I just read this on msn home page. Theres a full article on it if you want to read it.


Best 5 Models in Value Retention (look at number 1)!!!
RankBrandModel3-Year Retention1.MINICooper67%2.ToyotaCamry62%3.ToyotaRAV462%4.ScionxB61%5.HondaCR-V60%

Worst 5 Models in Value Retention (this is sad, and embarrasing)
RankBrandModel3-Year Retention1.FordFreestar27%2.Ford**Taurus28%3.ChryslerSebring convertible28%4.ChevroletUplander28%5.PontiacMontana30%
**This does not include the new 2010 Ford Taurus

 

67% doesn't sound too good, I got 80% for Quentin after 3 years.

 

I think that's just an average percentage. It's awesome that we're over the Camry!

 

yay =D

 

I would bet it would be more in a better economy

 

Come on - the Camry is like the most popular sedan in the world! That it ranks behind the MINI, a MUCH smaller market car is, I believe, HUGE!
Motor on, MINI!

 

The TV commercials from Honda still say they are #1.

(not saying that is true just repeating what their commercial says)

 

A lot of it also depends on how many options are on the car. Money spent on factory options depreciates a lot more than the money spent on the base price of the car.

In other words, if you buy a $20,000 MINI and don't add any options, it's going to be trivially easy to sell it in a year or two for $13,400 (67% of the original price). In fact, you'll probably get significantly more than that for it.

But if you buy a $20,000 MINI and add another $10,000 in factory options on top of that, it's going to be harder to get $20,100 (67% of the original price) after a few years.

You'd have to find someone that really knows what the various options are worth, or else they're going to look at your $20,100 asking price and compare it to the $20,000 MSRP and wonder why you're trying to screw them.

 

Interesting. I never thought of it that way. I always had the mind set that the car had greater resale with more options. but you view shows me, you may actually get more of your money back with less options. ie. less innitial investment.

 

Hooray for MINI!!! The MINI story is a pretty amazing one...I'm glad we can be part of it!!

 

X2

Now as soon as I get a little extra cash, Im going to restore a "classic mini"
after all, they started the whole love affair for us!

 

This is true as I have first hand experience with this. Back in October '03 I bought a brand new '04 MCS. I kept the car until February '05 (16 months). The car was a factory order...Chili Red, white roof, Harmon Kardon, front fogs, leatherette, MFSW 16" wheels, pretty much it. Fairly basic car

I paid for the car $21,000 before taxes and fees (Taxes and dealer fees are non-recoverable monies)

Put 17K miles during that year and a half of ownership. When the '05s came out (and after taking a test drive) decided that the newer "Facelift" MINIs were more of my liking.

So decided to put the '04 on sale and put and ad in Cars.com (That site has never failed me).

48 hours after I put the ad online, I received a call from a local lady telling me that she has the cash on hand for the car and not to sell it to anyone (I had posted 12 photos on the ad). At first, I believed it was a prank call 'cause...Common! Who's gonna want to buy an used car sight unseen?

So as the conversation kept going it seemed that this person was very serious about her interest on the car. She gave me her office address and phone number and we agreed on a time to meet.

I was asking $22K for the car. She didn't even attempt to haggle down a cent. She had $22K in cold cash to give me the next day...wow

So I arrive to our meeting the following day. She was there with her husband (A nice gentleman from Seattle). They saw the car and you could see both of them drooling at it. I encouraged them to take the keys and drive it around the block. No dice. They wanted the car, period. I showed them my maintenance records. They were even more eager to get the sale done and over with.

10 minutes later I had 4 stacks of bills ($5,000 each stack) plus a $2K bank check in my pocket. I was nervous as heck carrying all that money on me. Went to the title office, transferred the title, paid the county taxes and within the hour I had $22K in my pocket and 2 happy new MINI owners.

The couple told me that they had been searching for used MCS for months, but all searches turned up mostly fully loaded cars. They were not interested in sunroofs, leather seats, NAV, etc. They wanted the most plain Jane/basic MCS they could get their hands on and mine was it. They also loved the color (Hint: red cars are very easy to sell) so that was icing on the cake.

That was back in 2005 when the world/economy was in a different tune. Doubtful I'll ever pull a private sale like that again. But lessons learned from that experience is that...

1) MINIs do hold their resale values very well

2) MINIs a re very desirable vehicles

3)The less options you load a MINI with the better residuals/more desirable the car will be.