Hello. First off, I did search, and read the threads that showed up. Anyway:

I am planning on hopefully buying a MINI soon. The problem is, the only MINI's I can afford will be 02' MINI's.

Here is the MINI I'm looking at:

02' DS/W MCS
40k miles
Stock everything
Lapis Blue Int.
$17k

Seeing as the car is 4 years old, and has 40k miles, the original warrenty is almost over. Is there an extended warrenty I could get? Is it worth it? I would love to get a new MINI, but that would take me another ~2years to save up the money, and I just don't want to wait! Should I wait until next year, and get an 03' or maybe 04' with less miles?

I don't want to buy the car, spend all the money, then have loads of problems with it...and having it be out of warrenty. The MINI's dealer's change an arm and a leg so I hear, and being only 16 I cannot afford the repair bills! I should be able to do the basic things like oil change, brakes, tire rotation, etc. correct? Will I be able to do basic maitence on the MINI without having to take it to the dealer for servicing and paying out my *** for it?

Do you think it would be a good or bad idea for me to purchase an 02' car?

Thanks!
-Cody

Oh, and if it makes any difference I have a MINI dealer (Cincinnati MINI) 10min from my house.

 

I would be a bit leary of buying an 02 car without a warrantee. I think MINI offers their own extended warrantee available through the dealer. other than that I believe one of the forum sponsors specializes in extended warrantees.

Honestly my suggestion would be to either lease a brand new car or look at a low-option MC. if you're worried about being tight on cash for repairs (understandably so) it may really benefit you to get into a car that also carries the included maintenance package.

You can do it yourself... but it makes more sense to me to go close to your price limit for a car that you don't have to put anything but gas in... if you are cutting it close on an out of warrantee/maintenance car it will only hurt more every time something has to be done to it.

 

Thanks.

I do not want an MC, I want an MCS, period. My only other option I can see is get a new MINI, but like I said, I cannot afford that, and it would take me forever, and by then MINI's will probably be more expensive...and 06' will be used and out of warrenty lol! (ok, not really)

Plus the fact, that I just don't want to wait any longer. I've been saving for a MINI for 2 years now, just waiting and waiting and waiting. It sucks, but I also would rather wait, rather than buy one and be unhappy with it.

-Cody

Edit* Oh, and all of the other MCS' around my area have 30-50k miles on them and everyone is asking ~$19-23k, which is just STUPID. How can you sell a 4 year old car, with 40k+ miles on it, for $6k less then you bought it for!? There's this one on autotrader, it's an 03' MCS with 80k miles on it, and the guy wants $16.5 for it!? Another guy has an 03' with 74k miles on it, and he wants $17k.

/Rant

 

Just to start I hate extended warrantees because the odds are in favor of the dealership. Anyway... Lets say you buy this car for 17K and the extended warrantee for 1.5-2K. That’s 18.5-19K on a used car w/ warranty. You can buy a new MCS for 21.5 or 22K? So for 3K more you get a car w/ 40K less miles. I think it makes a lot more sense to buy a bare new car over a used car w/ extra warranty. Don't forget that the new car comes w/ full maintenance and if you are financing the APR for used cars is higher than new.

Just my .02

 

Also, FYI, the MINI resale value can be HIGHER than you bought it for. No joke. I've talked to some people that make $2,000 per MINI they own. They buy it for a year and sell it a grand higher than they bought it for. They have to choose between a LOT of buyers too! They're really popular.

 

The extended warranty through a MINI dealer should run an extra $500 or so. As your 50k mile service visit runs $500-800 I think it is worth it.

As for the price of used MCS, just a matter of supply vs demand. Mine is actually worth more, per KBB.com, than it was when I bought it new. Sticker was $25001, and excellent used condition with the same miles is listed at $26201!!! Bottom line is if you want a great price you have to find a motivated seller, or wait until the right deal comes along.

Good luck

 

I built a MINI and sadly, it came out to $28k. Now, I wish I could afford that, but I cant. And I'm not going to buy a MINI I'm not going to be happy with....that would just be stupid. Why spend $23k on something that I've dreamed over for years, just to not like it?

I thought $17k for this car was a very reasonable asking price. What do you guys think I should do? Buy the ext. warrenty and risk problems with an 02', or save up until I can afford a better or newer MINI? (Keep in mind your 6-8week waiting time.....and carry that out to a year or more!)

-Cody (Thanks for the replies!)

 

Just to clarify, when you quoted warranty in the above statement I believe you mean scheduled maintenance, which are two entirely different animals. You can certainly pay for the extended maintenance and depending on the price the dealer quotes you it may or may not be a great deal if you've got brakes to replace and whatnot after your 3 years or 36K miles are up. Personally I've yet to hear what the price quotes are for any extended warranty seeing as how I've not inquired about it at my dealer.

Also, in terms of resale, KBB has notoriously inflated resale values and therefore I feel that its reputation quoting used MINI values has gone downhill. Dealers don't utilize it to quote trade-in values either. I see it this way, if you are selling your MINI (as I have just recently had to experience to make room for another) you can use KBB to set your asking price and perhaps some uneducated buyer will come along and not realize that they are probably going to pay more for your MINI although they could've custom spec'd one and paid the same or less OR you're going to be out of luck because most likely buyers out there will probably know what the pricing structure is like for new vehicles and you will have to reduce your price anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for keeping higher resale values, but the reality is that you can't check KBB everyday and walk away with confidence that you'll be able to get that dollar amount for a trade or private party sale. For example, I paid $20,000 MSRP new for my MINI and they are telling me for a private party sale with 11,000 miles on it I can get $21,995?! The market has evened out in Southern California, at least since 2003.

Sidenote: When I took my 05' MC to Carmax to inquire about value, they would've given me $18,000 - Irvine MINI was going to take in on trade at $18,000. I found a new MINI enthusiast who drove it, seemed to love it, and I'm selling it to him for $18,000. I probably could have gotten more if I had waited for more offers, but I thought it was fair (only lost 10% of its value in the 9 months and 11K miles I've had it) and financially I was okay with it.

 

Built my MCS too and it came out to ~$32,000 with the extended warranty, LoJack, etc. Worth EVERY penney in my opinion.

 

Bump, anyone else?