and I'm not that excited. She hit VDC on the 29th. I hadn't heard from the dealer yet, so I called my MA today and left a message. Someone else from the dealership left me a message saying that the car is in. In the nearly three months I've been waiting, I haven't heard anything from the dealer or MINIUSA except for one lousy pamphlet. So much for the vaunted Mini ordering experience or maybe my dealer just sucks. Although all of this might just be due to my deep seated nervousness about negotiating my trade-in deal. They had told me that they would call a week before the car arrived, so that we could get all of this out of the way before the car showed up, but here we are. I've heard some horror stories about my dealership, so I'm expecting them to low-ball my trade. I hate to walk away from my $500 down payment, but to afford the car I need to get at least a certain price on mine. It's a good 15% less than KBB says I should get, but I'm still nervous.

 

I took my current car to carmax, not sure if you have these in your area but they gave a reasonable purchase price on my car that was $2000 better than the dealer trade in value

 

If the $500 down payment you mentioned was a deposit on the car you should be able to get that back if you do not buy it.

 

I don't know if I can get the money back or not. I guess I'll find out in the next couple of days when I find time to go out to the dealer.

 

The dealers will almost always low-ball your trade-in. It's how they make money off of your trade-in. They treat your trade-in like it's a piece of crap. I just privately sold my vehicle for $4000 more than the trade-in value the dealer insulted me with. Anyways, hope you enjoy your new MC!

 

+1 I got $5500 more than my dealer insulted me with by selling it privately. It's almost as if they low-balled me because they didn't want to bother with it. I had the luxury of having a spare car to drive with my daughter going off to college though. That took the pressure off to allow me to get what I wanted for my truck.

 

I've thought about paying off the car with a credit card and selling it off myself, but it would be such a pain to try to find street parking for two cars. I just checked my email for the first time today and found that there is someone else taking over for my original MA. Maybe that explains some of the no contact from the dealer...

 

Carmax if you have one where you live. They give you an estimate in 45 minutes and the price is good for a week. They issue you a check the day you bring the car in. They were right at KBB with my Landrover Freelander (don't ever buy one) even over $2000 because I had 0% fancing on what I owed. Good Luck. I know someone at the LAX Carmax if you need help.

 

My experience with Carmax in LA was not as good. They offered me 3000 less than the dealer offered on the trade in. I traded mine in for some of the reasons mentioned, like having the car on the street while trying to sell it, and the anxiety of having to wait for potential buyers to surface. I took a hit for the convenience, but in the end I got to do what I needed to do: drive down in my old one, drive home in the the new one....

 

Well normally the onus is on the buyer to track/call/harrass MINI USA via all means possible for updates. They don't call us. As for the dealer they should have at least given u an eta.

 

Be prepared for a low-balling!

Scrap KBB, look it up on Edmunds. That will give you a much more realistic figure on what to expect. Make sure you're looking at the trade-in amount, not the retail. More than likely, they're going to offer you even less than that, too.

 

I also privately sold my previous car for $3000 more than BMW offered. Definitely try and sell it private or Carmax if you are able!

 

Financially it is never, never a good deal to trade your car

 

Sorry to hear you're not so hot on your dealer and MA. Our experience here in Atlanta was just the opposite - great dealer - easy to deal with - was willing to negotiate on the price for our R56, and kept in touch with us. MA was a true champ all the way. Best car buying experience we have ever had - and we've bought a few. As for the trade in - never a good idea to be left expecting a certain amount. But if you gotta sell try Carmax, or do what I did - ebay. Couldn't sell my truck privately for 2 weeks. Within 24 hrs of listing it on ebay I got my reserve price.

Give it a try.

Callin that a Corgi is like calling a VW a Mini!