I inquired about mini select financing at the dealer a while back while weighing my options between financing and leasing, and he immediately shook his head and said it wasn't a good idea because you end up paying a huge residual payment on the car as your baloon payment. Although I'm usually skeptical to believe a dealer's opinion on how I shoulf finance one of their cars. Has anyone here used this option, and how did it work out? Do you end up paying more for the car overall than you would on a lease?

 

in short, yes...

What i did was go to capitalone.com and request for a quote on a loan. chances are they will offer a rate lower than what mini can do. Mini will then have their bank match yours... my rate is 6.19. MINI originally offered 7.8.. I'm like year right...

 

I am currently on Mini Select program... And i am getting 8.6% rate and the dealer told me that was for elite members only and i did have good credit rating for that.... THe only thing with mini select is lots of intrest but you own the car..... I first wanted to lease the car but the problem with leasing was i was expecting to put lots of miliage on my car... I am only 20 years old so i cound't afford to buy the car with regular finance.... But my dealer told me about Mini Select and how its really good for me cause i will own the car at the end.... with no miliage restrictions.... the only thing is my baloon payments.

With lease my payments were coming out to 400 a month with 17000 k miles a year....

with mini select my payments came down to 386.00 a month


what do you guys think.>>> do you think what i am doing is bad?????

I need your sugestions... I am only 20 with 700 and more credit rating but i dont have too much history cause i am young... The BMW finacial guy called me and told me that im too young so he tried to charge me more on intrest rate.... which was 20 more a month.... and then i tried cancelling the order for my car and then he got worried cause i wasn't going to by the car for him at that rate.... so then he offered me 8.6% rate....

 

^^ You are doing a bad thing. You are buying more car than you can afford and therefore paying a HUGE amount of intrest that you shouldn't have too. Instead of buying your car you should have waited a couple months, driven a beater around, and saved up a decent down payment. Then your monthly payment would be low and you wouldn't be throwing money down the toilet. The mini "special financing" deal is a horrible idea. Have you heard the term "crippiling baloon payment"?

 

yea but what really kills me is the Miliage.... I am expected to put on 18000 k to 20,000 k miles per year....
I did throw down 1600 with leasing and i was getting 17000 k miles per year for $400 a month.... I went with Mini Select because same amount of downpayment 1600 i was getting lower payments per month.... 386.00

At the end i owe them 1600 k then i buy the car....

If i had leased it i would be doing 400 per month for 3 years... plus miliage i go over and extra wear and tear.... Plus the car wont be mine at the end i dont have any equity....

 

as far as loans go..

although i own a house and have excellent credit MINI gave me their
APR of 5.9% for 48months or something at the time. i already planned
to pay it off within 2 years so just went with it.

If i was to go to CapitalOne, i would have received 3.9%APR, as i found
out later for 48months at the time...so i would research your options first
if you're going to finance full term. if you pay it off early like me, i don't
think it really matters that much as most banks will not penalize for early
buy outs.

 

lol i really did it "wrong" or at least not "by the book"...

i put mine (less a down payment and selling my previous ride) on my AMEX.



0% for the life of the balance.

lol

 

usually dealers won't do it past $5k from my experience on a credit card.

 

I did MINI Select to get a lower payment because I knew by the time 4 years passed, I'd be ready to trade. I couldn't afford outright financing and I drove too much per year for a straight up lease. So I got a new car right out of college and by the time it's due I can afford to outright buy a new 2009 MINI with LED headlights and a folding hard top and AWD. Or maybe I'm dreaming

 

yea, you're probably right. the deposit was right on the card. for the purchase amex put the money into my checking account as a balance transfer (with the 0% finance charge after a $75 transfer fee) and i wrote a check for the car.

 

For most people the Mini Select program isnt a great idea, but for my wife and I it seemed to be ideal, and a year after taking delivery, I still feel like it was a good idea for us. At the time of the purchase, we were in the middle of paying off our considerable (at the time) credit card debt. We wanted low payments until we had our CC debt paid off, then we could pay the car off in cash before the balloon payment was due.

We put around $3000 cash down on the Mini and with a 30 month term on the Mini Select program, our payment is only $239/month, and we'll easily have the cash to pay it off before the balloon payment is due, since our credit cards have now been completely paid off. It isn't for everyone, but so far, it seems like it was the best plan for us.

-Keith

 

Can some please tell me in a sentence or two what the MINI select program is? What is it, low monthly payments for a few years and then you have to pay the balance off?

 

Yes. MINI select give you low monthly payments (max for 48m) after that, you need to pay a big amount, or you can re-finance the ballon, which is higher APR... so it's not worth to pay all these interest for your mc/mcS.

this post in first gear maybe help~
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=75132

 

If you are interested, my bank does Home Equity Lines of Credit as low as Prime minus 1.75%. That is a current rate of 6.5% and allows you to make interest only payments when needed. There are no charges or fees for this, you just have to qualify. PM me if you are interested.

 

i think the MINI Select Program is great, I just bought mine using it.

After 48 months I will owe $13,500. Assuming I take care of the car (which I will), it will easily be worth over $13,500. I'll sell it there to the dealer and probably come out a few thousand on top to put towards another new car.

 

Do you have to refinance the balloon w/ MINI? Or can you take it elsewhere?

Can someone who has done MINI Select give us an idea of what their total financed was, what the payments were, and what the balloon will be? I'm curious to see how bad the balloon is at the end - I'm thinking even if it's half the value of the car (let's say you could trade the MINI in for $15k-ish), then if you trade in the car, you've got some "equity" as cash value for the next car.

I know that probably sounds assinine, but in my little world, it actually makes sense...

 

thats exactly how i looked at it.

i financed roughly $26500 for 48 months - $402 a month.

at the end of the 48 months, theres a $13,550 balloon. (i believe he said they base this value at 55% of new price)

you can refinance the balloon any way you like, or just sell the car like any other early trade-in. with the MINI's high resale value, i see no reason why it wont be worth at least $15K or so in 48 months.

and if you really wanted to keep it, hell probably get another 4yr re-fi and knock your payments way down from what you've been paying.

also you can sell it / pay the loan off at any time with no pre-payment penalties or anything.

 

My nearest dealership doesn't even offer the Mini Select financing. They said it has too many hidden fees and leaves customers unhappy in the end so they stopped offering it.

So after considering their traditional financing options, I ended up going through CapitolOne for my financing.