though i probably won't be in a position to buy for another year, i'm looking at the financial implications of owning a Mini. i'm going to want a Mini Cooper, hopefully with the Sport Suspension +, Sport Seats and a sunroof if i'm lucky (i autocross a ton but i still want a sunroof cause this will be my daily driver as well). what sort of numbers should i be expecting for a 2001/2 Mini Cooper in terms of price and mileage? 2001s are going now for about $14-16K w/ ~15-20K miles on them. are there a lot of Mini Coopers out there that will be coming off-lease or for sale by owner that will be under $12K?

i know a lot of this is speculation but i'd like to know what to expect and make my life decisions in accordance with that.

thanks for any assistance or advice!
chris

 

Well, two years into the marque's US presence, we know MINIs are depreciating very slowly. My year-old 2003 MC with 9000 miles on it is said by the Edmunds.com "True Market Value" calculator to be worth $21,000 today at dealer retail. That's $1000 more than I paid for it last year.

There are no 2001 MINIs on American shores - only 2002s and up. I would think that if you found one that had been hit and rebuilt you could get it for $12k, but not otherwise. The 2002s were more plagued with launch bugs and ownership costs may go up when they come off warranty, which could affect resale value -- but as it's a three-year, 36,000 mile warranty and the car's only been on the market two years, hardly anybody is paying for their own repair work yet. We'll see.

I am satisfied that BMW/MINI will keep supply tight enough and manage the brand well enough that the cars' values will be well supported for years to come. They won't make the mistake VW made with the New Beetle of dumping too many cars into an initially hot market, thereby killing its coolness.

 

well i suppose i may as well go the extra mile and get financing on new, at least i can get exactly what i want then!

that's crazy, actually *appreciating* in value!

 

This is very strange for me. I have a 2003 MC with all three packages and HID/Autowipes. I key in the condition and options, at least the ones that match and it comes back and tells me that the car is worth 21550???

I only paid 21000...

How does a car increase in value when I can buy today brand new for less.

 

up here in Canada I paid $28k for a 03 MC cold and sport options,[Ithink we have to buy the cold option,but it's great] BRG/W ..15" white 7 holes
5 year 95k mile warrenty
I will put 25k miles a year on it
will be intersting to see what 4-5 years of highway driving will do to value

 

>>This is very strange for me. I have a 2003 MC with all three packages and HID/Autowipes. I key in the condition and options, at least the ones that match and it comes back and tells me that the car is worth 21550???
>>
>>I only paid 21000...
>>
>>How does a car increase in value when I can buy today brand new for less.
>>
>> most sail boats go up in value as it gets more expensive to build them
how much, more or less are 04-05's than 03's anyone

 

I recently noticed a Chile Red/Whte '02 MCS with 24K miles for sale at the local Honda dealer in the used car inventory. I checked it out pretty close. (Sales guy told me it was traded for an '04 Honda S2000 roadster) It appeared to be a well cared for car, with no apparent signs of abuse or excessive wear. It had cloth seats and the performance package only but was a really nice car. The asking price was $23.5K which is just a few hundred less than what I paid for my '04 with all three packages! It only lasted 3 days. Recently MSN had a piece in their auto section about the top 10 cars that hold their value best. MINI was listed as # 3 of the top 10 best! Even with the few glitches that we deal with, I think life is good in MINI land....................mgg

 

Do you remember what the top 2 cars were? Id imagine one would be a Porsche...

 

"Do you remember what the top 2 cars were? Id imagine one would be a Porsche... "

Porsche used to have almost unbelievably high resale values. However that all changed in the last few years after the bean counters at Porsche started flooding the market with 911s, Boxsters and Cayennes. (btw, Porsche is now the most profitable automobile manufacturer in the world so the bean counters knew what they were doing...)

These days you can expect to lose $30-50K the first year on the souped up version of the 911 Twin Turbo.

(Ouch!)

 

Damn...thats a huge loss. And yet, our little old Coopers arent losing anything...who has the better car now? :smile: