Wonder if any of you have experience with the current MiniUSA promotion that offers a free upgrade to six years/100,000 miles plus one of these for free: Premium package, Sports package or automatic transmission.

The only "catch" that I can see is that you have to do standard Mini financing (so no .9%). According to my MA, if you were planning to pay cash, you only have to make 3 payments under this financing (currently at 4.9%) to qualify. After that, you can pay off the balance and keep the six-year upgrade.

If the circumstances are right, this seems like a great deal, correct?

BTW, can any of you tell me how to do the math to see how much three months worth of 4.9% financing will cost?

 

Another question to ask is "How much must be financed'? For example if the selling price is $25,000, can you put down $20,000 cash and finance $5,000 and still qualify for the incentives? Then you could make a few payments and then pay off the loan, paying little interest.

 

My MA said a minimum of $7500 needs to be financed.

 

We took advantage. They tried to tell us standard financing was 5.69. Then it was 5.29, then 5.25. I figured it was probably 4.9, but I wasn't sure. I'm happy we got it, especially since it was "free. I did MINI select financing and had a 4.9% apr anyhow, so the bump of .25 to get free maintenance until 2017 or 100k was a no brainer.

 

Were there any up-front costs?

I'm trying to figure out if this is as much of a no-brainer as it seems even for a buyer that was planning to pay cash.