did anyone purchase a mini and trade in anything else?

if so were you give a lot less for your trade then you would have else where?

There reason i ask these questions is i am trying to purchase a mini and muy local dealers are giving me several thousands less then nada suggests. I DO understand that mini sells for retail sticker and usually no less. How ever i do see what my car is selling for used on dealer lots. I just think they can afford to give me a little more.

 

Believe it or not, they are trying to make money!

Not to be flip, but if you give it to the dealer, THEY are the ones that will get that several thousand dollar difference. Dealers make more money on used cars than new. Take your time to sell it yourself if you can.

 

They can afford to, but it's their job to make as much money off you as possible. Either you sell the car yourself or negotiate with the dealer for a better deal.

If you don't do one of the above you get screwed.

 

Dealer offered me $1500 under KBB. I took it to Carmax and got full KBB

 

I just completed the purchase of my 06 MCSa. I talked to 2 dealers here in New England, one (Peabody) offered me $6k less than KBB, one (Keeler) offered me $2k less. The $2k less was enough to break even on my loan which is what I was looking for. Best advice is try a different dealer or sell the car privately.

 

i have tried to get more, however i have been given the attitude that i am purchasing a mini and if you dont like it there is the door.

The differance is 1000.00 between what they want and what i want but it can make or break my purchase, as far a payment affordabiltity.

Maybe i am being petty i dont know but i have never run into this with dealers before.

For the record i have a 2002 silver 1.8t jetta gls, everything but leather.
they want to give me 9000. I want 10,000.
nada gives me 10,775 for an average trade.

It just erks me with the attitude that i am getting, that minis sell for list and they only give what the car is worth cash. Guess i will have to try and sell iton my own.

 

No question that the dealer wants to make his money on the trade - traded a garage kept immaculate '02 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland V-8 with 32,000 miles expecting to get the high end of KBB value. The dealer offered $2,000 less than KBB "average condition". :(

 

When we ordered Perdita, my MA actually told me that CarMax will probably give me a better offer for my trade than they can; as the will just put the car up for auction. CarMax offers--at least according to their website--are good for seven days, so I'll take my old car to CarMax, get an appraisal, and then see what the dealer offers.

My car is a high-mileage Saturn wagon with issues, so I probably won't get much for it either way.

 

Trading in is a very expensive convenience. My question to you is this... Do you make $2,000 an hour??

If you don't, then sell it yourself. You'll make that if you find the right buyer for your car. Put that money in your pocket, not the dealers.

Case in point:

Back in February 2005, I was selling my pristine 2004 MINI Cooper S with 17K miles. Went back to the dealer for an appraisal and the most they were willing to give me for the car was $18,500. That would have left me with $6800 positive equity after paying off the loan to the bank. Carmax offered me the same exact lowball figure.

Totally unacceptable offers.

Then I decided to just place the order for my new '05 MCS and hope to sell the car privately in the 6-8 weeks the new would take to get here.

Put an ad in www.cars.com and within 6 days sold my '04 MCS for $21,900 CASH!!

In less than 15 minutes I made $3,400 over the dealer/Carmax best trade in offer. I put that nice chunk of change in my pocket, not the dealer's.

My positive equity went up to $10,200 and that was the exact amount of money I put down for the '05 MCS the day I took delivery. Financed the rest for 30 months @4.09% APR.

Today I owe less than $7K for my MCS and plan to pay it off a lot earlier to save on the remaining interest.

Trade in is usually a bad idea. There very few and far in between instances were trade in may make sense and help you get out from under a bad car or a bad deal. But if you can afford to spend the time selling it yourself, by all means this is the only way to put some nice cash in your pocket.

 

My dealer also mentioned that there's a difference between what they can offer for a car that's the same make as they sell vs. a different make. Because my trade wasn't a MINI, he said, he wouldn't be able to sell it directly and therefore could only give me an offer based on what it would go for at auction.

Mine was a 1994 Acura Integra. The MINI offer was $225. Absolutely unacceptable, and frankly a bit offensive for a car that clearly needs paint work but runs beautifully. I sold it myself on Craigslist in less than 24 hours, priced aggressively, and had an extra $1,500 toward my downpayment.

 

I asked Sandia Mini how much my 2001 Ford Escape was worth to them. I almost laughed at the $6500 answer. The offer was so low that it almost seemed their way of getting out of dealing with a trade-in.

The local Ford used-car dealerships and CarMax all offered in the $8000-8700 range. I put it up for sale in Autotrader.com and a few weeks later a buyer gave me $9500 for it. If you have a few days or weeks to spare, sell it yourself. If you need the money right now consider CarMax.

--doug

--doug

 

Your situation has nothing to do with you buying a MINI, you would get pretty much the same response at a lot of dealers. NADA isn't a very good indication of trade-in value, especially in the northeast. Almost every dealer I've talked with over the years has indicated that they go by the most recent auction results, they don't even bother with anything else.

 

try selling first. at the very least, you can gie another enthusiast your car at wholesale rather than a dealer making $2000 on your transaction.

 

I had an '03 MC, traded for an '05.

Carmax offered 100.00 more than the dealer.

I got 15,000, same car was on lots for 17K-20K.

If you sell on your own, you lose the tax advantage on your new purchase.

By me trading vs selling for 17K, my payment on the new car was $8.00 more per month. It was not worth the hassle, at least in my situation.

Also I got flooded with emails from online ads I placed that were all scams.