With the current economic situation, are MINI owners finding tough time to sell their MINIs? Second, is it tougher or easier to find a buyer for JCW and GP?

 

The economy sucks, plain and simple. People either have lost jobs are drowning in debt or the one's still doing well are postponing non-essential big ticket purchases like cars. There is little confidence to make large purchases, period.

Also low gas prices aren't helping either.

We are on for a long and rough ride unfortunately.

 

It appears to be tough. I've had mine listed for over a week, dropped the price once and not even an inquiry...let alone someone asking questions about buying it.

 

I know the dealer I've been talking to about finding an 05 r50 for me seems anxious to get a car sold haha. He said they were going for a premium when gas was high...and basically now they just want them gone. I'm worried about how long it will take to sell my jeep, but when its gone it sure will be fun to see which dealer will give me the best deal on an 05.

 

Car sales, new and used, are in the dirt right now obviously. MINI's are no different at least in the used market. Keep in mind that priced right, anything will sell quickly. It's just accepting that "priced right" is probably going to be lower than you'd like now.

 

There's pent-up demand out there. At some point the Consumer is going to get sick and tired of being depressed, and will simply start buying. It'll happen very slowly at first, then pick up - but slowly. Unfortunately, between now and then there's a rough economic road - and the "not buying" has caused some very real economic impact that it'll be tough to get out of.

Anyone have any economic stimulus ideas?

At the risk of sounding remotely political, I do wish the guys in Washington the very best. It absolutely doesn't matter whose party you/we rooted for, conservative or liberal or middle of the road, and whether this guy or that paid taxes, cheated, or screwed up somewhere in the past. It simply doesn't matter... IF we can make this thing work.

Screw politics, we all need to pull together and make this COUNTRY work together again.

Then your Mini will sell.

.

 

I am not sure if we can spend our way out of this recession. I still think that issues such as jobs, housing, health care, etc need to be addressed first before we just encourage people to go and spend money. It is a very tough situation no matter from which angle you look at it.

With so many layoffs in the news, people still holding onto their jobs are riding the crisis and taking a wait and see approach. Buying new or used cars is not a huge priority to most. People worry about paying the bills, putting food on the table, being able to safeguard their roofs, etc.

I agree that people need to make sacrifices. But we need to make sure that we are either all in this together and not just "some" and not the "others" (Like crooked bankers having the ride of a lifetime on bailout money).

 

I was selling my Lotus Elise starting around Christmas and listed my Scion xD 3 weeks ago. According to cars.com, the Elise had ~40 views/day. Scion has 2. I had people asking about the car / haggling on the Elise every day - haven't had a single real inquiry on the Scion.

Scion is only a year old, has plenty of warranty left, has excellent gas mileage and Toyota heritage. It's also cheap. Lotus is a toy, and still people want it a lot more.

So much for a recession. Lotus got sold yesterday for pretty much my asking price.

I'm still waiting for my Clubbie, but keep an eye on the used MINIs in the 200-300 mile radius. Saw a packed Clubman S with everything including nav and auto listed on eBay for $24K Buy-it-Now. It didn't sell. So that's 30% depreciation in one year and it's still not moving. Guess if I'm going to ask for $1500 off MSRP when haggling time comes in 10 days...

 

I think sales must be declining. I checked the market value of my 2004 MCS on Edmunds the other day and the retail selling price was under $12,000. A few months ago it was around $14,000.

It could be that the change in the calendar makes my car officially 5 years old now. I think that makes it harder to get financing on it, even in the best of times, so that might be coming into play.

 

Lower gas prices could be something to blame on. Americans have short memories.

 

Oh, don't misread - I agree with you. This'll be a s-l-o-w road. Unfortunately.

OP, I think a JCW or GP will sell better - to Zoltiz' point, there's always a market for good specialty stuff.