I asked this in the 1st Gen MINI section, Sidewalk Owner's and have had zero responses so far. I hope I can get some help here!

The dealer had this trade's wheels resurfaced by a wheel place to remove dings, etc. They looked great at the wheel finisher's place. I went to take the test drive of the car (I bought it conditionally depending on the test drive). I noticed the wheels, which were freshly machine cut yesterday now have oxide forming on the aluminum. I can't imagine the factory wheel had this. The original condition was clear-coated, correct? The way these look, they will have to be polished with Simichrome or some other polish right away and probably every couple of weeks from there. Am I correct in assuming the factory wheels were clear-coated? Can I clear coat them myself if needed and have it look good?

There was some other wear and tear which I will have to decide if I can live with: the previous owner had a baby seat in the back. The leather is stretched where the seat base was. She probably had the base there for the last 2 years!

There are also scratches in the black wheel-well trim on both wheels on the driver's side, nicks in the paint on the hood which I expect given the Northeast roads and no 3M clear bra. Worst is a crack in the bumper and 2 cracks in 1 of the chrome trim pieces. The previous owner did not do a great job of taking car of the car.

Runs great, but I feel a slight pull to the left and a slight vibration. BMW/MINI has not finished the CPO process, so we will see if this is fixed. Hopefully it is just alignment due to our wonderful potholes. If it is more or the dealer decides not to fix things, the deal may be off.

They are asking $24900 BTW. 2008 S Convertible, Sidewalk Package and Cold Weather

Any feedback on the condition and deal would be appreciated.

I also just noticed the SIDEWALK plate on the doors are missing? Does anyone else have this on their car? It makes me wonder now if the previous owner had an accident and had the car repainted? Maybe tied in with the scratches on the wheel trim? The dealer said a lot of MINI owners debadge the car? Does not make sense for a special edition such as this. Is this true at all? It is just a badge that says "Sidewalk". It ties into the S badge on the sides. It goes on the door.

So, as I stated above, should I avoid this deal? Too risky? Carfax is clean, but I do not know if that means much. 1 owner who is local. I saw the car as received and it had bugs all over the front. Obviously the previous owner did not like to wash her MINI!

So, please help with feedback!

 

Let it go.

 

I paid a little less than that for my new 2010.

 

But it looks lile you have a hardtop, not a convertible. The convertible adds about $6k.

I told a local dealer if a new convertible could be ordered with Premium, Cold and Sport Packages with leather seats for about $30k, I would do it. They only want to discount MSRP by $750, so we are a long way off.

FYI - The Sidewalk package is the Premium Package, Sport Package, custom wheels an badging and an English Malt Leather interior with matching trim. The seats have nice piping also. The deal I am looking at has this plus the Cold Weather Package. It was about $5k worth of packages.

 

I'll try to answer your questions...

Yes, the factory wheels are clearcoated.

No, normally people who buy a Sidewalk Edition would not remove the door sill plates.

Yes, it may have been in an accident.

No, it does not sound like a "deal".

Hope this helps...

 

RUN from that deal.

Carfax doesn't mean anything nowadays.

A Carfax report will only show incidents which were reported to an insurance company. If the previous owner had a friend-of-a-friend in the collision repair business, they could very well have chosen to pay out of pocket for basic cosmetic repairs and then got rid of the car as soon as the repairs were finished.

 

Yeah, I figured as much about Carfax. The paint looks nice, but I don't know why anyone would remove the door badges. They looked great on the doors!

 

The price is right at book, so you are correct. Not a "deal".

I will have to see what we can work out for a new 2010. I am hoping that between the package discount, 0.9% and some additional discount, I can get a Convertible S with Premium, Sport and Cold Weather with Lounge Leather for about $31k-ish.

 

Doesn't sound like a good deal to me, lots of little things wrong, I would look around more or try to negotiate a better deal on a new one.

 

Yeah, I am trying to see how I can do on a new one. I only have 2 MINI dealers in the immediate area. 1 said they won't lose a deal on price but said they would only take $750 off MSRP of a $32k car. Not much of a deal still. Anyway, if I can get at least $1k off plus the package discount of $1750 ($2750 total off car) I will order a new one. Otherwise, I will keep looking.

 

Don't know your time frame for needing to purchase, but I do know convertibles were discounted last fall when the weather turned cold. Same could happen this year, if you're willing to wait.

 

MD,,hiya. I would try again. Still want me to check my neck of the woods?

 

Hey EE, how's it going?

I think I am good right now. The dealer and I spoke today in length about this. Definitely no accident damage. They have to fix everything before car can be cpo'd. I will see and drive it again later this week or early next week. Then I will make my final decision.

I almost went for a new car, but the payments are just too high with the options I want, so no can do.

 

I'll second that opinion on Carfax not meaning all that much. It may show changes of ownership, but even on an insurance-reported incident (which almost was worth a total - no kidding) it strangely did not show up on Carfax. btw - three of my wheels were cleaned up and repainted, re-coated, or whatever they do.

If the wheels were re-finished, were they true and round? Do the tires need re-balanced after the re-finishing? AMHIK!

If this is a dealer trying to make a sale, you may ask them to restore the missing badges.

Good luck. My first Mini was an "executive demo", and I wasn't afraid of looking at slightly used ones on a dealer's lot. If you go this route, make sure that you have some sort of warranty and/or service contract to cover all those little things that get forgotten just before the papers are signed.

 

I know you really can't trust any information out there. So here is what I am going to do:

1. The dealer is fixing/replacing all items on my list.
2. When it is done, I will do a VERY throrough inspection. I have seen doors affected by accidents before and can see the waves in the metal due to reshaping/grinding etc. at close inspection.
3. Take it for a drive - if it does not handle perfectly and look great and no evidence of damage, I walk away and continue my search.

I think it should be a nice car if everything checks out.

The nice thing is they are doing a throrough job so far on making it CPO ready. It will have the 100k mile warranty with the CPO.

 

Given the issues you state I can't imagine the dealer trying to make the car a CPO which would add at least a couple of grand to the price. The car just doesn't sound like it would make the cut.

 

Funny you should mention the couple of grand. The dealer said if I don't want the car he will raise the price by $2k to get some of his money back. He actually intended to list it for $25900 but it was listed for $24900 so he gave me the price.

Anyway, he intends to make it right whether I buy it or not. Otherwise it is back on sale for $26900!

 

Hey MD, are you stuck on the convertible idea? Our MCS is pretty open and airy with the sunroof open and cost less brand new (fully loaded) than what they are quoting you for a damaged cpo.

Wife got a Union Jack on the roof and it makes it really nice when it is too hot out and gets some nice looks.

 

We test drove both and decided that the convertible was the way to go. I was going to sell/trade my X3 and get a hardtop but my wife wants to keep the X3 and get a 3rd vehicle. So the convertible was decided for sure. We had a Z3 and really miss the convertible experience.

Anyway, I will see how this Sidewalk looks after it is done, as I mentioned. If anything does not look right I am walking away from this one.

 

Well, after 2 weeks of agonizing over this "deal", I killed it today. They fixed the bumper, fixed the chrome bumper trim (both damaged), almost fixed the scratched wheel moldings (rear replaced, front still on order supposedly), fixed the LARGE chip in the hood, fixed a broken hood scoop. However, the refinished wheels still have a weird coloring. They are supposedly clear coated, but the wheel guy did a TERRIBLE job on 1 wheel in particular.

The car still does not track straight. It pulls to the right when accelerating regardless of the road crowning direction, has a little extra vibration/shake.

The best thing about the car? I do love the supercharger whine over the turbo. It really is addicting!

BTW - those who said how could this be a CPO? It is.

So with the remaining issues and my continued doubts about how the previous owner did all of this on a 2008, I decided to kill the deal. So I will continue to look for now or stick with my BMW dealer who has done a great job on 2 CPOs now.

 

Sorry you didn't find the MINI of your Dreams, but one is out there just waiting for you. You're Smart for knowing when to walk away!!

Good Luck...if anything NEW MINIterliazes let us know!!

 

you made the right move, follow always your gut feeling, it never fails. Trust me you don't want to drive down the block and it starts breaking down on you here and there and more suprises later that hurt the wallet. been there done that, f-ing nightmare. Don't doubt, keep hope and keep going. Motor on buddy!