Just a question to anyone who traded in a car when they purchased their MINI...did your dealership give you anything close to Kelly Blue Book trade-in value for your car?

 

:smile:

 

Yes, I did. No where near. There was the Cooper and me bent over a barrell. What was I going to do. Left feeling royally screwed. I guess they do love me after all.......

 

related to this...how about a mc trade-in for a mcs? especially one that's 6000 miles and discontinued color, eg. silk green? what is kelly blue book cause i haven't found one yet - too new i think?

 

>>related to this...how about a mc trade-in for a mcs? especially one that's 6000 miles and discontinued color, eg. silk green? what is kelly blue book cause i haven't found one yet - too new i think?
Are you sure you want to trade in your MC? It's a good car.

The beastmaster traded his lovely DS/Bk MCS for a 5 series BMW sedan at the dealer.
You could probably get something for your nice MC in a trade but I would think that you'd do better selling on the used
private market. We should all go out to the K-mart Kapolei car meet some saturday and line up our MINIs to attract attention then put a for sale by owner sign on yours and see what interest we can drum up. I'll play my stereo to attract attention.

The dealer offered me $600 for my 1991 Dodge Caravan SE with 125,000 miles on it. I then sold it to another party for $1800 cash and had other backup offers for a later-date sale for as much as $3000.

 

I'm not going to trade in my car. This will be the first time I have overlap on my cars. My insurance company has a great policy - I just pay 30 bucks a month to cover both for 3 months. I should be able to sell the old one within that time limit.

I've only had good luck on a trade-in once, because the Subaru dealership had a great relationship with a used car dealership that did tons of auctions and my Camaro was very clean.

I certainly don't expect MINI/Bmw to even want my trade-in. They're just starting out, really, their cars sell like hot cakes, they really have nothing to gain.

 

>>Just a question to anyone who traded in a car when they purchased their MINI...did your dealership give you anything close to Kelly Blue Book trade-in value for your car?

I traded in a 2001 LE Pathfinder and got $21K, which was extremely reasonable for the car, at Mini of the Hamptons.
My MCS was $26,528 (tax included), and I paid the balance in cash.

I've put an additional $5k into the car with various mods.

It still needs $2-3 k in stereo stuff...which I can't justify ..now

Was it worth it :smile:????

YUP!!!!

Peace,
D

reality check ...for the same amount of money...you could get real close to a s2000 or a 350z or a g35...
keep that in mind

 

Yep. A 1999 Honda Accord 1.8 [with bells and whistles] got me enough to cover the sun-roof + the chilli pack. The UK second-hand car market is bulging at the seams. I reckon I got about one-seventh of the oriignal market price. Still, what the hell. Just forget about it and move on! Get on the motorway, pick your spot, drop down into second, bit of wellie to the accelerator .... feel the power-surge ... it's quite something.

 

She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed employed the "Three Car Rule" so I had to sell one to get my MCS. I went through the hell of selling it myself. I sold it for 3K more than the dealer offered me.

 

Unfortunately YES.

Had too many irons in the fire (planning the wedding and all) to effectively sell it ourselves (though we did take a shot at it).

A low-mileage 2000 Silver Turbo-Beetle GLX (sunroof, heated leather, 6 disc changeer etc)... we'd paid $15000 for the YEAR before, and got raped by the stealer they gave us $9500.00 ... :smile:

 

Nope - didn't trade...We had enough notice when the MINI was arriving and were lucky enough to have another car to drive - so the Dodge Ram went up for sale 3 months before we took delivery of the MINI - and we got our asking price.... :smile: :smile:

Chow!

Donna
donna@dcmetrominis.org

 

If at all possible, do not trade, sell your vehicle privately. A dealer will not offer KBB, but only auction value (+/- 15% below KBB). You will be much better off selling your old vehicle. Many of us have gone down the path before you, sell your car privately.

 

Tried to trade wife's 2000 Accord LX coupe, only offered 9500.00, not enough for pay off so tried to trade my 2000 Dodge Ram 4x4 Quad Cab Sport SLT Plus (only missing one option). I was completely pissed and offended when they offered me 8500.00 for her!!!!!!! Sold the truck outright for 17,500.00!

Local dealers in Jacksonville supposedly using a new book, the Black Book, which doesn't come close to Kelly, Edmunds, or any other book/website I've seen.

 

It seems to be the same over this side of the pond.

My husband has an Audi TT which he bought about 15 months ago.
He wants to sell it or trade it in - either against my MINI (finished and due in dealership 15th Sept.) or a new TT.
He reckons the TT is currently worth about £4k less than he originally paid for it.

The Audi dealership offered him £2k less than this (trade-in).

Take a further £3k off the Audi offer and you're left with what the MINI dealer has offered.

I think he's going to sell privately!

 

I traded in my barely driveable Chevy Cavalier... I barely got anything for it, but honestly, I would have payed them an extra 100 bux to take it off my hands! It needed some massive break work (one of the front calipers was shot... it would lock up at the slightest touch of the breaks), and being sick of paying for repairs was the reason I bought a new car...

Rocketboy_X

 

You'll be lucky if your MINI dealer gives you current auction price for your old car. By the way what kind of car is it? Mileage? year? equipment? condition? I would suggest using Edmund's True Market Value calculator for used cars. Go to http://www.edmunds.com.

For both of our MINIs, we sold both of our previous cars privately (A '97 Mercury and a '01 Chevy). I just sold last month my '01 Chevy Impala LS for $14K (The car was already paid off) Lotsa effort, time and money but well worth it in the end. I avoid trading cars for many reasons including lowballing in part of the dealer.

Do research your options very well and resist giving into just trading your car. In a trade people typically lose between $2K to $4K over a private sale. Let me ask you another question.....do you make $4K a minute????



_________________
'02 Cooper CVT
On order: '04 Cooper S (Est production date: 9/5/03)

 

Yes, I got above book for my 99 GTI (which I bought new in 2000) So it had less mileage than it should have. Really lucked out.

 

>>reality check ...for the same amount of money...you could get real close to a s2000 or a 350z or a g35...
>>keep that in mind


Yes, but it wouldn't be a Mini! I had intended to buy the G35.

 

>>related to this...how about a mc trade-in for a mcs? especially one that's 6000 miles and discontinued color, eg. silk green? what is kelly blue book cause i haven't found one yet - too new i think?

hmmm...well. Look up the original invoice price of the car, deduct about $2000 to $2500 for the miles and age and you should be in the ball park. Also...the silk green didn't sell that well, that's why it was discontinued, so that may cause a bit of deduction as well.

 

>>Just a question to anyone who traded in a car when they purchased their MINI...did your dealership give you anything close to Kelly Blue Book trade-in value for your car?

Kelley Blue Book is a guide for banks to determine what they will lend on the car. For the most part a dealer will offer more like auction value for a car. The biggest mistake most people make is going to Kelley Blue Book listing all their options, hitting the excellent condition button and hoping that is what they will get. Not likely. More like somewhere between the good and fair condition price is closer to what you can expect.

Also...think about the condition of your car in a realistic way. Has the car ever, EVER had any body work...a fender painted, or a hood replaced? It could be for any reason, not necessarily a bad accident. That will reduce the value. Are the tires new, or near new?

If the car has over 100,000 miles banks won't finance it, and most franchise dealers won't be able to sell the car to anybody but a wholesaler.

Just some info. that may help.

 

My car is a '97 Dodge Intrepid, kinda wearing out here and there...the big plus I have going for me is that it currently has 60,500 miles...pretty low for my area. Edmunds true market value is around $3300 and Kelley Blue Book says the trade-in value is $3195, and I rated it between fair and good for both. I've used these sources in the past with remarkable accuracy, just curious if times have changed...

_________________

Is my MINI done yet? Is my MINI done yet? Is my MINI done yet?....

 

To be very honest, your BMW/MINI dealer is not interested in taking a 7 year old domestic car and much less a Dodge. LH sedans such as yours have a terrible reputation in the used car market and no one wants them ,except die hard Chrysler fans or people in need of cheap transportation.

If your dealer accepts to take your trade be prepared to be offered no more than $1,500-$1,800 tops. BMW/MINI lots have no interest in older domestic cars because their used car clientele does not typically go to a BMW lot looking for a cheap Dodge, Ford or GM. they want used BMW's Audis, Mercedes, Lexus, Acura, etc.

If I were you and if you know that your Intrepid is in decent shape, you'll be better off selling the car privately. I know it stinks but the time and effort are worth it. Big American sedans have thier following and you'll sure find a buyer for it. Unfortunately American cars are not what import car dealers are interested to have in their lots. If you had a SUV or pick up truck your lucjk might be different.

Put and ad in your local paper (Don't waste your time and money with internet used car sales ad that nobody reads) and in the meantime fix up the car a little bit, get it washed, detailed and ready to show to callers. Also keep in a neat file folder all maintenance and repair records. Prospective buyers love to see records because it is a vote of trust in the car that you are selling to them and also gives them some tracability about its past use and service history.

Best of luck.

 

Motorwerks MINI in Minnesota gave me $6200 for my 2000 Cougar which had a trade in value of $5400 according to kbb.com. To say the least I was pretty happy with that. I had the Cougar on eBay, it was gonna end on Sunday and on Friday night it was only at $5100 and I ended the auction early. I figured that to make it worth selling through eBay it would need to go for at least $7000 which I didnt think was likely due to past Cougar auctions. Plus I figured I saved money on taking time off from work, not having to clean the car and the possibilty of a bad buyer. Another bonus was saving $400 on taxes. Selling/trading in my Cougar I thought was going to be the most stressful part of getting my MINI but it was actually painless :smile: