Hey everyone,

I am about to go to all the MINI dealerships in my state and am somewhat unsure what questions or what things to say to assure I get the best price available for a MCS to ensure I dont get riped off, so that I can afford to buy some of the expensive additional features like Aero kit.

Any tips or past experiences that anyone could share would be really appreciated because I have never done this before, its going to be my first car, and I am only young (dont want to be dominated by the saleman).

Thanks

 

Kuneman,
Aloha and welcome to NAM-
You live in Australia. I'm not sure how many dealers there are in your area or how much demand there is for the MINI. If your city is large and you have more than one dealer then great. The one with more sales is likely to have more allocation hence more selection and shorter wait times with lower markup than the dealer with less sales, less inventory each month and higher prices to make up for the lack of volume.

In the US we have many dealerships that will sell a MINI at the MSRP or retail price. Many have to order their MINIs from 2 to 10 months in advanced.

Some options are less useful and others are quite good.

If there is a MINI club in your area that might be a good place to start talking to people.

Before you decide on what to order you should test drive the various MINIs in manual and CVT transmissions.
In Europe the hot seller is the MINI ONE which is very basic and lower cost and it usually has a CVT transmission. Then comes the Cooper with 5 speed and least popular is the Cooper S with 6 speed transmission.

In the US about half of the sales are for the Cooper S and of the Coopers half or more are CVT. The MINI ONE and MINI Diesel are not available in the US.

Go to the MINI site in your country and check out the options.

 

I live in Syney and there is probably about 7 MINI dealerships within the city. And I want to get a MCS, manual six speed transmission. I am just not sure what I have to do to get the lowest price I can because for me the car is expensive. What tactics or whatever do I use when negotiating with the car sales people?

 

The best thing for you to do is go to MINIUSA and build your own MINI. Print it out and take it to the dealer. He will have your MINI uniquely built for you.

The dealer will not have much to do with the price - You will. What you order, you will get at MSRP. Period. So the best thing to do is keep the car basically simple. You should test drive both cars and then decide if the extra you want to spend for the S model is worth it to you when you can get a quality car with 5-speed in the Basic model. If you are watching your money - Don't add expensive options or dealer added accessories. The dealer makes the majority of his money from the accessories - like the Aero Kit, driving lights, etc.... and the accessories jack up the price really quickly - The parts for the Aero Kit are $1200 and the install is $1500. Adding a $2700 option to a $20,000 car is adding 13.5% to the price.

Do not worry about a pushy salesman - you either want to order or you don't and he is ok either way. He isn't going to discount the price just so you will buy a car from him. He may have cars on the lot that the dealer ordered, but watch out, they may have all 3 packages of options, plus leather, sterio upgrade, wheel upgrades and accessories. They will be cars that offer everything to everyone so they will sell. and again he won't be pushing you into buying the cars on the lot because he isn't worried that his inventory will sit there. If you don't buy it, someone else will.

 

Gees that doesnt give a positive ouitlook for me then does it. I think I am too scared to confront these salesmen if they have a carefree attitude.

 

>>Gees that doesnt give a positive ouitlook for me then does it. I think I am too scared to confront these salesmen if they have a carefree attitude.

I've seen other threads on this topic.
I've personally never seen or heard of a MINI sold here on Long Island,NY for under MSRP....except possibly ...one.:smile:

Peace,
D

 

7 dealerships in your area is good. Sometimes there may be a sales person that wants to deal at the end of each month to meet a sales quota. You have to know what you want exactly first. So you have to do your homework and go test driving. Add up the total based on regular MSPR prices. Refuse any dealer add ons for appearance package or advertising fee, etc.

At the end of each month the dealership will WANT to meet it's quota for sales and if it is slow (like sept and oct) then that is good. Another good slow month in the US is March just before income tax time. In your area you can ask one of the sales persons which month might be slow (just casually).

If the wait time for a new MINI is long, perhaps 5-6 months or longer then they will not likely bargain much.

They may discount a demo (used by the sales staff) or a used MINI. The may discount a show car MINI that nobody wanted to spend extra on. In my dealership there was a nice MC with aerokit that was selling for $25,000. It had white tail lights and S-Lyte wheels. Nobody bought it from October to Feb so they lowered the price by $2000 and then it sold.

Another way to sort of get a discount is to get a better financing rate so shop around.