10 cars to trade-in now for maximum return

2. Mini Cooper

While the diminutive MINI Cooper isn’t for everyone, it’s a blast to drive and is particularly popular among young urban professionals for whom attributes like back seat room and cargo space are secondary considerations. The trade-in value for a base model-year 2008 Cooper in good shape and with 46,500 miles on the odometer is estimated at 77 percent of its original MSRP, says NADA Guides.

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/10-cars-....html?page=all

Wow, I have a 2008 that I bought used in '09, and according to KBB it's only worth $700 less than when I bought it.

I knew they held their value well, but that's pretty amazing.

 

One of the reasons I purchased one!

You must have purchased your Mini right

 

Don't know when I might sell since I just bought this last week but according to KBB my Mini is worth $3,500 more than I paid. Woohoo!

 

Makes me want to consider trading in my perfectly fine '08 for a new '12. :D

 

KBB does not buy cars....

 

so what. The point is most people who buy cars used just check KBB to see what they should pay. It can work in your favor with those type of people.

 

My point being that it does not matter what KBB says. The market says what the car is worth. Having worked at a dealer for 10 years and seeing people quote what KBB says the car is worth eventually made me laugh because I heard it so much. Its an irrelevant number to a dealer and a private buyer.

The market will bare what the market will bare and market conditions dictate what the car is worth.

 

Interesting since the dealer where I bought my used Mini last week gave me a print out of the KBB page to show me I was getting a great deal.

Regular people use the KBB price and as I pointed out so do dealers. If they didn't KBB would be unknown to anyone but guess what......they are still in business so someone is using them.

The KBB price can be used for you or against you. It just matters what side your on.

 

It's true Mini vehicles hold their value pretty well. However, I don't think KBB is very realistic any longer. Anyone that takes that number and goes to a dealer and expects to get that for a trade in is going to be really disappointed if not laughed at. I'm not sure what happened with KBB(and that applies to all makes).

Plus, Mini's might become known as the car catches on fire!

 

haha. That's OK...all the great cars catch on fire.............

 

Correct, really depends on the dealer.

 

No one should want to trade in their mini. Ride that ***** till the wheels.fall off or the engine blows

 

No, that would be Ferrari.

 

It's not irrelevant at all.
In fact, many buyers use this number as a basis for what the market value is and what they should pay, etc.

If you don't use KBB that's fine, but that doesn't mean it's irrelevant by any means.

 

I helped my parents negotiate for a new 2012 Clubman S that arrives TOMORROW. They got it fully loaded with the 2012 Nav.

If the nav system makes me drool, that's the only reason I would want to trade in for a new 2012.

 

But at some point, you start losing resale value when you add lots of options. I think the nearer to the base configuration or minimally optioned S model, the better you fair on resale. For example, I purchased a three year old S convertible with every single package and option possible(navigation, etc) for $14000 off of the original sticker price. That car had 18,000 miles, and was purchased off of a Mini showroom floor.

 

This is generally true of all cars, whether they are MINI, Honda or Porsche. The ones more heavily optioned generally don't fair as well in resale on a percentage of initial purchase price, as those that are less heavily optioned. The same is also generally true in the real estate market where, if return on investment is important, you never want to have the most updated and expensive home on the block. Folks are generally willing to pay for some luxury, but when they compare the top end of of one class of vehicle (or home) with the lower end of the perceived next higher class of vehicle, they often place more value on the next higher class of vehicle (or home).

 

For someone who has never worked in the car biz I can understand that. Once you work in the business for a few years you start to understand that prices based off of NADA and KBB and the like really dont hold water when trying to trade your car and/or purchase a used one form a dealer.

As far as dealers in Virginia are concerned most if not all work off of whats called the Black Book. Its updated every few weeks and only dealers and wholesellers can get their hands on one.

 

Correct, most dealers will use Black Book http://www.newcars.com/how-to-buy-a-...appraisal.html or Manheim as a guide to trade-in values.

 

The dealers in my part of the country all go off of Manheim auction prices. They will offer as trade in what they could expect at auction if they can't sell it, nothing more.

 

For the Mini, the black book is wrong. The black book trade in value was $1000 above the KBB trade in value. The KBB trade in value is wrong. I just traded in my 2007 MCS and the best offer I got was $2000 less than KBB trade in value. I went to 5 different Lexus dealers and also Carmax. Carmax's offer was actually $4000 less than the KBB "Trade In" value. Their technician put everything as excellent in the report. I even went to a Mini Dealer and they gave me the same low offer, because I am not trading in for another Mini.

I checked the local auto trader listing. The cheapest Mini (with higher miles than mine) is listed at $2000 above the KBB trade-in value. So if you are selling your Mini, you better do a private sale and not trade it in.

 

I think that's a universal with all cars. Dealers have much more overhead and have to turn a profit, so they'll never give you as much money as a private buyer will.

I am not counting trading in to buy a new vehicle, but usually even if you can get a good trade-in value there it's because the dealer added more on to the price of the new car so they still make their money. You usually come out ahead doing a private sale of your car and negotiating harder with the dealer.

 

Ill tell you this from someone selling cars for a livng. If gas prices get crazy again like +1.00- 1.50 from what they are now these cars are worth thrice there weight in Gold.
Last time there was a "gas $$ hike the Mini dealership here had 0 cars in stock and 30+ days on reserve.
It was crazy