Does anyone have information they can share regarding how Mini dealers in the USA get paid on the back end of new car sales? BMWNA has a program called AVP for BMW dealers which, instead of old-fashioned holdback payments, compensates dealers based on CSI, customer retention, and other measures. BMW recently tweaked the way AVP payments are determined, but there's still a lot of potential money for the BMW dealer behind the invoice. Many BMW deals are done around invoice with dealers making their $ on the back end. Since Mini is part of BMW, one wonders if the Mini back end program reflects what's going on over at BMW.

Mini USA claims to offer no holdback to dealers. Sales consultants, of course, are still interested in holding the gross between MSRP and invoice because most sales people make the bulk of their living within that margin. But the dealership protects the back end behind the invoice for obvious reasons. An unfortunate result is that driving a good deal often short-changes the sales person who isn't always able to participate in the back end payments. And, of course, the customer is pressed to pay as close to MSRP as possible because the sales consultant is trading away chunks of his/her cut every time the sales price gets near invoice.

Now that new Mini sales transactions are moving up into the $40K range, the inner workings of the deals are becoming significant during sales negotiations.

So what's the scoop?

(If this isn't info to be posted in an open forum, feel free to send me a PM if you can help add to our understanding of how the sales process works.)

P.S. It might be good to have a separate general topic focused on the subject of "How to get the best deal on a new Mini." Prices paid for F&I adds like wheel and tire insurance or other sales add-ons, as well as insights into what sorts of good deals on Minis have been negotiated, might be of interest to the new generation of Mini buyers.

Thanks.

 

Short answer is knowing all that isn't going to get you some screaming deal unless you have multiple dealers competing. In my case I only have two dealers within 2 hours of each other and the both hold the wallet tightly unless it's something they can't get rid of. That's why resale values stay pretty high.

I checked Costco buying service on our last MINI and all the dealer offered is $500 and that was a four hour drive.

 

Thanks Minnie the Moocher. I'm at dead invoice now, which is about $3K below MSRP, before any incentives, so I guess I should quit digging and pull out the old check book.

The challenge, of course, is that no deal happens until the car they ordered for me is on their lot. Can't know what incentives will be in play as they change monthly.

 

Please let us know how it works out, and post some pix when she arrives.

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

Will do. If and when the deal comes together. It is amazing how tight-lipped people are regarding how Mini USA works when it comes to actual vehicle pricing. Hard to know what the right offer should be. But I'm doing what I can to test the waters.