I ended up paying MSRP + tax on mine - all they did was take $500 off MSRP and charged $499 doc fee - but there was no way I would be paying a doc fee...

 

If this rate had been available last Nov when I bought my car I wouldve gone with them, I had MFS for my R53 and it was one of the best customer service experiences ever. Plus, their website made the finances of car ownership much easier (ammortization, early payment capabilities) and more informative than the FCU I have my R56 financed with (at 4.9). Why are many FCU computer systems stuck in the 1990s??

Back in Nov the MFS rate was pushing nearly 7.9% for fico 750 and above, so I wonder what one's score has to be to get 4.9??

 

At the moment a score of 600 will work as long as you don't have some negative stuff in your credit report.

 

I just bought (got financed, its really her car) an Astro Black MINI a couple of weeks ago for my neice and financed it through MFS with a FICO score of 781. My rate was for 6.2% only because I wanted to put my neice on the credit app (she has horrible credit) and we financed it for 6 years. If we had done a conventional 3 year loan it would have been 5.29%.. My credit union was offering me a 3.99% for a 3 year loan, but since her credit is so bad they would not allow me to put her name on the loan. We are trying to repair her credit thats why we went with the higher rate with MFS.

Oh yeah, we bought her MINI off the lot, basically the only thing it had on it was Bluetooth/IPOD Adapter, Multifunction Wheel, 16 inch wheels and white turn signals and they gave us $400 off of MSRP.

 

which dealer was it? Most LA dealers were willing to cut $500 but this nameless dealer in Santa Ana sent me an email saying @ $500 off msrp, they're losing money. ***** them!.

 

I bought it at Nick Alexander.

 

Jeez are they that deluded to deny that any person with an IQ over 86 and internet access can calculate dealer cost in ten minutes?

Most dealers have to pay the manufacturer within 60 days of delivery, and generally finance the inventory. It's gotta cost them close to half a point each month to the bank. So apparently they would rather wait three or four months to find a MSRP buyer, versus discounting it and stop the vig.

 

I went ahead and paid $14 and get the Consumer Reports itemized car report on the Mini.
....in order Hardtop _ Hardtop S_ Convertable_ Convertable S_ JC
Base Invoice _$16,695 $19,755 $21,510 $24,120 $25,695
Destination Charge $650 for all............................................... .
Total Dealer Invoice +add Dealer Invoice for packages/options
$17,345 $20,405 $22,16 $24,770 $26,345

I always thought most dealers marked up the options by a larger percentage then the actual car markup and made a larger profit on these items.
If I'm reading it right it looks like the auto-trans costs me $1250 and the dealer $1125.
Does that sound right?

 

Margin on factory options over the years has been reduced to the same or just higher than the base price. A few manufacturers might offer about 3% more to the dealer.

Bottom line is dealer cost on non-American cars is not all that high. Mercedes is a modest .93 for example.

One other comment. You can save yourself $14 by obtaining the info that you paid Consumers Reports for, directly off the web. Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds websites serve it up for free (as do many others, but I'd stick with these two). I've occasionally seen some minor differences between the sites of a few hundred dollars on a $30K car, but CU ain't going to be any more accurate.

 

minis are not selling as fast as they used to. you can deal with them. when I bought mine last may, they lowered it. ducati's sell for retail also, but knocked $1200 off my 1098

 

We were happy with our purchase. They took $500 off of the price, tossed in a tint job ($300 approx from quote at the shop the BMW/MINI folks use exclusively, and tossed in the "S" rubber floor mats as well. We felt as though we got a fair price...not a steal but a fair price for us. I know that there are some sites out here in another section that are selling Clubmen for $1500 off of their stock but that would mean a trip across the country for us.

 

got my Clubman JCW in Baton Rouge ,La. for $2500. off

 

Ordered or off the lot?

/on a separate note - I looked up property tax values for Clubbie S vs. JCW for my area - it was something along the lines of $450/yr vs. $650/yr for JCW. Insane.

 

I am having this problem now, waiting to hear if Motor City Mini (Metro Detroit) will order me a fairly loaded Clubman S (MSRP $30,950) for $1,000 off MSRP on a lease. That still leaves more than $2,000 profit for dealer.

I told them (which is true) I can lease a loaded 328xi sedan for only $23 more per month than if I leased the Clubman at full MSRP....

Crazy incentives going on now, even for BMW. I can get $1,500 loyalty cash, 3 month pull ahead for my existing X3 lease, and $1,840 option credit for xDrive. Plus, dealer is willing to lease at $1k over invoice, which works out to about $6,000 off MSRP.

Yet I'm hoping to get $1k off a Mini...if they say no I'll laugh, because I can lease a $43k BMW for nearly the same price...

 

Hello? Someone's gotta be buying minis. What r u paying? The stealer around here (Classic) is giving 500 off which is nothing. To make matters worse, they don't want any used coopers, they wholesale them to brokers so you don't get squat for it in trade. So much for high resale value, with the economy the way it is I may be driving this another few months.

 

As I expressed elsewhere, I was quite happy with my Baron Mini experience. By buying a car off the lot, rather than ordering (the only thing I had to give up was the xenons....) I saved $1300 off MSRP. The year is coming to a close; they want to get rid of these 2009s. It became a "How long do I wait" vs" There's the car I want, I hope it doesn't disappear" debate. But I started looking in January, and back then there was $0 off the MSRP. Order or from the lot, same price.

So waiting saved me $1300. And I got the 1.9%, so while not actually "affordable" I am very pleased.

 

$1400 off ordered Clubman here.

 

Three weeks ago we got financing at 1.9% through MINI Financial. And that was on a 2008 demo. They also gave me the Kelly Blue Book value on the FJ Cruiser whereas on my previous trade six months before. they gave me a song and dance about Kelly Blue Book being grossly over-inflated then meeting me about halfway between KBB and their "gray book".

 

$2150 off msrp san francisco last feb 09--mountain view only offered $500 off msrp at that time---mini cooper s hardtop

 

i'm in for one if i can find somebody that can knock that much off a $25k msrp

 

I managed to get $750 off MSRP on an order. Not as much as others on this thread, but I'm pleased.

Now hopefully I can get a low interest rate. The 1.9 APR program will most likely end by the time my MINI arrives stateside. I heard MINI's standard APR is 6%. Hope I can get lower...

 

I paid $1,500 under MSRP and got the 2.9% interest on a new 09 JCW about a month back.

 

In the SF Bay Area, you can get $1000 off any Clubman at almost any dealer and some dealers will even order for you with 1K off...

 

I got $1,000 off MSRP for an ordered Cooper S. Got called today that it's in. Haven't picked it up yet =( I need to find a ride. Kind of tempted to bargain for lower seeing the $1,400 and $1,500 off MSRPs here.

 

No up front deals here in crappy gray Ohio. Sales price is 500 discount if taken from lot or configured price if ordered. Did get a few goodies thrown in because it is our second cooper from this dealer. I was buying no matter what. They have had a JCW hot chocolate on their lot since last october and weren't even thinking about discounting...it was tempting, but no deal meant we could order the color combo the oldest child wanted (it will be his in two years). Such is life happy motoring!