Is there much "haggling" with the price of a new Mini? My bank pre-approved me and is physically giving me a blank check to go and purchase my next vehicle.

Will I be able to use this as a bargining tool or are prices set in stone?

Thanks,
drew

 

You might get some floor mats. Just make sure you are not paying above MSRP. Some dealers go thousands above that when others dont. But beyond that you are not going to get too far. :(

 

Basic economics of supply and demand, unfortunately. There aren't waiting lists at the Toyota dealer, so you can probably get them to cut you a break, but with MINI, a lot of dealers will charge quite a bit above MSRP simply because they can; people are still lining up around the corner for one, even at the elevated price. You should be able to fairly easily find a dealer that will just charge you straight MSRP. Also, be wary of dealers trying to sneak in a hefty "documentation fee," which many people report to have encountered to the tune of hundreds of dollars.

 

I had three loans in my back pocket when I bought my MINI. I told their manager to beat my loan APRs! And he did through Chase.

 

Supply is still low and demand is still high. The MINI is not a haggling car, and some of it has to do with your (unknown) location. If you're in an area that has many dealerships like the NE, then maybe you can negotiate a bit of a discount on dealer stock on hand--not ordering. If not, like the the West, well, MSRP is considered a victory considering some areas still charge well over MSRP, up to $4-5K in CA.

If you can score a dealer demo, then they usually can knock off maybe $100/per 1,000 miles, and still get the full warranty.

Forget everything you've ever known regarding buying a new car. There are no customer incentives with MINI purchasing, other than maybe free floormats or a hat. MINIs have some of the highest resale/residual values in the industry, mostly because of the supply/demand dynamic and that they're not discounted/incentived to death (and that there are no fleet sales to rental car agencies.)

So just pay MSRP like (most) of the rest of us, and have a great time

Oh and if anyone posts that they got a discount of over say $1,000 on a new, untitled, MINI, esp. the S, don't believe them.

Welcome to NAM! Jimbo

 

i would plan on msrp... and not higher....

lower is rare...

 

It seems that most are going for MSRP. When they first came out they asked for a couple of thousand over MSRP.

I will warn you, be careful with your options. For example the Aero Kit on line is $1250, they tried selling us one for $3,300 painted and installed. The Sirius radio option on-line is $400 the dealer wanted to charge us $800 after installation! All the Minis are PRE-WIRED!! We did it ourselves for $300!

They are trying to make their money with the options. Just do your homework before adding on.

Also if you have a loan approved already unless they are going to save you points instead of just a .25 point then keep the loan you have. The dealer/salemen get kick backs from the banks. He will probably make more on the loan than you will save over the life, make sure you run the numbers.

Hope this helps and have fun!

 

Thanks guys.....I'm in Houston and we have 2 dealers, Momentum & Woodlands....if there are any Texans out there, any insight would be appreciated.

 

Drew, try posting on "MINI Talk" requesting feedback about dealers in your specific area. You'll probably get a few more responses than in the "Ist gear" section. Dunno about Houston, but I know Moritz MINI up in Arlington? gets RAVE reviews for their pricing (MSRP) and general customer service before and after the sale. Jimbo

 

http://www.metroplexmini.org/forum/

This is a Texas Mini Club Forum. They have helped me out in the past, give them a try.

 

See my response to your post in 'MINI Talk'!!

 

Hi Drew. I consider myself very good at auto negotiations, way back when I was a sales manager for for a huge Electronics firm, and as part of our training, we used to regularly go to car sales seminars. I also have several friends that are auto sales managers, so I know how to go in armed and ready to deal.

With that being said, in the land of Mini, that all means next to nothing......
It's all supply and demand, and with Mini, supply is not in your favor.
( orders are starting to get backed up due to the plant in England being retooled for the 07 models)

As I shopped for cars, I only found two dealers in the NY, PA , NJ
area that would discount a Mini. They would only hagle on the highest priced
Minis that were on the lot. I too had cashiers checks for the purchase price of the car.

One dealer went as low as 1000.00 off of the price of a new car on the lot that listed at just over 30,000.00. but it was a standard MCC (prior to spring) that was loaded with options. Another dealer went 500.00 off list on a similar car. So there _is_ hope, but not much..... and I only got to those prices after weeks of going back and forth.

No dealer would discount a car that was ordered, other than to throw in
Mats and a full tank of gas.

In the end, I bought a pristine used MCC ( Mini Cooper Convertible ) from
a dealer. Dealers WILL hagle on used Minis. The car was listed at 22,000.00
and I bought it for 20,000.00, but again it took weeks of going back and forth. ( and yes, I got the mats and the tank of gas )

Good Luck, and don't get frustrated if you can't pull off a miracle !
Let us all know how you make out.

 

Also, the end of the month helps with moving their inventory.

 

sheesh. no offense to those who posted in this thread, but you just didn't try hard enough. when i was ready to buy (april, 3 months ago) i spent 30-45 minutes on the phone and called ~20 dealers.

my high pressure technique?

"hi. i'm ready to order and know what i want. if you have an april build slot then your sales effort is complete and all we need to do is talk price."

(i wanted purple, last month it was being made)

almost all said yes.

"ok, are you willing to come off of sticker"

almost 1/3 of them said yes.

that was it. i picked the best combination of distance from me vs. $$ off, took the deal to my local dealer and asked them to match it. they came real close, but lost the sale over some unrelated personnel issues.

deals are out there. don't be discouraged just because peeps here tell you it can't be done. it can.

 

Thanks for all the help guys! I'm scheduling a long test drive this Friday...even taking the day off.

I hope to post pics soon.

 

I paid MSRP and we have no sales tax so that along with registration and a couple of extras and that was it! One of the easiest car buying experiences I have had in a long time!

 

joedude99I had three loans in my back pocket when I bought my MINI. I told their manager to beat my loan APRs! And he did through Chase. As far as price, I paid MSRP. Didn't see many options since the dealer I bought from was 100 miles away and the next closest dealer was twice that.

joedude 99 is right on track with loan interest rates.

After ordering my Mini there was a couple months to look for the best interest rate. I secured a loan at a local bank and didn't think there was any way the dealer could beat (or even match) it. When my salesman called to tell me the car had been delivered, and asked me about my loan, I told him not to bother with the sales pitch. He said he understood but would like a chance. I gave him my information (for a credit check) and told him he would have to beat what I already had secured but also told him he would not know what my previously secured interest rate was. To my surprise, the dealer beat the best rate I could find by .5%.

As previously mentioned, the dealer can make more money on dealer installed accessories than they make on the rest of the deal (this is speaking as a ex-service manager at a Acura dealer.) Most accessories are pre-configured for easy installation.

Good luck. In the end, there's nothing like a Mini!!!

 

Well PPE no offence to you but 1. you never stated how much you were offered off sticker for what? 1/3 of the dealers (which ones?) U contacted? and 2. how many MINI dealers are there in a say 200 mile radius of Indy? Quite a few, I bet. There are many areas of America with no dealers, and 3. Some of us "peeps" do not have the luxury of a saturated market and not a lot of local dealer choices. And many of us don't have the time nor the meznicks to cold call MAs far and wide and browbeat them into two to five cent discounts on their dealer inventory....

And many of us peepers were very happy to know exactly what we were paying within 10 minutes of being in the showroom. Make for nice, stress-less auto shopping

So us "peeps" are not tryin to discourage this new buyer with our HORROR stories of paying MSRP for a car with the highest resale value on the American market, and the least incentived car sold in America in the last two years. No siree. The reality of the current situation is that fewer MINIs are being cranked out now due to retooling of Oxford for 07s that another enlightened poster commented; demand has increased a little, now that they're recommended by Consumer Reports; to pay MSRP/no more is the general rule and any small discount, under a nickle at the most (or freebies), is a nice treat (specifically. Schomp Denver's 65th annivesary had $250 discounts on all their new, unsold MINIs recently); markups are still common esp. in trendy areas of CA; demos do get discounts but not usually more than a dime; and $30K+ MC and MCS's of all flavours with JCW and loads of expensive dealer add-ons get discounted the deepest.

I know someone that got just under $2K off a $43,000 MCS JCW with every bell and freaking OEM whistle and then some. Big deal. He's still bragging about it, and I just laugh that he paid an almost 400% markup on many of those dealer accessories... Nice discount, hoser!

IOW PPE, your situation is the exception, not the (general) rule. I'm not denying it can be done, buddy, it's just... the... exception here in MINI land. Thanks for your input, but next time please do be more specific when you talk "discounts," for many of us are very curious as to how much and where--and if the deal actually went through. Cheers, 'quenz

 

1) i was offered from 500-1200 off a 33k sticker, no dealer installed options.
sales is still a relationship thing, so i will not state which dealers made offers. i didn't call anybody west of the mississippi. ymmv.

2) sure, there are more dealers in my region than some others. only one is local, though. the rest are a minimum of 150 miles away in another state.

3) sorry, i'm bad with internet shorthand. peeps is short for people, no offence intended.
there were no meznicks involved, i literally used the words you quoted.
that was it. hardly browbeating.
and i knew what i was paying w/in 1 minute of my MA calling me back.

having a good relationship with the service department you actually will be using is also a critical piece. that relationship over the life of your car will be worth more to you AND your dealer than the initial sale. d&r service in indy is a class act, so no issues here, but you need to make sure that your local dealer won't shun you. talk to the SA, not the MA about this...

i travel a lot, so picking it up was not a real issue. for many, that cost alone might negate the savings elsewhere, unless the dealer is adding markup to the sticker.

all that said, it still simply prudent to try to pay the least you have to.

no doubt the MINI is great at holding value and is a smart buy. i LOVE my car. i'm also glad i didn't settle for the mindthink i got when i first lurked here, that i would be lucky to settle for MSRP and not pay dealer markup.

if my deal is the exception here, i think that is at least partly engendered by the community speak that it can't be done. fyi my deal did go through, on a custom spec'd car. month and a half from order to delivery. i've been motoring for a month now in my new toy.

last note: after closing the sale, i called back the other MA's who had given me quotes and thanked them for their efforts. every single one of them asked for the chance to meet or beat whatever deal i had accepted (except for the few who had offered me better deals than mine but i had ruled out for locational reasons).

peace...

 

well, that's one of the main reasons you got a discount... With 30k plus MINIs it seems to be the norm... However, if you are just ordering a base 18k cooper with the options you want, it's unlikely you will get anything off... Same goes for the S. Hence most people's budgets for MINIs are in the 20's. I think that is the point being made. Of course there are exceptions to every rule - like if you buy from the dealer's inventory and don't special order...

 

Prplppletr, ( cool name BTW )

I'm glad that you validated my opinion that deals can be made.
But like I said, it's all about your area's supply and demand.
Mini dealers get an alotment of cars, and if they can sell everyone at list they will.

I used the same cold call technique as you, but with a better twist.
I had car dealer sales managers (of other brands including BMW) that I have
good relationships with prequalify me to the Mini dealers in the area as a valid
no nonsense guy with cash that would buy on the spot if I get what I want.
After recieving names of Mini sales managers from my buddies, I started making phone calls.

That effort and 25K in certified checks got me _only_ the two offers of discounts
that I spoke about in my last post.

Using that same technique in 2003, I was able to buy my Honda Odessy
in 15 minutes, at only 200.00 over _dealer invoice_, at a time when others
(including my next door neighbor) were paying thousands _over_ list price.

So my point is, the Mini Dealers in my area represented the first time ever
that I coudn't rangle the deal I wanted on a new car, so I didn't buy one.
They moved onto the next customer that was willing to buy at list price.

I was happy with the deal I got on my convertible, considering that
I bought it comming into the summer season. But it was still no steal.
I paid about 700 over Galves wholesale pricing for similar cars.
( Galves is the used car book that dealers go by.It's updated weekly,
and is a compilation of all used cars sold in the country to dealers at
wholesale auction the week prior)

So I applaude you for using good purchasing techniques and landing a good
deal. Just understand that deals vary by your proximity ( or lack there of)
to multiple dealers and interested buyers. Even the most savy buyer can't
defeat the law of supply and demand.

Cheers,

 

Options are options weather installed at the dealer or in England. That is how they make their money.

We did shop around and the best we could come up with off the BASE MCS was $500 off MSRP. That was becasue my brother-in-law is in tight with his dealer. But it was in New Jersey...and it was not worth the drive back and forth for only $500.

Our dealer came down quite a bit on price at the end of the month. But I am not counting that because it was not the sticker MSRP. They turned our car into a white elephant with the aero-kit and wheels. They moved on price becasue they inflated it.

Listen, really, I am glad you were able to get such big savings on a $33,000 Mini. But like mini-mine said your car is far from the base model and you are still paying an inflated price for any Mini with more than the basic options. IMHO(in my humble opinion).

 

My discount was greater then $1000 on my 2006 that I ordered! Sometimes the stars just line up that way