because the MINI Dealers I have been to will only give wholesale on trade vehicles if they aren't BMW's or MINI's. I dont there to be any negative equity when purchasing the MINI and they offered me $10K for my car. I think I could get a more than that outright, so it might be a couple of more months....

just thought I would share the news.....

 

you could always do what I'm doing... order the car and wait to sell it outright once the car begins production or transportation. I know I can get a LOT more than what they quoted me so I'm gonna hang it out there and see if I can pull it off. Worst case scenario I will have them rework the financing so it's a higher payment and I can just put down what I have saved. then I will sell the car and use the extra cash to put towards the payments or something. you can do it, I'm sure plenty of others have!

 

Same Situation here. Solution is easy. Go Straight to a local CarMAX.

D&R in Indy offered $1,300 for my car and that did not pay it off. . Had 3 payments left. Our MA, Richard suggested we try CarMAX when we were ready. We waited another month and finaly decided to go for it.

Went just down the street from D&R to CarMAX, and got a fare price. They paid off the car and I had $1,300 to put down. Drove straight to D&R and ordered that day!

 

Yeah, was gonna trade in our Focus SVT but "fugetabouit". Even Carmax was WAY below bluebook wholesale, so we're giving it to our Son for a graduation present...he's thrilled. He should be, it's a nice car....bought it back in 2002, shoulda bought the MINI...sigh

Cheers

 

that sounds like me too... now i just need to find a carmax around here....

 

when my car went into production I went to the dealer to discuss trade ins on my immaculate 99 civic ex Loaded, was told by the gm that he could only offer me 7 k. and that I should pursue a private sale . Put the car in the classifieds in the local paper and the very next day got a call from a semi local HONDA DEALER! the guy I talked to said that they couldn't get enough used cars .Long story short - they gave me 10 K. , that's a very fast $3000!


keep plugging, it's worth it in the long run. My .02 worth. Jock

 

I am noticing a trend here. It's certainly not unusual for a car dealer to lowball you on a trade-in, that's SOP, but it also appears that MINI dealers in general don't really want trade-ins except for MINI's. The two dealers here in Houston both share property with their sister BMW dealerships. The BMW dealers both have plenty of used vehicles, although most tend to be high-end type stuff, but as far as I can tell, the MINI shops themselves keep only used MINI's. Maybe it's actually part of the business plan? The first time I looked at a MINI in 2003 (before the dealer ran the $3500 markup past me), they had already mentioned that I should sell any unwanted vehicles on the private market.

 

Hello??!! Wake up people! With 0% financing, Employee Pricing and a huge surplus of '05 vehicles. The US manufactures effectively killed the used car market for the foreseeable future. You can not compete against GM, Ford and D/C, so fugedaboutit. It'll take months to recover because every hilljack (gotta luv Rednwhitecooper's lexicon) has already traded in their used vehicle for a new '05, leaving dealer lots overstocked in late, and not so late, models. Remember you have to find a willing buyer who will pay Cold Hard Cash for your present vehicle. Expect to wait or discount accordingly.

p.s. Sorry for the bucket of cold water, but y'all can't whine about being treated unfairly by dealers intent on selling new cars, and not buying used vehicles.

 

for the input. Looks like i might try this CarMax thing out. For those of you that have used them in the past, do they normally give KBB trade-in? more/less? Just curious, because according to KBB trade-in would be $10,725 which is $1200 more than the MINI dealer, so it might actually work out

Thanks again!

~Andy

 

just as an fyi, its the same in PA. my gf was looking at one before i got hooked. they basicly told her to sell her '02 jetta elsware and bring the money back to them :-) not the best MA to grace the floor of a MINI dealer ship. luckly my truck isnt worth jack so trading in a car on my MINI isnt an issue. good luck with the sale.

-one anxious mini owner

 

That's what my plan is as well. Being over here in Iraq right now I dont have much of a choice. My plan is to order within a month of me leaving here. When I get back to the states I wil sell my Scion Xb privatly. It's kind of a gamble but remember that you dont have to make payments on the Mini until you take delivery. Worst case is that you may not get fincancing while paying on your current car. Or if you do get the financing for the Mini, if you dont sell your used car in time, you may have 2 car payments for that month.
Hope it works out for you, I hope it works out for me!
EDIT: I just noticed your in Springfield Ohio. Thats where I am from. Graduated from Greenon.

 

My 2000 stratus had a KBBV of $3300 according to my esitmate. They gave us $2700. 81.8% of my estimated value. That was during the "Employee discount" time frame.