So here's the deal. I love my MINI to death. I keep it as well kept as I can, but I will forever be a Subaru guy. When I was in the market to get another vehicle, my first instinct was to look for a black 4th generation Subaru Impreza WRX Limited with leather interior. I've decided to save up enough money and sell the MINI to buy this in the near future.

I found one literally within walking distance from my house for $20k with barely any miles on it. It was like $3k out of my budget and I wasn't making much money at the time so I couldn't afford to buy it. (I was looking to buy outright.)

So I "settled" for an Astro Black Metallic and white 2007 Cooper S with a 6mt. Clean title, no accidents of course. Panoramic sunroof, auto climate control, racing flag pattern interior trim. 16" S-Winder wheels. Timing chain and tensioner have been dealt with about 30k miles ago. All recalls and TSBs taken care of. I have kept it maintained and scrutinize every aspect of the vehicle almost daily. I'm a technician so it gets put on a lift pretty frequently and when something needs to be done or serviced, it is done immediately.

It has 66,200 miles on it, 10k miles on the tires, brand new steering system (see my 'steering issue' thread), new battery, new wheel bearings, fresh oil change, etc. etc. etc. Mechanically it is as perfect as a 2007 vehicle can possibly be. It is near perfect and has 1 paint chip and 3 small 'dings' that are only visible with a flashlight and strip board. The interior is also near perfect and detailed twice a week.

Now that you kinda have a feel for the car and its condition, what would you, a MINI enthusiast, value my vehicle at? I was offered $9,000 on a trade in at my dealership and I laughed at the offer. KBB is about $12,000 private party value and about $13,500 retail (which is what I paid initially, unfortunately).

 

KBB shows trade in values as well ... $7 to 9k depending on condition.

Dealer is in business to generate positive cash flow to pay rent, utilities and labor cost at the dealership. Any positive cash flow above that is profit ... Likely around 5 to 10 percent or they will not be there long.

Sell it yourself and keep the extra few grand.

 

Trade in is the easy way out...that why you get the low blow... did you negotiate at all?

9k trade in seems fair...10k would seem great.
If you wanted to sit on it and wait for the right buyer 2-4 months...maybe you could squeeze 11 to 12k out of it.

Keep in mind all of the work that goes with that. Tire kickers, joy riders, bs emails, bs phones calls. Your going to invest a lot of your time into selling the car. Sure...you could say no test drive without cash in hand, but who is going to meet you with 12k in cash just for a test drive?

 

I negotiated with them but there wasn't much to say. They were at 9,000 and not coming up at all so I said screw it.

To be clear I was asking what everybody thought would be a good price to sell it privately. I was aiming for $12,000. IF I get that, I am estimating it will be 6 months time before I can afford to buy the WRX outright.

 

$12k is definately a good price privately. With the low mileage I would start at 13,000 and take the first 12k offer you get. I am comparing to Seattle prices where Minis are quite popular. Not sure if Charlotte, NC has similar robust used car market.

 

The used car market around here seems to be a bunch of automatic family cars. It took me almost three months to find my MINI with a manual transmission. I'm thinking 12,500 is going to be my want-to-get price considering all of the added extras mine has compared to a base model. As I wait for the time to sell, I'm going to continue making it my own with a few bolt on modifications.