Hi ,
Anyone have first hand knowledge on what a dealer offered you for your older mini on a trade in ? List options that the trade in has and year, mileage.

Was wondering how close Edmunds comes to the actual price offered ?

 

Most dealerships use black book value. You have to have an subscription to it. NADA is close.

 

Take that low Edmunds number and pretend your car is more banged-up than it really is.
Mini dealers won't be generous.

 

I just ordered a 2008MCS. The dealer offered me 13,000 for me 2004 Chili Red MCS w/ Premium Package, Hood Stripes, Aux Port and 13,500 Miles. I said make it 14 and I will sign the papers tonight. So I have 6 or so weeks to make a better private deal.

 

Here in the east most dealers use Galves as their wholesale bible. Edmunds, KBB, and the others are way high in comparison and you will never get those dollars unless you are selling to a private party--and that's not guaranteed either. You can get a price report on line or buy their bi-weekly book on line at Galves.com--I've done both and prefer the book but on line is immediate. Also, you will see that a loaded vehicle vs a non loaded will trade in for just about the same dollars. All the gizmos you ordered for your new ride will not come back to you if you trade the vehicle in to a dealer--just key options count and each car is different. Every time I go to a car dealership and let them know what my trade is worth via Galves, the salesperson's games abruptly end.

 

My dealership is only giving me $8,500 for my 2003 CR/W MC. The only frills it really has is Cruise, Automatic and Moon Roof.

But, my car has also been rear-ended twice, so I didn't expect to get a trade-in on par with kbb.

 

20856S?
So you use Galves to negotiate on a used car the dealer has on the lot?

I am just starting to look for a mini not sure if I should go Used or New. Just trying to get a handle on how large of a markup the dealer is adding from what he paid for the car on a trade in . But am leaning towards buying privately if I go used.

It just seems their is a huge disparity in pricing on used MINI's , from private sellers. When I see 05 and 06 cars with 30k miles and they are asking $ 17K- $23K or more depending if mini or S . But if I look at Edmunds it could be 13.5 K to $18.5K .

I know this is kinda vague but that seems to be the trend I am seeing.
Hard to make a offer on a car to a private seller when I think it is worth 17K or 18K and they are asking 22k to 23K. I don't want to **** the seller off but, which one of us is the optimist.

 

I'd make the low offer with a private seller-- never hurts to ask. It is all about what you're able to spend and what they're willing to sell it for-- I know when we've sold cars privately, we always went high on our list and negotiated down. But, one person gave us exactly what we listed the car as-- a full two grand above what we thought we'd get. If someone gets offended by a price you think is fair, then the deal just wasn't meant to be!

 

Fwiw there are so many options available on Minis it is likely that a factor is price difference is partially due to the cars having different options. Edmunds and such do not really do a good job of reflecting these differences (ie anthracite headliner, chrome pkgs, PDC, LSD, etc) but because the car's purchase price was certainly effected the seller's will be accounting for them. Then there are aftermarket items, sellers often bump up the price for them whereas a dealer will not.

Good luck finding the Mini of your dreams, lots of good ones out there I'm sure

 

I have a friend that (not sure how to describe it)
had/has a dealer license but no lot and he would kinda
wheel and deal cars to make a little extra money
(he's retired).

"I buy with the black book and sell with the yellow one"

Another person I know that actually is a used BMW wheeler and
dealer definately uses that system.

 

Also remember that right now MINIs have the best resale value of any car in the country. I bought my 2007 MCS used because it was only 7 months old selling for $3000 under MSRP and in absolute perfect condition.

 

Personally, from looking around, I think that deals are available - there are a real lot of Minis out there, new and used, nowadays. I know that they still have a strong resale compared to many others, I just don't know that they are the absolute best resale anymore as they did awhile ago though, since the supply is now so robust (the Clubman notwithstanding, that is so new demand surely outstrips availability).