Old member here, need advice!
 

Hello all, I was on the forums a lot when I bought my mini back in 09, it was a blast and I loved that car, no joke. fast forward 3 years and I am moving to Texas, traded it in for a brand new truck :impatient::no: it was in the moment and I obviously regret it now. Now I'm going full force to get another mini and I have a few questions. I got real lucky with the truck and bought it for a pretty good price so I'm hoping the equity isnt too big of an issue.

1. Truck is a 2013 F150XL BASE MODEL with 6,000 miles, literally 4 months old.

NADA value is around 19,500
KBB doesnt have a value for this year
Clearbook says its 20,950
and all the others are somewhere in between

What can I realistically expect to get if I am 100% FIRM with them?

2. Since I financed my first mini through mini financial does this help me at all with discounts or anything of that nature?


3. Should I still haggle the price of the actual new mini down as well?


Not sure if I made a mistake but I made contact with the dealer already with my intentions of trading in, and all that jazz. So I want to still be able to walk in numbers ready and knowing exactly what I want. Any input is appreciated thanks!

1. Always know your firm price for a trade in. If its reasonable you will find a dealer willing to meet it. Get quotes on your trade in from multiple dealers. I also usually will average out values from multiple sites for my number.

2. Not in my experience. Will just make the paperwork go a little faster since they already know part of your financial history.

3. Always haggle. I always aim for 4-7% off of MSRP (sticker minus dealer markup) at least. The closer they get to what I want on my trade in he more flexible I get on the % off I want.

I always say know the numbers you want and stay firm (if they are reasonable) you will find a dealer willing to meet those numbers... And in the end if you are happy with the deal then it was a good deal regardless of the numbers.

For reference the mini roadster I just bought the dealer came within $200 of what I wanted for trade in and $3k off of a $35k sticker price. It helped that I had similar offers from two other dealers in writing.

1) You are in TX, so the market for the truck should be good and you should be able to get a good price for it. It will take some work to get the best price, so shop it around a bit. Usually resale prices go something like this from best price to worst....private sale, Carmax, dealer, used car lot.

2)I'm guessing here, but would say "no". I have not seen anything in writing. However, I have heard of dealers giving "repeat customers" a discount if you go back to the same dealer, but I'm not sure exactly how much of that is smoke and mirrors, kind of like the old sales phrase, "for you, my friend, I can do XXXX".

3)You should definitely haggle the price! Its never a pleasant experience except if you enjoy that type of thing, but paying MSRP on a mass produced car is not the norm. Do your research and shop around if you have multiple dealers. Dont feel obligated to buy from the first dealer you walk in to. Also keep in mind that if something isnt there on the lot that you like, you can have the dealer do a search to see if there are ones either in the pipeline or that they can work a trade with another dealership.

Finally, best of luck and keep your options open as far as what you would be willing to settle down on, it will make negotiations go better. Also, unless you signed something with the dealer regarding a trade-in, all options are still open and no mistakes have been made. People change their minds and dealers know that. Hope all this rambling helps!

Most MINI discounts and credits are defined on MINIUSA.COM. There is currently a turnkey credit of up to $350 for returning MINIFS customers. However, no more than 30 days can lapse between loans/leases. There are also current specials on interest rates and leases for most 2013 models, some with additional credits up to $1,000 off MSRP.

Not on the website is a $500 offer for returning customers from dealers which expires 9/30. I received notice via email. Some dealers are offering as much as $2,000 off selected 2013s in inventory. See their websites.

Well I can't blame you. If I'm not mistaken, step one of the Move-to-Texas handbook says buy a truck.:lol:

One other resource you can use to value your vehicle is to search 'completed items' for your truck, in other words, see what the vehicle actually sold for, or didn't sell for, as the case may be.

thanks for the responses. he also said I need texas insurance or DL to buy a car here, I dont have either yet because it all under florida still... is that true I need those to be texas before we can do business? I didnt think you needed to..

Not saying it's not true (as I don't know for sure), but that does sound odd. I've heard of people buying cars in other states before.

Its not true, but it will be a bit more hassle since it will be treated as an out of state sale. Maybe the dealer just doesnt want the hassle???

Doesnt seem to be an issue, just wont get the tax break though since everything is still under Florida.

They offered me 16K for the truck, I was livid... I thought for sure I could EASILY swing 18K out of a BRAND NEW truck, well he wasnt willing to haggle at all considering I didnt have any other basis for my numbers, so I went to Carmax and they offered the exact same. Regardless of how big of a hit I take I'm taking this as a "lesson learned" because I know I love the Mini and that is what I will stick with.

The other issue I'm now having is the financing. I'm using my GF as a co-signer this time because she has stronger credit, they said the initial score for her looks good and she is approved. They said the biggest issue I will face is the amount of carry over to the new car and that I would most likely need to put down 2-5K in order for the numbers to work. Is this true or is there a way to keep pushing them into making it work? This is literally the only Mini dealership in my area with the selection I am looking for so its not like I can shop around which sucks.

At this point I know if I can keep the total sale under say, 32K, that I can make it work. How would I go about swinging the numbers to make that number feasible? The MSRP of the S I want is 25,500 roughly (base s with sport package) and I would be carrying over 5.5K of neg equity. So how much play do I have with the car, or the trade? Sorry for all the questions I should be better at this by now but at the end of the day I'm a naive impulsive 22 year old, sigh. Thanks guys.

Have you thought about going CPO? You can get a like new Mini under warranty that would work better for you financially. Depending on the year and mileage, you could get an S for well under $25k. Plus, you might have better luck doing a private sale of the truck. You are in Texas after all and if you set your asking price at 18k or even 20k, I doubt you would have trouble selling it at all.

I'm trying to go through all my options, yesterday was frustrating. I'm going to have about 5K negative equity rolled over. The finance guy said its going to be very tough to get financial services to get a big carry over... you know like 120% finance or whatever it may be. Is he full of crap or is he being serious? With my cosigner they said 1.9% is approved, but what should I do as far as the negative equity? I was thinking owners choice? The first mini I had was a mini select and it was great. I dont know.. its been so long.

Trucks... moving roadblocks.

Just a couple of thoughts.

You will never, ever, get what the truck is worth by trading it in. Dealers are in business to make money. If the MINI dealer doesn't really want your trade in, it will go to auction. Where other dealers will bid low in order to try to make money off it. Your MINI dealer REALLY doesn't want your truck. It's best if you can sell it yourself.

If you are upside down on the truck, don't compound your problem by rolling over more debt... You are digging yourself a deeper hole.

I would NEVER, EVER cosign on more the 100% debt, It's asking for trouble... I don't care if you were my only child, I wouldn't do it. It's dumb.

If you really need a cosigner, you probably can't really afford the car...

it sucks because I've never missed a car payment in my life but do to some dumb choices while owning the car I hurt my score pretty bad. so affordability isn't the issue it's the mistake I made to get to this point. all I want at this point is to unload the truck, get a mini, and KEEP it. after all I know I love this car as I've owned one before. and I know I can put more towards it each month to get it down quick. is it tough to get mini financial to finance 5k of negative equity? or roughly 115% ish total finance? is this next to impossible?

You will definitely take a beating on the truck no matter what dealer you go to. trading in a new truck is not a good financial decision. I just did a quick look at a ford dealers inventory in Ft Worth where I used to live and with current incentives you can buy a new F150 XL for $18,890 + TTL. So if I can buy a new one for this price why would I buy a used one for $18,000.

NADA and KBB rarely provide accurate information. They do not base their estimates on actual sales data. The dealers have access to data that the public does not and it shows what a particular vehicle with a particular mileage sold for at dealer auction. They will offer you a trade in value around that price. That way if they do not sell the vehicle within a given time frame they send it to auction and recoup their cash.

If you know you can, then do it! Pay off the truck and sell it; that would look much better on your credit record than an attempt to go deeper in debt.

Take another look at what Richardsperry offered.

Go back and read your post. Take the emotion out of this. Look at the facts.
1) you want to finance $5000 of negative equity just because you WANT a mini.
2)You have convinced your girlfriend to consign a very bad loan. It's bad for you, but worse for her.
3)The $5000 you willing to eat, do you what that money would do in a good growth mutual fund over your lifetime?

Take the emotion out of this, be mature and pay that truck off as fast as you can.

I'm beginning to agree with everyone now that I am seeing your bigger picture. This will be a lesson in discipline and delayed gratification. It does not sound like you are in a good financial position. Read and re-read RichardSperry's post, then do the right thing for yourself and your loved-ones. You are young and you still have plenty of time to get back into a MINI if that is one of your wishes....

I am an executive at a large credit union that has financed thousands of car loans over the years. I can't think of any reason that MINI (or any other reputable financial institution) would EVER consider financing a 115% car loan to roll in all of the negative equity of your truck. Every new car loses thousands of $ the second it rolls off the lot, so you're basically asking MINI to make a loan that is far riskier than 100% financing. Even if you've never missed a payment, your credit score isn't sufficient to get you the loan on your own.

I'd second (or third) the advice you've received form others: 1). don't ask your GF to cosign a loan; 2). Look around for a less expensive MINI (I'm partial to CPOs with often a better warranty than new); 3). Sell the truck privately before you buy, which will give you more $, and you'll know exactly how much you have to put down.

I'm going to echo what many have already said on here.

1) Sell truck privately. List it at a number slightly higher than what you owe currently, because just as you'd haggle with a dealer, a buyer will haggle with you.
2) Don't use the GF as a cosigner unless your credit is really that bad... that just leads to problems.
3) Go CPO. Rates on CPO Minis are EXCELLENT right now.

The girlfriend just bought a 2010 CPO Justa w/20k miles for $14993. Car originally listed at $22k and change. No sense in taking that depreciation hit with a new car unless you absolutely can't find what you want on the market or you're as anal as I am about keeping a car clean and damage free.

wow you guys are harsh but I appreciate the honesty. I didn't make a deal, the final offer was going to be for a 2013 Mini Cooper s hardtop with sport package for 24xxx and 16200 for truck. I would need to put 3k down and it would be owners choice 15k mile allowance. monthly payment would be roughly 480 which actually isn't too bad compared to truck. they said after 3 years there would be the balloon of 15k that I can decide on. so it sounds similar to what I had before with mini select only if has mileage restrictions.