Just a personal viewpoint, but my calcs of doing this for alot of years has made me decide that the only folks who make out in a lease are the dealers and those owners who don't drive their cars (ie-park it and look at it). Not to mention that if you modify the car be forwarned that you may have voided your lease contract and you will pay for that too.

My take. Buy the car don't lease it. At the end if you really like the car as most of us do, you will have something of value you own, and maybe even some equity. Just my view as a lender. By the way, I'm a commercial lender not a retail auto / lease lender. Some others in this forum may put forth an entirely different and supportable viewpoint. Just know the facts going into the deal. The manager wants to sell cars so don't rely on anything he says about financing. Find a source you know and trust and work the numbers, they tell the real story. Good luck.

whtmt & Mackenzie 911

 

We bought our MCS Cabrio in July. I work for a newspaper and handle auto dealer advertising on a daily basis. We have leased and purchased many vehicles. The MCS was going to be a second "fun car" for my wife and we plan on storing it through most of the winter (we're in the Sierra around Lake Tahoe and within the month we will have 3'+ of snow and more), so the mileage should be well under 10k/year. I was hoping for a great lease deal from BMW (something like $300-$350/mo for 39 mos). Forget it.

As you know, MINI is quite unlike anything else and no specials, no deals, the best you can expect is MSRP. They're going to really stick you with a high "money factor" and we know the residual should be sky high on a 36 month lease but they're not going to help you out there at all.

We went to a credit union that was very competitive and gave us 72 months at 4.49%. That got us a payment under $500/month and in three years we can sell it and pay off our own residual. (Which probably won't happen since my wife loves the Cabrio and I think it's the best car I've ever driven).

Ours is a pretty basic MCS with just the Premium pkg and heated seats the only options. We were able to buy it out of stock so we didn't have the fun of tracking on the boat. It's really a great car and outside of the ipod connector, we don't think it needs anything else.

Good luck on finding financing.

 

One thing to consider if leasing: they limit the annual mileage you can motor! Once you get a MINI, it will be difficult to stay within the conservative mileage limits of a lease.

 

Edmunds.com has a payment calculator that also has a buy/lease comparison that will tell you which is the better deal. Lower residuals also mean you can buy the car with less money at the end of the deal I believe. I always buy after I take a hard look at the numbers.

My brother in law leased a 350Z, got a good payment and pretty low residual so he likes the deal, because he'll probably buy the car at the end. When I ran his lease thru the Edmunds it also said he got a good lease.

But when you plow on all these add-ons, I can imagine the payment goes thru the roof. I am waiting on a pretty stock MCS and will be plenty happy at 22K. I imagine leasing it would probably be only about $300/mo. I like paying a little more where I might actually have some equity in the car. You can't modify a lease car either and you have to carry 300K minimum liabilty.

I agree to knocking off the extras obviously. Why rent all these add-ons that ultimately don't increase the value of the auto that much. Look at the marketplace here where these guys can NOT get the money back out of their expensive add-ons even though the MINI itself holds it's value so well. Accessories are money lost, IMO. It's hard to explain but in the used vehicle market, stock from the showroom and extra clean is where you increase your resale value. Performance MODS DECREASE the value of the vehicle. Just food for thought.

P.S. my understanding of the tax advantage of a lease as a tax write-off is that it is only available if the entity, the business, leases the vehicle AND the lease is only secured by the guarantee of the business, not the person. If the person is in the deal somehow it's back to tax writeoff of the actual mileage the car is used for business purposes.