Hello all. I have the opportunity to part with my 05 S.

Never wanted to get rid of this thing, but I will explain. I am 23 and just graduated college. I have had this car since I was 18. I have a civic I am driving around as my main car, so the cooper just sits most of the time. The mini is in extremely good condition and fully loaded. Only problem is clutch is starting to go out along w/ flywheel (quoted $2,500) , airbag light is on (quoted $1,000), needs new control arm bushings, one of the fans is going out, rattling on acceleration coming from the right side, awful noise while reversing coming from the back right (wtf??) needs new tires, brakes....etc. Has 59k.

Bluebook is $10,600 and carmax offered me $8,000. I am not the type of guy to try and screw a potential buyer so if I did in fact sell private party I would be mentioning the airbag light along with the clutch issue. Any buyer with a brain would want a reasonable amount of cash off of the sale price. Any buyer who does research will know that fixing just those two issues would run them over $3,000. 10,600-3,000 = $7,600. Unless of course it was DIY.

I feel like carmax gave me an alright quote, considering what I have mentioned above. Plus side of accepting carmax's offer is assuming no liability for any issues that were not mentioned. Their job, not mine. I feel there are too many potential issues for someone who is going off to law school ($$$$$$$) next fall. What would you do? Thanks

 

If you love the car, keep it as your weekend toy and fix it when you have the money.

If you're itching for a new toy, sell it while you can still get a good chunk of cash for it.

 

If I can follow everything correctly, Carmax offered 8K and selling it to a private party will be more but you have a ethical responsibility to disclose everything that is wrong with the car…

My take on this is:

1. Carmax = offer is decent if you want to just walk away from it and take the money and run.
2. Private party = it will take a right buyer that does it's own repairs and will try to get the car for maybe even less than 8K.
3. Regardless, you need to cut your losses but it all boils down to how much time and patience do you have to deal with this.

If I am in the same situation as you are, I will cut my losses and move on. I just graduated to pursue other things and will not need any distractions such as car repairs or dealing with potential buyers. I will take the money and run and since I like the MINI a lot, I will get another one once the opportunity comes up.

Good luck and hope you will make the decision that will make you happy. A deal is only as good as you think it is...

 

KBB… I do not think anyone follows it anymore. Could be wrong… Reason why I say this is because when I went car shopping few months ago.. everything was stickered 1.4K-2K less than the KBB. It's a nice guide on pricing but I do not really know if it's helpful nowadays. Just saying...

 

Agreed. Thanks. This decision shouldn't be hard but it is. lol

 

If you really enjoy it, and you have another daily driver, I'd fix it on weekends. Not like there's a ton of mileage on it, so in theory it still has potentially a long life ahead. Especially if it's a weekend driver. I was set to pay close to $2k on repairing my 03S, until I found it was going to be a lot more..

Or you could sell, and go for another MINI, to keep the enjoyment.

 

Sell it to Carmax and move on. So many cars, so little time.

 

Kbb is a good source as an average. Some dealers offer strictly wholesale values for trades others do not. Price seems reasonable to me question is do you really want to sell it.

 

Most of the discussion assumes this is a financial decision. But if it was all about financials, you wouldn't have bought the MINI in the first place. I assume most of the issues you have today are deferred maintenance issues. Money you should have spent to fix it while you were in college but didn't have the cash. 59K is low miles for a 05MCS. I suspect you are not driving it because of the issues. If they were fixed, would it change your desire to drive your MINI?

I just faced a similar decision with my 05MCS 83K miles. Rather than a bunch of little things, I had one big one that cost me $2,700. Outlook for future maintenance costs is not wonderful, given the maintenance history of Gen 1 MINIs.

Part of me said, "Dump it while everything is fixed and buy new. Smile knowing everything that goes wrong is under warranty."

But I'd be giving up the visceral appeal of a supercharged Gen 1 MINI. And if I bought another used out of warranty Gen 1, there is no guarantee it would be any better than the one I just sold.

So I had to ask myself, why did you buy this MINI? That hasn't changed in the 3 years I've owned it. So I decided to turn it into a Rally Tribute MINI.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ute-build.html

Today the roof rack is going on. Thursday, wheels, tires, sway bar, KONI FSD shocks. Next week, the graphics. It is exciting to watch this MINI morph into what I imagined, much more so than a new MINI which would saddle me with a monthly payment.

Will I get the money back that I'm putting into it? Hell no! But this decision really isn't about money.

Why did you buy your MINI? Is the decision really about money?

 

I ran the numbers when my engine blew, even at a $16K dealer repair and JCW upgrade it was cheaper than financing an new car. I would have put the $16K down on the new car and still had to pay monthly after that.

In addition I got a 2 year unlimited km warranty on the engine.

So as long as I don't go through $6K a year on the Mini, I'm ahead of the game - and smiling every time I drive it.


BUT - if you're not interested in doing the work yourself, the carmax deal seems pretty decent.

 

My suggestion....
If you even have a single $ in student loans, sell the car and pay them off....
Be debt free...don't be a slave to your lender.
If you are debt free...keep it.

 

sell to carmax. thats a good price with no hassle. drive the honda into the ground. you havent kept up with the mini so far, no reason to start pissing away money on it now.

and im sorry but theres no way that mini is worth 10k privately if it has nearly 3 grand in needed repairs and maintenance... i wouldnt really call your huge list of issues "extremely good condition" either...

 

It's worth 10k privately assuming all the mechanics are in working order, which as stated they are not. The car, cosmetically speaking, is in 9/10 condition. That's what I meant. I know I couldn't get 10k out of it because the car needs some work done, which is why carmax's offer seems pretty sweet.

 

No student loans as of now. But perhaps later I will. Financially speaking, it makes all the sense to dump this thing. But who knows.

 

i'm in the same boat. Just had a repair done on my car and thinking if I could sell it for 6K (assuming that's a fair price?) with all the small stuff wrong with it then I would let it go. Just afraid of that next big repair.

Carmax deal seems safe to me. They know what they are looking for when they inspect it vs a private buying having no clue and blaming you when something goes wrong. With Carmax, you walk away with cash in hand...pretty easy.

 

That's my reasoning.

 

I'd take that 8k in a second