Minis are good cars and looks like a lot of people are into buying minis. They are affordable, German branding (BMW) and gas efficient.

However, I've been trying to sell my car and have even brought it in to various dealerships to get a trade in quote and it seems that the resale of MINIs in general are horrible.

What gives ?

 

Hmm, that's strange. MINIs have some of the highest residual values on the market. If you have a highly optioned car, then you may not get the optimal value on trade since the options you have may not be have much value in the resale market. When trading in at a dealer, they usually start with a relatively low figure and then try and sell you on the concept that you will be able to save on taxes and such (when you trade in a car and purchase new, you only pay tax on the difference in value). While this is true, its generally not substantial enough to offset a lowball number that they may have given you.

Also, if your car was ever in an accident, that could significantly lower your car's value. Try doing an autotrader search for your car, with the options you have and see what others are listing it for. I'm assuming the MINI you are looking to trade is the one in your signature, so one thing to consider is taking the mods off and selling those on the marketplace, since they will have no value in a trade.

 

At least around me, dealerships tend to offer very low trade-in values, far lower than even the "trade in" value in those price books. This is even for vehicles (non-MINI) that are low mileage, in new condition, and in demand.

 

I can only speak for my car and my experience...

My car is a 2009 Factory JCW with all options that you can think of except for the HK sound system. It even has the most expensive interior (redwood lounge leather). 50K miles. This car was $40.5K + Taxes - brand new. No accidents. No stories.


The values I'm getting from dealerships on trade-ins are in the range of 15K-17K.

Damn, that is low... They are saying that options loaded on the car doesn't mean much to them. Most of the numbers are based on the base model. It also seems that due to the enormous number of minis for sale, this tends to lower the demand leaving the supply high.

Sucks...

3 years & 50K miles later, is it worth to lose almost ~$25K ?

 

Why are you so inclined to sale to a dealer? I bought mine on craig's list for ~$22K, and I can easily say I would have bought it for >$24K. The value was really high, had tons of options, etc.. It also helps to advertise it in a large(r) city.

 

The options on the car really don't mean anything to a dealer. You're best bet is going to be private party sale.

Any time you buy a car, you are going to lose money in the long run if you don't drive it for 4-5 years or more in my experience. I've always lost money on my trade-ins, for the record. That's pretty significant, but the used JCW might be harder to move than the Justa or S.

 

Posted already on autotrader, ebay and NAM. No bites. No inquiries...

So itching right now to change cars so wanted to try the dealer for instant gratification. But not too fast... with the loss, I'll just keep it...

 

I'm completely well versed on losses for selling a used car. Saw losses upto 10K when sold my F355, 996TT, AMGs and NSX. But I have not seen anything like this where it's around 25K.

 

One more thing.. What you said was true... Dealers dont care about the options for trade-ins...

Also, they were saying that it's harder to push the JCWs on a used lot since only enthusiasts buy JCWs but an average joe would be happy already with the S or justa. They also said that most people that don't even know what a JCW is, would not be willing to spend more $$$ to get a car that looks the same as the S...

 

I think car values are kind of like real estate....location location location.

Last spring, I looked into trading my '08 MCS in on a new MINI and found that the trade-in value was about $3k under what online estimators said. Just out of curiosity, I also went and had my car valued for a trade in on a VW that I was kind-of interested in....this particular dealer takes you in and does the valuation with you so they can show you how they do it. The way it works these days (at least around here) is that car dealers access an online inventory of just about every car on used lots in the region and can see how long those cars had been sitting on the lot unsold. It just so happened that at the time there were several '08 MCS's in the area that had been sitting on the lot for several months, so they were apprehensive to take it....and if they did, they would likely wholesale it to another dealer or send it to auction....hence their low offer to me. Just two years before I had traded my '06 MC in at the MINI dealer for my current MCS and did very well on that trade. The market apparently has changed since then.

Honestly, I think that KBB, Edmunds, etc. were never very accurate to begin with in my experience....and now even more so. It doesn't take this newer real-time valuation method into account.

I've since decided to keep my car and pay it off and just keep driving it until things start falling apart. I really love my car....I just get spooked when my warranty runs out and have always traded at about the point. Not this time.

Also, someone mentioned above that options don't really mean much to dealers when doing trade ins. I would tend to agree with that. When the dealers I worked with were coming up with the value of my trade and looking at other vehicles for sale in the region, options weren't taken into account at all. Lounge leather, xenon lights, LSD, Comfort access, and all the other goodies that my car has made no difference to them. They of course drove the price of my car up by several thousand dollars when it was new, though. IMO, if you invest in a heavily optioned car (MINI especially), you should not expect to recoop those costs when you trade in the car. Another example.....I was considering at one point trading to a brand new R56 MC with the JCW body/wheel package. With lower finance rates and a longer loan length, my payment would have gone down.....but I was losing quite a bit of money on my trade and now that I know how they value trades, I know I would have been raped on this new MC with all this JCW stuff on it when it was time to trade it in. I would have never gotten that $2500 (or more) of non-performance add ons back....they would have just compared the car to a regular old low-option MC.

 

I agree with you....

For the record, I used to work at edmunds.com. The numbers are correct, even so with KBB, Nada, etc...

The problem is.... The dealerships really don't honor the values posted on these sites. They look around and look at the prices of the cars sold at auction houses (manheim) and they use that for pricing the trade in.

In addition, from a KBB, Edmunds pricing perspective, regardless of how pristine your car is, dealerships always use the "FAIR" value for trade ins which is BS to me.

 

It is lame, but to be honest that's how it is. You'll never get a good deal on a trade in. The best deal is always going to be a bad deal, just not as bad... but never "good" and certainly not close to what you'd get private.

 

I've always considered turning in my car as a trade-in, versus selling it on the open market, is the last-resort, least resistance move and will yield the lowest value. You'd also be avoiding "the hassle" of selling it yourself, and that's worth something, or not, depending on your patience & tolerance level.

What the car's worth, of course, is what the market will pay. That's the price the dealer will hope to get if they sell it themselves. What they'll pay *you* for it needs to be below that, by as much as you'll accept. If your trade-in isn't eye-friendly, popular, appealing, etc. they'll figure on wholesaling it...so the offer to you will reflect that. With a new car sale in the mix, maybe there's a little "room" to offer you more than they might (and, withhold much reduction on the new car sale price), or not.

I'd figured that about JCW MINIs (that the market, in general, wouldn't particularly value them as something special). We get pretty aware of what's what, and what certain models cost, etc. But the public at large might just see that "cute MINI with a red roof". And it's *how* much? People see my MCS, and ask, "What do these run?" I always tell them, you can pay about $20k for a new one, or $45k, they'll make it just as you want. "Really?" Oh yes!

 

Also were you trying to trade in at a Mini dealer? You might get a better offer there...

 

No, i did not... I was trying to get an E55 AMG so unless they have it on their lot, i wont even bother. I wonder if i can sell them my car without buying one from them (ala carmax style) ?

Sent from my iPad using NAMotoring

 

Can't imagine why they would say no unless they have a ton used Minis sitting around. Do you owe on the JCW?

 

No. Bought it loan free...

 

From my 15 years experience working at dealers most do not like or even refuse to take in modded cars. I see you JCW has a list of aftermarket parts installed.

If I was you I would call the local MINI dealer to see if they would be interested in buying it. Just my two cents.

 

The only place where options come into play is when you are selling the car yourself. If there are 3 Coopers for sale and the other 2 are based out, yours becomes more attractive.

 

A highly optioned car is expensive and then to a used buyer they don't raise the value. And being a JCW it's already expensive but to the average mini buyer it's still just a Mini.

Buying new and hoping for high resale only a few years later is asking a lot, unfortunately. I bought my 2003 used and 6 years later sold it for $6500 less than I paid. So if resale is a driving factor consider used next time.

 

Speaking from experience(and I had traded and purchased 7 cars in this year alone-very long story), most of what's been said in this thread is generally true. But there's always exceptions. Dealers will use the countrywide auction info to get the lowest price for your trade in. Well, why don't you use the same?

I had a 2011 Cadillac CTS wagon that I had purchased for 36k. Only had 3k miles and fully optioned out. They offered me 17k for my previous SUV that was just purchased 2 mths ago for 23k. I assumed I was gonna take a 1-2k hit on the trade in but not that much so I almost walked away. However, I took a step back, turned on my laptop and did a nationwide search. You name it, eBay, craigslist, Autotrader.com, cars.com and also my bank's black book value. There were a few that was in the 36k range but with no options and slightly more miles 5-8k. Went back to him and said these are my options. Get close to it and I don't give a rat's butt if his had sunroof, whatever packages, etc.(since he said those options didn't raise the value of my trade in so I turned it on him). His sticker price of 45k went down to 36k after some long drawn out stare downs, at which point I agreed. So that 6k loss on the trade in was offset with the 9k drop in asking price. 4 months later, I traded the CTS for 36k and bought a WRX for $500 over invoice at a Subaru dealership by using the same methods. Got lucky on that trade in though, but I didn't mention I had a trade in until we agreed on purchasing price of the new vehicle. Oh and I also traded in my WRX to a dealer who offered a lower trade in after getting a higher offer by a credit union. The credit union agreed to buy the WRX from the dealer after my trade in at the higher offer so the dealership matched their number. Dealership ended up selling the WRX within 3 days at a profit so it worked out anyways :P

 

I tried a couple online depreciation calculators, and a loss of $25k to depreciation is pretty much in line with the average. MINI is supposed to be better than average in holding resale value. But, since you are trying to do a trade-in, the dealers are going to be on the low end, especially compared to selling it yourself. So, like others have suggested, it really sounds like you need to go the private sale route if you want to get the $$$ you were expecting. Waiting for the right buyer comes along means you'll miss out on that instant gratification of getting into a new car you were seeking.

Good luck!

 

I tried to see what the dealerships around me would offer on my MINI after a year, I had 28K miles on her and in perfect condition. They offered me 17.5K...

...no thanks. I'll keep my MINI and private list it instead in two-three years.

 

The dealer always wants to buy (trade) at wholesale value so he can detail your car and then try to resell it at close to retail. If you're looking for someone to pay you retail, you're going to have to arrange a private sale yourself. Trading is the easy way out.

 

MINIs are expensive to fix. As they age there is more to fix. I think that is another reason why resale isn't that good.