Doing a little research on carpoint / kbb revealed this data for the 2005 MINI Cooper:

MC

Kelley Blue Book Price $20,700 - $21,400
Original Retail Price (MSRP) $16,950
Original Invoice Price $15,255


MCS

Kelley Blue Book Price $23,700 - $24,500
Original Retail Price (MSRP) $20,400
Original Invoice Price $18,360



Crazy! :impatient


btw, that's retail kbb

 

Pretty crazy indeed, I usually have to put so much in one that comes in on trade that we have to wholesale them, or we'd be trying to sell them next to a new one for almost the same amount.

 

http://www.forbesautos.com/advice/to...ale_value.html

Whose #1?

The problem with the KBB numbers is that many ppl load the car was options ending up with a $35K car and get shocked when they cant sell it. Load it with a Convert and JCW and its $45K

 

KBB has always been unrealistically high. Edmunds is usually closer to reality.
I, and many others, can't get seem to sell our MINI's. I have a near mint '03 MCS, 29k miles, $18,800 that I've listed in Autotrader and the local paper for 3 weeks and not a SINGLE CALL. I'll probably end up giving it to Carmax.

 

That's because, for not much more....you can get a brand new 06' with 0 miles on it, spec'd exactly how you want. Why buy second-hand car why you can buy new? And the warrenty issue....and that's why I've decided to not buy a MINI right now, and wait and buy new, hopefully next spring/summer.

-Cody

 

Just be glad there are people out there that don't realize how much less than new you are charging. If they did then they would go to the dealer and buy a new MINI instead of yours that you are selling to buy a new one.

I guess I still owe you one for that, John.

 

I have a buyer who -- barring any issues when they test drive -- will buy my 05' MC with 11,500 miles on it for $18,000. I originally listed it at $18,500 to leave a bit of wiggle room...so I'm happy overall.

The way I see it, yeah I bought the car for $20,000 + sales tax...I've paid a little over $400/month (or $13.33/day) to drive it for the 9 months I've had it, with nothing down when I financed. When I sell the car I wont be "upside down" on my loan, it will be paid off.

The benefit of buying a slightly used MINI with low miles depends on how a used car buyer pays (i.e. cash, cashiers check)...buying used is a good way to save about $2K on sales tax, depending on how the transaction is reported to the DMV. Ssh...

 

SB- I'm not buying another MINI. Just selling this one.

 

Not where I live. Sales tax on my new Mini was just under $1000 on around $28K. Sheesh glad I don't live in a high dollar state like you do Suzanne

 

Yeah its about 7.75% in OC to 8.25% in LA county...no good for me when I buy new...I swear one of these years I'm going to live in Oregon and pay NO sales tax on a car, just once!

 

The KBB figures are crap. I have been trying to sell my 02 MC with new everything for 4 months now and its only listed for $15, 750.

 

Back in February '05, I sold my then 2004 MCS (mint condition) with 17K miles for $21,900 or $700 ABOVE for what I paid for it brand new in October '03. Listed the car in Cars.com and sold itself in 6 days after posting the ad. The new buyers didn't even try to haggle and refused to test drive the car. Offered cold hard cash and begged me not to sell the car to anyone. I taught it was a prank. Never in my life have I made money on an used car!.

 

According to Edmunds.com:

My '05 MCS (Mint condition): (10,900 miles)

Trade-In: $18,921
Private Sale: $20,734
Dealer Retail: $22,462

'02 Cooper CVT (36K miles):

Trade in: $13,543
Private Sale: $15,037
Dealer Retail: $16,518

Original MSRP: $18,500 (Sept/2002)

 

use the kbb website to show me how they evaluate my trade, but they select good condition instead of excellent condition, which drops quite a few bucks from the trade value.

the problem is that NY has 8% sales tax, so if i sell private, i have to generate a pretty high selling price to overcome the tax on the new car price i would be incurring. so i usually end up with a trade in. at least i have three dealers (bmw) to solicit trade in numbers from, and they do vary quite a bit.

 

yeah.. sales tax here in washington is 9.1% !!

 

I just got back from my Mini dealer where I test drove an MCS because the wife and I were considering trading in our MC for an MCS. When I got back from the test drive the MA told me they had appraised my MC at $15,500 When I first started talking to him he said they are usually within $500 of KBB for trade-in values. KBB values my car at $17,500-18,500 ('05 MC with 9,500 miles on it in excellent overall condition) depending on whether it would rate as "excellent" or "very good". I walked away. It appears like the dealer was just trying to screw me since they had a similar car to mine for sale (with 30k more miles) for $18,900. They apparently wanted to make $2000-3000 off of me on selling my MC used and another $2000 off of me selling me a new MCS. I would have been happy with $17k for the trade in value (we owe around $16k), but I'm not bending over for my dealership (or for an MCS). I think I might even refinance our current MC with our credit union so I don't have to give Mini Financial any more money (interest) on my current car.

I may try selling it private party, but I still really like our MC. I probably won't be giving MAG (our dealer) any more business, if/when I do buy another MC or MCS, I'll probably give one of the other two Mini dealers in Ohio a try. Excellent resale value, HAH! What a joke.

-Keith

 

For my '03 MCS Carmax offered me $17,000 today.
The Lotus dealer (who always has a few MINI's) offered $600 more.
I'll give it another week in the paper then it's off to the Lotus lot.

 

Minis still hold their value well. I mean go buy a Chevy or a Ford & drive it off the lot & see how much value just vanishes into thin air in seconds (poof ). People may have sold their used minis for more than they paid in the past but come one people that was just crazy. KBB is just a guide & their values are quite inflated. A car dealer will laugh if you bring up KBB to them, they use some wholesale black book (forget the name) & the values in the black book are much lower then KBB. All the mini sellers who get hung up on getting the KBB private party value are going to be waiting awhile to sell. I mean use common sense most people will not buy a used mini when they can buy a new one w/full warranty for a few K more. If you want to sell your mini price it to sell & it will