Trade or No Trade? Advice please :)

[burns863]

I have owned my current 02 plate IB/B MC Chilli since late May, early June 2006. I bought her with 47k on the clock for £8300 and I am now just under 71k.

Now I have to stress... getting rid of my beloved Decker isnt a nice thought to me But I do have to think about the money side of things too as you probably know all too well

With me doing a lot of miles (500-600 motorway miles per week) I understand the value of my MINI is going to drop quicker than the average driver. So... out of curiosity I popped into my local David Holmes MINI in Stockport at the weekend and they told me the trade in value of my car would be £7300 if it was to have average mileage of 52000. The sales representative was unable to give me an exact price for my mileage due to her manager not being in and said if would like a more accurate price to phone on monday or call in. Needless to say she was very nice and very helpful

Anyway... I am wondering if any of you could give some advice on when I should think about trade in? i dont want to loose too much money, but I would also like to keep Decker as long as possible before i start to loose too much money .

Might be worth adding that i paid the full amount (£8300) with an AA car loan and with interest I am paying back around 10,000 ( ). I have currently paid off approximately £1300 so far. How will this effect my trade in? I am right in thinking that MINI would pay the loan off and then any equity would go towards the new/used MINI? It gets me so confused hehe.

Please help I know I can rely on mini2 to give me some solid advice!

[northandy]

Quote: Originally Posted by burns863 (original)

I have owned my current 02 plate IB/B MC Chilli since late May, early June 2006. I bought her with 47k on the clock for £8300 and I am now just under 71k.

Now I have to stress... getting rid of my beloved Decker isnt a nice thought to me But I do have to think about the money side of things too as you probably know all too well

With me doing a lot of miles (500-600 motorway miles per week) I understand the value of my MINI is going to drop quicker than the average driver. So... out of curiosity I popped into my local David Holmes MINI in Stockport at the weekend and they told me the trade in value of my car would be £7300 if it was to have average mileage of 52000. The sales representative was unable to give me an exact price for my mileage due to her manager not being in and said if would like a more accurate price to phone on monday or call in. Needless to say she was very nice and very helpful

Anyway... I am wondering if any of you could give some advice on when I should think about trade in? i dont want to loose too much money, but I would also like to keep Decker as long as possible before i start to loose too much money .

Might be worth adding that i paid the full amount (£8300) with an AA car loan and with interest I am paying back around 10,000 ( ). I have currently paid off approximately £1300 so far. How will this effect my trade in? I am right in thinking that MINI would pay the loan off and then any equity would go towards the new/used MINI? It gets me so confused hehe.

Please help I know I can rely on mini2 to give me some solid advice!

Well to be honest I doubt you would have any equity in it now, you paid 8,300 and the dealer reckon its worth 7,300 with 52k miles, with effectively another 20k on top of that I reckon you'd be looking at a trade in value of more like 6,300 maybe 6,500.

Wehn you say you've paid off £1,300 does that mean you've phoned AA loan company and asked for a settlement figure ?, or is this the actual amount you have paid ?. If this is the payment you have made then remember some of that will have been interest.

Was it a personal loan or car finance ?, if it was a personal loan you'd need to get the dealer to give you the value back of your trade in so you can settle the loan with AA, if its finance they would probably insist on settling it themselves directly (as effectively if its financed it belongs to the finance company not you until its 100% paid off)

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

If you continue to add that number of miles per annum to your existing MINI, it will be reducing in trade value more slowly than if you start adding that number of miles to a new, or newer, MINI.

Tigger.

[burns863]

Quote: Originally Posted by northandy (original)

Well to be honest I doubt you would have any equity in it now, you paid 8,300 and the dealer reckon its worth 7,300 with 52k miles, with effectively another 20k on top of that I reckon you'd be looking at a trade in value of more like 6,300 maybe 6,500.

Wehn you say you've paid off £1,300 does that mean you've phoned AA loan company and asked for a settlement figure ?, or is this the actual amount you have paid ?. If this is the payment you have made then remember some of that will have been interest.

Was it a personal loan or car finance ?, if it was a personal loan you'd need to get the dealer to give you the value back of your trade in so you can settle the loan with AA, if its finance they would probably insist on settling it themselves directly (as effectively if its financed it belongs to the finance company not you until its 100% paid off)

Thanks Andy I forgot that I would need to get a settlement figure I will look into that!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tigger, Eeyore & Roo (original)

If you continue to add that number of miles per annum to your existing MINI, it will be reducing in trade value more slowly than if you start adding that number of miles to a new, or newer, MINI.

Tigger.

Thanks for your reply Tigger. So from this I am taking that your advice would be to get a few more miles out of my MC before trading?

I finish my current job (I am on a Degree course placement) in August, and from then my mileage will be reduced to below 300 a week

I am stull confused and need help with this

[Martin F]

I agree with Tigger. Your lowest cost option is almost certainly to keep your present car for as long as possible.

It also sounds as if its present value of the car is around what you owe on the finance. However the amount owing on finance is likely to drop faster than the fall in value of the car because, when the loan is repaid, I would be very suprised if the car was also worth nothing.

[burns863]

Quote: Originally Posted by Martin F (original)

I agree with Tigger. Your lowest cost option is almost certainly to keep your present car for as long as possible.

It also sounds as if its present value of the car is around what you owe on the finance. However the amount owing on finance is likely to drop faster than the fall in value of the car because, when the loan is repaid, I would be very suprised if the car was also worth nothing.

I get you. so the general advice here would be to keep the car, pay off as much of my loan as possible, and then trade? see if i have another 4 years on the loan. Worried that after then it wil be worth virtually nothing (ie like 1500 or something?). Im just not well up on depreciation values etc.

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

Agreed, if it's working well and not costing large amounts to repair then run it for as long as possible and the cash sum that you loose in depreciation will be minimised.

Tigger.

[burns863]

Thank you all for your advice I will keep my current Cooper then! Which to be honest I am glad about because I have only had it about 10 months and I still love it hehe