So I have been having a mental breakdown recently on whether or not to trade in my '08 R55S Clubman for an 09' R56 JCW. There is a nice one I found recently and I took it for a drive and loved it. But there are some major negatives with this trade if I go through with it.

First, they are selling the car for under KBB by a couple grand (22K). Which is good; and they are offering me KBB value for my trade (17.5K), which is also good. The problems are:

• I have about $3K+ worth of mods on my car that will need to come off before I would trade-in the car since the dealer doesn't put a value on those. 90% of all my mods would fit on the R56 JCW, so they wouldn't go to waste.
• I JUST purchased the extended service contract on my R55, which was about $2K. The extended service contract is for 3Y/36K and I have already used about $1200 of it so far (brake work, oil change, scope, etc..) The extended service does not transfer to the new car, it stays with my R55.
• My car just clocked 35K miles while the JCW is 50 miles short of 50K miles, and is about to run out of factory warranty. My car is in warranty until October of this year.
• The options on the JCW are almost identical to those on my R55, so there is no major change to the "options" other than the factory JCW upgrades that come with the JCW package.
• I also have about $1K worth of audio in my R55 that I would need to rip out before selling.

The common sense of my brain is looking at the costs saying, "why would you get out of a low mileage warranty and service covered car with lots of mods that make it fun to drive, to get into a high mileage no warranty or service contracted car? IF I went the trade-in route and bought the JCW I would most likely purchase the extended warranty. Yes I know I would mod the JCW like I did the R55, but considering the car would be out of warranty when I buy it, I wouldn't have a chance to really drive it enough to see if there is some hidden problem with the car that needs warranty repair. Plus my dealer is pretty good with having mods on the car and don't question a lot of it when dealing with warranty work".


The more adventurous side of my brain says, "hey, it's a JCW that is in the color you like. It has all the options you wanted. Most all of my mods on my R55 will work on the R56 JCW, which will make that car even better. IF I purchase the extended warranty and am worried about costs, I COULD sell some of my parts to help cover that cost. I would lose out on the service contract which sucks, but I could either re-purchase it or just start doing all the service myself, which I hadn't been doing on the R55 since it was all covered. Plus I could see myself holding onto the JCW for a lot longer and making it a pure track car a long ways down the road".


Overall I keep talking my self into and out of this decision and I need some other opinions. I have no problem with my car as it is. It is a ton of fun to drive, and the reason I opted for the R55 in the first place was for practicality coming from an Acura MDX. I still wanted a bit more storage than the R56 seemed to provide. The R55 definitely provides the space, but after a year or so now with it, I realize I don't necessarily need all that space. Hence the attraction to the JCW.


If I wait, I could potentially hold off on the trade for a few years and maybe move into a newer JCW, maybe even a roadster which I like as well. But tell me, is this deal good or was walking the lot doing my last service appointment a bad mistake and I should just stop and wait it out?


-Z

 

You are almost out of warranty. Sure wouldn't let that hold me back.

The maintenance plan is another matter. You would essentially be throwing away three years if maintenance costs. Putting a price tag on tht is harder than looking at how much it cost. You would have to figure out how much the JCW will need in the period of time your plan would cover you in your current car.

I would not consider a car with more miles than my current one. Just does not make good sense to me.

But I know how hard it is to not follow your heart when you really love a MINI. if it really makes your pulse quicken when you're in the driver's seat, hard to put a price tag on that!