$1,800 profit per car is not bad, but that amount X 25-30 cars per month, does not work real well in the auto business. If I was in the car business trying to make those numbers work based upon the investment, no thanks.

I recently talked to a "soon to be" Scion dealer, $800 per copy, maybe 10 cars a month, after a min. of 150k investment. That seems like fuzzy math!

The original post regarding the 18k trade in value, plus the 6-7% sales tax advantage, equals 19k+. How much above that can you sell the car as a private seller, is it worth the time to spend weeks and gain a few hundred dollars?

A local guy tried to sell his 02 MC, one owner, nicely equipped, with 4k miles all of last year, for $18,500. He had it on ebay, autotrader, consigned to a used car lot and finally traded it to a new car dealer in Dec. Why would you put yourself through such a fustrating ordeal, trade the car and drive a 05.

 

It can be "quick and painless" selling your own MINI. My dealer would probably have given me 12-13K tops for my 02 MC (based on offers I knew they made to owners of other 02 MC's). I posted an add on Cars.com and sold my car in one day - for about 4K more than I would have gotten from my dealer if I'd traded it when we bought our 05.

 

$4K is indeed a very nice chunk of change

Well done Indimini!

 

If you are so desperate to get rid of the car and lose thousands on the spot, sure trade-in is the way to go.

Since I have to work real hard for the things I own, I don't feel like giving charitable gifts to my dealership and therefore, I prefer to put up with the "frustration" of selling a car on my own. I think the extra money you make is well worth the effort

 

My husband just got 17K for our 03 MC with 19K miles on it. I paid 19K for it 2 years ago. It was a BMW dealer he dealt with.


Lois

 

has anyone traded in their mini at a non mini/bmw dealer? i may have to give up my mcs for something more "practical" (aka. something a bit bigger to haul stuff around in). in general do non-mini dealers give more or less?

 

Okay, let's look at the reality of the situation. Your car cost about $22k new, maybe $22,500 plus taxes and such.

The dealer cost on that car was somewhere around $20,500 or so. To make it worth their while to buy your car and try to resell it, they need to offer you less than that...somewhat significantly less to make it attractive to another customer who is standing there looking at a new one he can buy for $22,500.

The aftermarket add-ons don't really add that much value to a car, because although it's worth the extra money to you, it may not be to the next buyer. The alarm isn't worth much at all, and the dealer would likely prefer that you had the original wheels on your car.

You may try to work with the dealer to keep your wheels and maintain the same trade value. This way you get to keep the wheels you paid for aftermarket, and add them to your new car.

In reality, yes you can get more for the car by selling it yourself, but $18,000 for a year old car is actually an excellent trade-ini value. Any other brand on the planet would be much worse.

Good luck.

 

I went yesterday to Carmax (Just for kicks) and I was offered $18,400 (86% off original MSRP sticker) cash for my 16 month old '04 MCS with 17K miles. My car doesn't have any packages, just HK, fogs, OBC, MFSW, Rain sensing wipers, Self dimming rearview mirror, chrome grille and mirror caps and UJ roof flag. Car is in excellent condition.

I am seriously thinking about placing an order for a new '05 MCS and given the fact that the custom factory wait is about 6-8 weeks, I will definetely try to sell it myself in the mean time.

MINI resale value is phenomenal!