I went to mini of towson yesterday and test drove an 07 S. I have been debating if I should keep my mcS or get the new model. So I figured the test drive would help me decide. I liked the larger speedo(didn't think I would) and the interior is much nicer in person. You can feel the slight turbo lag but it's really not that bad. Over all I still like my 06 more and I guess that's a good thing for me because while I was out test driving the 07 i had them appraise mine and I was shocked at the price they offered me.

Before I went to mini of towson I looked up the trade-in value on kelly bluebook .com and it said that I could expect 21,620 from a dealer for trade in. My car only has 8900 miles and is in perfect condition except for a few tiny rock salt chips. towson only offered me 17,200. I showed the them the print out for kelly bluebook and their response was that they get their value from the auctions.

They said that if I put the stock exhaust, inter cooler and air box back on then they could give me a little more but it wouldn't be close to 21,620. So basically even if they gave me 18,500 my 06 would still have gone down in value 5,300 in one year with less then 9,000miles on it.

That's no better than any other car in this category. I bought an 03 focus svt for 21,000 new and a year later an evo dealer offered me 17,500 for it with 7,500 mile on the focus and they didn't even sell fords. That's only a 3,500 loss.

I am very dis-appointed by towson and the depreciation of the mini and if I do ever get rid of my S I wont let the resale value of the car have any influence on what car I buy like I did with the mini. But like I said, I love my S and don't plan on getting rid of it any time soon . I guess I'll go ahead with my plan to do a new head now.

 

RIPPER, that's the latest deal with the auto stores anymore, the Kelley Bluebook, Edmunds, etc don't mean anything to them. They low ball you with "that's what they go for at auction". Probably even pull out a sheet of the latest auction sales within a couple hundred miles and show you. You might see what CarMax would offer you for it. Anyway one looks at it, resale value being a reason to buy a car just doesn't get it. Resale value being high is only when it is a used MINI on a MINI car lot.

 

if you are buying a car as an investment... you are barking up the wrong tree... likewise if you are trading/selling to a dealership expect the lowest amount imaginable for your mini and then you won't be disapointed.

You are basically paying for the luxery of not having to waste time finding a buyer... What is that techincally worth to you... 2-3 thousand dollars? because that's the number the dealership seems to think is right for them.

gl with your car.

 

I didn't buy my car as an investment but, resale value did play a part in my decision to buy the mini. my only problem with there offer is that any other time I've traded in a car at any other dealer, they always come back and show me kelly bluebook value and thats what they offer for my trade. All of the mini advrtisements and write-ups are always talking about how the mini holds it's value more then the other brands and that's simply not the truth.

 

either way it's still kinda splitting hairs and betting on whats going to be the best loser... The truth of the matter is you will lose money on a car no matter what... that being the case if you want to minimize your losses when transitioning from car-car the best way to do so is private sale... always.

gl

 

Thats not the truth that day at that dealership. Factor in how many new 06's they still have laying around and how many used cars they have too. They have to decide on the spot if they are going to resell the car or take it to auction. Want to find it's value, take it to a CarMax, they are usually higher in their appraisal. However, I think you find that since the 07's are out the overall value of a used Mini has dropped.

 

Please don't do that. Double posting is not permitted here. Threads merged.

 

The general rule with KBB is most folks give you the 'Fair' value of the car. Not Excellent or Good but the price listed under fair.

 

You just learned a very valuable lesson that some MINI owners dont want to hear until its time to sell.

First, as other said, those guidelines dont' mean squat. Just toss them.

Second, as MDSbrain said, forget about excellent or good. You admitted you had salt chips. Read the fine print where only 5% of cars ever rate excellent.

Third, notice the fact that mods devalue the car. A lot of owners have found out the hard way that all the aftermarket stuff is worthless when its time to sell and makes the car far harder to resell by the dealers

And lastly, this is NOT MOT fault. ALL car dealers use the latest auctions. They dont go running to KBB for anything. It's what the market will bear. BTW, going to CARMAX wont matter. UNLESS you bought the car at CARMAX they do tend to cut a better deal on trading in on a new car from them. Otherwise, if you just sell, they use the EXACT same auction numbers.

Sorry, you had to have a dose of reality The first two years of depreciation is a killer. I would not expect 02 - 04 cars to take as bad a hit as the depreciation curve starts to flatten out.

This is also a factor. Again, lots of people didnt want to hear that the moment the R56s hit the street, their 05 and 06s were going to drop like a rock. You got 06s sitting in the lot, the dealer is paying interest on those cars and can't get rid of them as it is. Any car they take in trade is mostly going to be resold at auction anyway ... they got too many 06s lying around.

Exactly. I love it when people say "Oh my car is perfect".

For the OP, I aint dissing you on that point ... its just a bit of reality.

Sorry you had to find out the hard way.

BTW, I speak from experience and got a shock to when I found out what my MINI was worth. You always expect more ... don't hold your breath

 

Profit. That is singularly, the ONLY guideline used by any dealer. What any car might actually be worth is irrelevent. The dealer wants a certain profit margin, and to obtain that, they will only pay so much for a vehicle they're going to resell.

Private sale is really the best way to go anymore.

 

Absolutely. Its all about the money. In fact, when I went to buy my MINI, the dealer gave me such a low offer on my trade-in, I had to laugh in their face.

Many new car dealers simply do not want to deal with used cars and auction of most that come in and only keep the cherry ones for resale ... at a profit

 

Damn you, stealerships!! What kind of business is concerned with profits and the bottom line?!?

Look, people -- when you trade-in a car, you're paying for a service (not having to do a private sale and deal with joy-riders, appointments, bad checks, etc) . . . so, yes, dealerships are going to offer you a few grand less than market prices -- it's always been that way, it's not a new thing or a MINI dealer thing. Bottom line is that if you want to get top dollar, you do a private sale . . . and if you don't mind paying a few grand for the service, you sell it to a dealer.

 

Actually, when I was buying my '04 MINI, I had to first unload an '01 Nissan Maxima GLE in 'good' condition. the MINI dealership offered me about $10k, but the MA told me up front that they were low-balling me, and I should try CarMax. I did, and they offered me about $14.5k, which was a bit better than KBB. Selling the Maxima was the only transaction I had with them.

(Granted, I could have gotten about $16k privately, but to me it was worth the simplicity of signing a few papers and handing over my keys to them. I've heard too many horror stories from friends to deal with selling my car privately.)

As always though, YMMV


-Paul!

 

That is the same thing that happened to me at MOT. I just laughed at their offer and sold the car at CARMAX.

However, they do still use the auction prices. I know I got a bit more when trading in the 2003 Rav4 for a 2006 and considering I had bought there before several times.

CARMAX does always give a better price than dealers on tradeins but they are using the same auction prices.

 

Here's my story... first appraisal I got was MOT. They offered $1700. Carmax also offered $1750. A wholesaler offered $2000. Then I got some leaks fixed (which were causing noises) and, presto, I got an offer of $2500 at another dealership. A few days ago, a guy at a dealership asked if I was interested in giving them my car... they offered $4000. So, like everything, you gotta shop around.

If you decide to sell you have to take the mods out because only enthusiasts would want them. In any case, private sale is always best.

BTW, there's substantial discounts right now on the 06s ($1200-2500), after those go there will be all the trade ins from people buying the new cars... it's not a good time to sell an R53

 

Sell your car Private Party . . . . or be prepared to take a Beating.

 

I didn't go to trade in my car and I'm not selling my car. I just wanted to drive the r56 and figured I'd let them appraise mine while out for a ride just in case i was blown away by thr r56.


kbb quotes 21,620 for an 06 in good condition, excellent was 22,900. I used good because of the rock chips. Also these prices are for what I should expect from any dealer for trade. private sale #'s were higher. So I expected a mini dealer that bought from before would give me the best price on a trade.

 

Ripper all dealers give fair. Plain and simple. Heck when I had my car appraised @ carmax they actually gave me $1k below the fair on m MINI. But I knew it was due to mods and such. The Lexus dealer I finally traded it at gave me $500 over the fair value. So yah..trading cars sucks and the only way to get the most for your $ is to sell privately.