I like the rest of you had test drove the Cooper S months ago and instantly fell in love with it. Took about a week to think it over and ended up deciding to trade my 99 A4 in for the Cooper S, so I placed the order. After a few production delays my car was finally born, and was on its way. I spoke to my Audi dealer about how much my car would bring me for a trade in, and walked to the BMW/MINI dealer with that information in mind. They offered me around $3,500 less than I was told, and also told me that financing rate for the mini was at 8.9%. I instantly felt like I was getting screwed. Were they trying to make up for selling me the car at MSRP? Anyway, I had a few more conversations back and forth with the dealer about a few more things I didn't understand and decided....this is the hard part .....to let MY MINI go. I was so excited that I bought a domain name so I could put up a website, talked about it frequently at work, installed a mini screensaver, but in the end I just couldn't do it when I felt like I was getting screwed.

Would you have gone through with it ??

 

a) Why not sell the Audi yourself? The Audi dealer quoted that trade in value, only if you bought from him. That's not the value of your car. The value of your car is whatever someone will pay for it. Try getting the price you want on your own.

b) Try another MINI dealer. NYC or Philly isn't that far from you.

c) Try to obtain better financing at a bank. There is no rule that you have to use MINI financing if you don't like the rate that they are offering you.

It seems odd to me though that the paperwork was all written up for you, without the trade-in amount being discussed prior.

 

I opted not to trade in my 2000 Jetta. My dealer was very upfront and urged me not to trade it in since trade in value is less than sale value. Taking the advice of my dealer, I am going to sell my Jetta on my own and probably make an extra 3K. I'll then use the money from the Jetta to pay on the MINI.

As far as the financing rate goes you absolutely do not have to finance the car through MINI. My dealer offered to help me find more aggressive rates via other banks rather than going through MINI. Also, if you can join a credit union they often have great new car rates.

Overall, I'd say get the MINI. Put your A4 up for sale. It should sell quickly. They are very nice cars and are popular. Then finance your loan through another bank that offers a good rate. Then you can get your MINI and not feel like you got the shaft. Good luck!