Mini Depreciation

[Wuxley]

Ok i have the following Mini

it has done 9800 miles. I was looking to trade it in for a mini one due to needing funds for a house etc and was looking to save a tidy sum on changing to a nice mini one.

HOWEVER - I got my car valued at 2 dealers today and they both gave me £11300!!!

I argued with them that when i traded my previous mini one which was of the following spec

Mini One Pure Silver
Checked Roof
CD Changer
Bonnet stripes
S Spokes
22000 miles

valued and traded in at £9800 8 months ago. It was on the forecourt 2 weeks later for £10500.

I went out on the dealer forecourt and saw a 04 plate CR/W Cooper with 16" Star alloys pre face lift (Not sure of interior spec or mileage) for £13500.

Now excuse me if i am wrong but surely my car would be up for sale for more than £13500 when on the forecourt. I bought it for £15500 brand new.

Are mini residuals finally slumping as according to me calculations my mini is now only worth 73% of its original value after 8 months and according to several price guides my mini should retain around 59% after 3 years.

Has anybody else found that mini resale values are starting to fall or am i just being ripped off?

[Squire]

well get this, i bought my 02 plate mini FOURTH hand about 2 months ago for £11,995....went in to see how much they would offer me for mine against a new one and they offered me a crappy £9500 for it, saying they would probably put it back on the forecourt at around 10,995.....

....now are you telling me my cooper has depreciated by that much in just TWO months and only 1500 miles??

The crazy thing is if they put it on for that price it would be a lot cheaper than other cars on their forecourt with a lower spec........go figure

[andyupnorth]

Quote: Originally Posted by Squire

well get this, i bought my 02 plate mini FOURTH hand about 2 months ago for £11,995....went in to see how much they would offer me for mine against a new one and they offered me a crappy £9500 for it, saying they would probably put it back on the forecourt at around 10,995.....

....now are you telling me my cooper has depreciated by that much in just TWO months and only 1500 miles??

The crazy thing is if they put it on for that price it would be a lot cheaper than other cars on their forecourt with a lower spec........go figure

You don't state if your car is a Cooper or Cooper S, but either way if you paid £12k for a 3 year old MINI two months ago, you paid well over the odds and got well and truly tucked up. Also with every marque you are going to see a difference of at least £1K and as much as £2K between what they offer you as a trade in and what they retail it for. They have to allow for VAT to be paid on the difference between what they bought it for and what they sell it for, an amount for any servicing or minor bodywork repair required, an amount to cover financing it's stay on the lot, a bit of haggle room and finally a profit.

Don't forget the depreciation curve is always steepest immediatey after you drive it out of the showroom as you lose the VAT paid straightaway.

[Mickey690]

Just to put my 2 pennies worth on this topic.

Some dealers are having a really slow time at the moment and are actually dropping their used Mini prices down to similar private sale prices.

It's a very quite period out there at the moment.

All information supplied is correct at the time of going to print and obtained from a reputable dealer.

[ZX6-R]

Unfortunately, working out a cars second hand value is not a simple exercise in arithmetic. You can't say that as soon as you drive the car out of the showroom you lose the VAT. VAT is only one of many components that make up the cost of a Mini.

There is also the delivery cost to the dealer, road tax, the dealers profit margin, the manufacturers profit margin, the production costs (labour, materials, overheads).

The value of a used car is determined simply by supply and demand. The demand for Mini's is as strong as ever but there is now a greater supply.

They still retain their value very well though. You could do worse, you could have bought a Clio or Fiesta.

Sell your car privately.

[flat_mini]

Check out Glass's for an estimate of what you can expect in terms of trade in and retail prices.

They do charge £2.99 but it takes into account the actual spec of your Mini to work out the potential value.

[Mini999]

I hope the prices of the Cooper don't fall too much when the new Mini comes out, as we got our 2005 Mini Cooper on a three year lease, so we have to sell it and then buy a new one (may be able to afford an S by then)

Neil

[Paul]

The main reason we've not bought a new MINI this year is due to the new model next year, prices will clearly suffer, but by how much, who's to say?

[wildchild jules]

to be honest it sounds like you got a fantastic trade in on your One if you got £9,800 and then the delaer only had it on the forecourt for £10,500 as this isn't much of a profit for them by the time they have valeted it etc. and maybe taken a hit on the price when someone comes in to buy it.

When I sold my 2 year old Cooper in Feb this year I think the price I was looking for originally was unrealistic. I had looked at the prices that other cars were up for on Autotrader etc and compared them to my spec and was expecting to have only dropped a couple of grand in 2 years. What I actually got represented 75% of the price I paid, which I figured after 2 years driving etc. wasn't bad.