[tahiti25]

I know no matter which garage/dealer you go but you will all ways get about £1000 less than what the car you are trying to trade in.
I took this into account before test driving the new mini one when I sat down with the salesman too work out how much it would set me back, picked out a few extra's and so forth and asked for a trade in for my car and I was shocked.
I have a W 2000 rover 25 1.4i with 12k on the clock cost me new £9k and he said he could on offer a trade in of £3500.
Even Robin Hood had a point to his robbing.

[LordWinslow]

Quote:

Originally posted by tahiti25
I know no matter which garage/dealer you go but you will all ways get about £1000 less than what the car you are trying to trade in.
I took this into account before test driving the new mini one when I sat down with the salesman too work out how much it would set me back, picked out a few extra's and so forth and asked for a trade in for my car and I was shocked.
I have a W 2000 rover 25 1.4i with 12k on the clock cost me new £9k and he said he could on offer a trade in of £3500.
Even Robin Hood had a point to his robbing.

That sucks, I just traded my '99 Mercury Mystique (Ford Mondeo for you guys) I only had $2600 left on it, they gave me $2100. I was going to pay it off before the Mini came in (expecting 6 month wait, but they had one show up that fit the bill so I get to buy now), so now I got to come up with the difference. Try shopping it around to non-Mini dealers and see if you can get a higher deal. Or if you can sell it yourself.

[KenL]

The trade in offered on MINIs does seem pretty bad. I sold my car privately for £1000 more than they offered for trade and £1500 more than the other dealer I visited.

Try a few dealers or sell privately. You could even offer it to a few Rover dealers who'll give you more than the MINI dealer probably.

[LordWinslow]

Quote:

Originally posted by KenL
The trade in offered on MINIs does seem pretty bad. I sold my car privately for £1000 more than they offered for trade and £1500 more than the other dealer I visited.

Try a few dealers or sell privately. You could even offer it to a few Rover dealers who'll give you more than the MINI dealer probably.

Time for me is not an option right now, so I am going to come up with the difference. Normally I would shop it around or sell it myself. Go figure, anyway I am just happy to be able to buy my Mini, and look forward to many years of Happy Motoring.

[nanker]

When I went to test drive and order my MINI last January, I was only offered £6000 for my low miles, unmarked M.G.f.
As I had to wait 2 months for my MINI I advertised privatly and got, are you ready for this, £10500 no problem. At the time I reckon the car was worth £11250, so they are not exactly generous are they?
I know it's a hassle, but unless you want to lose thousands - sell privatly.

[LordWinslow]

Quote:

Originally posted by nanker
When I went to test drive and order my MINI last January, I was only offered £6000 for my low miles, unmarked M.G.f.
As I had to wait 2 months for my MINI I advertised privatly and got, are you ready for this, £10500 no problem. At the time I reckon the car was worth £11250, so they are not exactly generous are they?
I know it's a hassle, but unless you want to lose thousands - sell privatly.

I know it sucks, that is why I tried to get it paid off as quickly as possible. (Knew either a Mini dealer or any dealer would low ball my trade-in.) I am going to do the same with my Mini to. I would like to have it paid off in 3 years (or less). I am going to add extra to each payment, in the hopes of making an extra payment every couple of months or so. Goal to be several payments ahead by July of next year.

[M]

Not wanting to be funny but thats why its called a TRADE in not a RETAIL in. Traders buy cars to sell on at a profit not to do customers a favour. To get top price on your existing car check out a website like autotrader.co.uk and see what other people are asking for theirs. Then work out if you can afford to undercut their price and so guarantee the first phone calls, stick an advert on there and see what happens. Alternatively picj a manufacturer that does discounts and haggle till they offer you more than the stand in value.

[Neil Curtis]

Quote:

Originally posted by M
Not wanting to be funny but thats why its called a TRADE in not a RETAIL in. Traders buy cars to sell on at a profit not to do customers a favour. To get top price on your existing car check out a website like autotrader.co.uk and see what other people are asking for theirs. Then work out if you can afford to undercut their price and so guarantee the first phone calls, stick an advert on there and see what happens. Alternatively picj a manufacturer that does discounts and haggle till they offer you more than the stand in value.

Thats what I was going to say. If the dealer takes your car they are going to sell it on either straight away into the trade usually without making a profit or retailing in on their forecourt at a profit. Don't forget that it costs a dealer a small fortune to stock a car. Warrenty, stocking charges, staff, overheads blah blah.

You will always get more selling privately and to be honest, the dealer would probably prefer you to do that anyway. Less paperwork, less negotiation.

[Revilo1]

When I decided it was time to leave my homeland (UK) and move to Seattle (US) I had to sell my 1991 Honda CRX V-TEC. (last year model before the ugly del-sol) I knew I would get loads more money for it if I sold it privately. Whilst waiting to hear from any calls from private buyers I thought I would drive into a few London dealerships, I was curious on what they would offer me for it. The CRX was in almost imaculate condition, leather seats, Multi CD etc. with about 65,000 on the clock. I payed £7500 and had owned it for almost 3 years. My best dealership offer was $2500. I sold it privately 2 weeks later for £6500.
That's a lot of Gas (Petrol) money !!!
Don't be lazy... sell private ; )

[LordWinslow]

Quote:

Originally posted by M
Not wanting to be funny but thats why its called a TRADE in not a RETAIL in. Traders buy cars to sell on at a profit not to do customers a favour. To get top price on your existing car check out a website like autotrader.co.uk and see what other people are asking for theirs. Then work out if you can afford to undercut their price and so guarantee the first phone calls, stick an advert on there and see what happens. Alternatively picj a manufacturer that does discounts and haggle till they offer you more than the stand in value.

Oh I understand what you are saying. First off because of work, I didn't have time to shop my car around. (I was lucky to get the Friday off to pick up my car in the first place.) Also my car had high miles for a 4 year old car (74000) miles, and I was the second owner. I figured it was going to be sent to an auto auction (dealer confirmed this), and those are the prices they used to determine what to give me. Basicly those prices are out of the dealers hands, they need to make sure they can sell the car. It just happened that my Model was not in high demand, so they gave me what they could. Wasn't too bad though, I am glad I made extra payments on the car so the loan value was way down. So I didn't get hit too bad.

Not too upset just glad to be driving a Mini now.

[KAS_COOPER]

Quote:

Originally posted by tahiti25
I know no matter which garage/dealer you go but you will all ways get about £1000 less than what the car you are trying to trade in.
I took this into account before test driving the new mini one when I sat down with the salesman too work out how much it would set me back, picked out a few extra's and so forth and asked for a trade in for my car and I was shocked.
I have a W 2000 rover 25 1.4i with 12k on the clock cost me new £9k and he said he could on offer a trade in of £3500.
Even Robin Hood had a point to his robbing.

Yeah, but it's a rover !
Doh!

[Steven]

As a Salesperson in Canada I can tell you MINI dealers do not have much room at all in the profit on their cars to add to a trade in price to make it look good. Maybe purchasing an end of year model can get you a better trade in value. You could try selling it yourself also.

[Steven]

Also, keep in mind these cars a pretty hot right now and dealers what to profit on this as much possible. they are not going to give top dollar for trade-ins.

[Keith]

Buying a car that needs to be ordered puts you in a tough position when negotiating a trade-in. The dealer determines a break-even price for the trade-in and tries to make some money on top of that. If you are buying a car off the lot, the dealer may give you his break-even price for the trade-in to get the deal closed. The problem with a car that is ordered is no dealer will commit to a future value for your trade-in. That means you end up negotiating the price AFTER you have committed to buying the new car. The dealer has no reason to accept the trade-in unless he makes a decent profit for handling it - i.e. you get a low price!

You may was well accept the trade-in value will be terrible or be prepared to sell it privately.

[JMWhittaker]

When I ordered my MC last November I had a 2001 MGZR 160 3 door in Yellow. I paid around £14000 for it. I tried to sell it privately for around two months and I was after £11K - 12K as it only had 8K miles on it plus a Clifford alarm. No joy. because Rover dealers started to discount new MG's by loads taking a new one down to around 12K to buy!! This has a knock on effect on the used models, so my car became worth peanuts, many thanks MG Rover that was nice.

So my dealer offered me £9750 for my car at the start of November against a new MC but stressed this would go down by a lot every month, however the delivery date would be end of Jan this year. I had no choice but to px my car there and then to stop losing too much money. It's hard without a car but will be worth it next week when she arrives!!