Hey guys. One of our friends is thinking of opening up a dealership specializing in Mini Coopers mainly (Not a new Mini franchise dealership, Independent Used). His lot can hold at least 30+ cars at one time. He has 2 mechanic bays, and is also thinking about selling aftermarket modification parts for Mini's.

We have plenty of experience in the car biz, so that's no issue, my question though is what are a lot of the popular mods that everyone buys for their Mini's? What is in demand the most among FI upgrades, suspension upgrades, cosmetic upgrades, etc... I'm a bimmerhead myself, so i know more about BMW's, than Mini's. But i'll probably be helping him run this place, and want to learn a bit more.

What do you all think of this idea? How do we go about becoming a vendor for aftermarket parts companies (ie. john cooper works kit, etc...) What kind of liability would we face if we were to offer installation ourselves too?

I know dealers have bad reps among board car enthusiasts, what do YOU look for if you were to buy a car from some place like this? Keep in mind,

Anything else we should know? Opinions, etc.... ?

Thanks

P.S. What's the most popular Mini board? We want to also see if we can become supporting vendors one whichever gets the most traffic.

 

Welcome to NAM, Omied. I will move this thread from Off-Topic to MINI Talk, where it will be seen by more NAM members.

As for most popular MINI sites, NAM is the premiere new MINI enthusiast site in North America, followed by Roadfly.org, and of course, MINI2 out of the UK is HUGELY popular!

If y'all give the customer good service, meaning being polite, up-front, do the work in a timely manner, and don't overcharge, you will do quite well.

I suggest you read through the forums, particularly "Interior and Exterior Mods," for inspiration on which mods are most popular.

Good luck to you.

Clo/Wanda

 

Welcome to NAM! What part of the world are you hoping to open this shop in?

 

Omied - You wouldn't happen to be from BF.c would you?

 

In addition to aftermrket parts, you should consider having OEM MINI parts on hand, as Classic MINI (Ohio) does, and sells them for a discount.

From a philisophical standpoint, I would say "be honest," to your customers. I went to a local performance shop for the first time the other day, and within 5 minutes told me that unless they re-mapped my ECU for a total of $1500-$1800, my engine would basically seize up. Not cool... obviously won't be going back there

In any case, good luck.

 

>>Welcome to NAM! What part of the world are you hoping to open this shop in?

His profile lists Los Gatos, CA as his location.

 

I believe it is an excellent idea and would work if the word gets out. Single marque used car dealerships are hard to pull off, but it can be done. Have you seen Miniguy's website? He deals exclusively in classic Minis. His success is due to his reputation and support of the classic Mini community. Plus he is one of the nicest guys around anywhere. Mini Mania just opened a service center in Nevada City dealing in both classic and new Minis.

http://www.miniguy.com

 

Strictly from a business perspective in order for a business in this type of industry to succeed there needs to be a minimum of 100,000 cars on the road before the market is large enough to support such an operation.
That doesn't necessarily mean you can't pull it off but the first few years will be tough if you focus on just Mini's.
The size of the marketplace must support the investment you will need to make in labor, inventory, physical plant and marketing.
The location is equally important, if you live in an area populated by a great deal of Mini's that would help too.
Put all that aside and if your energy and commitment are strong and you have a unique way of positioning yourselves in the marketplace you can turn a cup of coffee into an international icon.........I wish you all the luck, seriously!

 

You probably won't do this, as it involves taking on extra risk, but you know what I wish someone would do? Handle the warranty problem. Dinan is talking about doing this, but they've been extremely slow to market.

The thing stopping a certain set of folks on this site from modifying their Minis is the worry that installing one part will void their warranty on other related parts.

Here's my proposal: you research the dickens out of this, and figure out a set of high quality, low risk modifications -- 15% pulley, ECU, minor suspension upgrades, exhaust replacement, air flow, etc. You then offer the following warranty, for a premium: you'll repair the parts you install *and* any part Mini refuses to repair that are affected by those parts during the remaining life of the Mini's warranty.

I think you might find a population of folks will to pay a hefty premium for that sort of offer. $500 is the going rate for a pulley modification? I'd pay $800 for the modification with a robust warranty. Maybe $1000. The problem is calculating the risk -- what is the risk that installing a pulley will (a) cause my water pump to go and (b) Mini will therefore refuse to repair it.

Aside from that advice: read this board and Mini2 religiously to figure out what modifications most folks are talking about and what modifications are well regarded. I think you'll have trouble setting up a dealership for used Minis, though -- they are simply too easy to sell. 2003 Minis and even some 2002 Minis sell for almost the MSRP of a 2004, so it doesn't appear hard for a private seller to get these off their hands. Where will you get your stock, and how will you get it at a low enough cost?

 

Ahhhh, wow. I thought i had automated replies set up, lol.

Sorry for the late replies, I'll try to answer all your q's

I'm in the SF Bay Area in California, USA. Our location is a prime spot (stevens creek blvd, for all you locals).

Yes, this is Omied from bf.c

I do agree, it is risky with not so many being out on the road and it might be wiser to wait til there are more on the road.

It is going to be hard to sell used mini's, in our area though they're market is very srong (compared to other parts of the country). We would get our inventory from different dealers getting them in on trade, or through auctions. The thing with auctions is though they're selling for over book, where as you can hop on the net and find a PP selling it a grand cheaper than what it did at the wholesale auction.

Thank you all very much for the replies, didn't know I had this many responses. I'm going to have to update my settings to send me automated reply notifications.