for an 03 MC?" Picked up my local small town newspaper this morning and the Ford dealer had an ad for an 03 MC priced at $21,999. Drove over and checked it out. Premium package, spoiler and 16" five-star wheels. Same as mine except mine has a leatherette interior, this one has cloth...and it's silver and black, while mine is red and white. It has 28,000 miles.

I love my MINI and think it's one of, if not the, neatest cars I've ever owned. However, I seldom drive it, (got a couple of older, "regular" cars that aren't parked in my garage). Also, I'm retired and for a variety of reasons I seldom go anywhere.

At the risk of getting hasseled I must confess....my MINI has only 4,400 miles in almost two years of ownership.

The temptation to sell it for more than I paid for it is great. I'm 61 and if I am not the one to drive it, no one else in my family would want it. I keep asking....should I sell it now and get back as much or more than I paid for it..........or keep it for the special occasions when I do drive it and just because it's so darn cool?

 

Not really knowing where your from is kinda hard to decipher what the resale value of your MINI is.. Being that it has low mileage has many advantages (new smell, new condition, etc)

Anyways, I ran the numbers for your MC using Kelly Blue book and used a San Jose ZIP CODE (which usually has pretty high numbers as far as $$$ are concerned), I put your car down as excellent condition.. anyways, KBB says it's worth about $19.5K....

Try edmunds.com and kbb.com to get some gauge on how much the value of the car is... But remember, this is just a gauge, you might be luck and get someone who loves to have a MINI and pay for your asking price....

If you get more $$$ than what you pay for it, and since you don't really drive the car as much, my investment-minded brain tells me to SELL the car.. As for me, I enjoy my MCS too much plus I drive it a lot so if I have to make a decision like that it would be hard... But If I can get more $$$ than what I paid for mine, which will enable me to get a newer MCS, then of course, I will take that road

Good luck!!!

///Gilbert

 

I think it's pretty common for used car dealers to mark up the prices on cars (especially a MINI) knowing full well they will take less for it. I don't expect that Cooper will actually sell for $21,999, not to an informed buyer anyway. I expect the dealer knows this but is hoping some sucker looking at Fords will just be swept off their feet my a dead-sexy MINI and take the bait. Fair enough, I suppose.

 

I'm sure they hope for an uninformed buyer......and there seems to be more of them than informed ones. MINIs are still rare in my town and the most common question is, "what's that thing".

 

Location Location Location!

Location is everything vis a vis Mini values. It's clear that most Mini owners aren't willing to travel far from home to save thousands on a new Mini (yes, they are still charging thousands over MSRP in CA and there are plenty of morons who are somehow justifying it to themselves that it makes sense to pay those markups...). So most people won't go far to buy a used Mini.

If you happen to be lucky enough to live in one of the crazy states like CA, and if you were smart enough to buy your Mini elsewhere for MSRP, it is quite possible to sell it and get all of your money back (less tax & license, of course), if you're patient. In your case, since it has such low mileage, it should be much easier to sell at a good price, assuming you live in the right area.

This weird market condition won't last forever, of course. So sell it ASAP and get yourself a fresh one!

fwiw, the biggest advantage to me in getting a fresh Mini would be getting a fresh warranty.

 

Back in October 2003 I saw my first MINI ever, a PS/B Cooper. It was on a stand at a Honda dealer, front and center. The price they were asking on the sticker was $25,000! I'll bet they got it, too.....from some desperate person w/ more dollars than sense.

 

If it was me, I would probably take a lot of cool pictures of it along with me in the car, a few video clips and then sell it privately.

..why?

If you're questioning yourself if you should sell, chances are you already
have other ways to spend that money on other fun things. :smile: even
if you don't own a MINI, you can still be a MINI enthusiast.

 

I once had a guy come into the store telling me that he got such a good deal on his MINI from his buddy's dealership ($22,000). He asked me what it cost new, so I pulled it up by the VIN. OUCH!!! The car was only around $18,000 new. I felt so bad for this guy. The reason that Kelly has such a high numbers on these cars is because they are bringing so much at auction from uneducated bidders. It just amazes me to see this is still going on.

 

That is something you have to decide for yourself....your money...do you need money or are you loaded and can keep it as a toy?

I'm 64 (well on my way to 65) and I have put all the miles on my 63 MCS myself (over 60,000 of them) and my wife can't and wouldn't drive "that little car of your's" My one daughter thinks it's the wrong color and not a rag top so she doesn't like it. My other daughter is in San Francisco and she likes her Volvo. So, I guess when I die it will be sold, but, until then I will drive the hell out of it. Almost time for new tires....AGAIN.

Earl

 

I'm far from loaded and after 6 years of retirement I have a real good feel for what the term "fixed income" means.

But, if I sold the MINI I'd pay off what I owe on it and spend the rest of the money on something that a few months later I wouldn't be able to tell you what it was.

The result would then be, no MINI and no money. I'm leaning toward keeping it.

What color is the "wrong color?":smile:

 

I have LY/B and my daughter likes the PW/B grag top.

It would be hard for me to pick a new MINI color as I really like them all, but some more than others.

Earl

 

resmini, Hey something else to think about. I have a 03 MCS that now has 8900 miles on it. I have been babying this car since the day it was shipped from Hawaii.

I have kept the miles low for "investment reasons" Yep the leather still smells new, always garaged, show room new all over.

But.....Just two weeks ago, the driver side window motor goes out...repaired under warranty, and while at the dealership, they fixed four recall items I knew nothing about.

My point is....if you are going to keep the MINI, drive it and put some miles on it....let the bugs show up, and have the dealer fix em before it comes out of your pocket.

I don't drive my MINI as much as I would like, because here in the OKC area, we have real bad roads. So far the MINI has no rattles, but I know I need to put miles on the car, its just I hate to put miles on that are HARD miles. I guess for me when talking about putting miles on the MINI, its darned if I do, and darned if I don't.