[GTT 280]

If you can wait 3 years then why spend so much money.
After 3 years your warranty will have run out in which case your options open up to the other upgrades on offer such as Hartge etc....

In the three years you can save up your money for that upgrade so in effect it won't really cost much more than saving approx. £50 a month.

[mrhollio]

Quote:

Originally posted by EB MINI
...In the three years you can save up your money for that upgrade so in effect it won't really cost much more than saving approx. £50 a month...

By then it may even be cheaper. I like the thought of more options by then too.

[MrMow]

My prediction... in 3 years we will see a 2ltr Mini, maybe even a 2ltr SuperCharged... NICE!

Nah, 2 ltr NA engine with 210hp and a Cooper S Clubman with RWD 2ltr SC... 300hp!

I figure by the time my lease is up we will have a bigger, nastier Coop which will make the Works look tame!

[anthonyyule]

nobody with any sense, whatsoever, would EVER by a clubman....
man, they were pig ugly first time round, and totally un-necessary, and i dont know who would want one this time round, even with a BMW styling make over....

[Bonjour]

I plan to sell my car after 3 years, it's the most economical thing to do. After that point you have MOT and other things to worry about.

[BigM]

Most economical thing to do? What are you talking about? I plan on keeping my MCS for a very, very long period of time. Nothing feels better than driving "Paid off" cars, of which I own four, and nothing is dumber than continually going into debt for your car. Make your own choices as far as your car goes, but do not try to justify continually trading in as a wise finacial decision. It is not period.

[Bonjour]

BigM,

My car was paid off from day 1. I hate the idea of giving loads of my money to a credit company. I plan to trade my car in after 3 years, getting the latest model and paying the difference in cash. Makes sense to me.

[Mini_me]

Quote:

I plan to sell my car after 3 years, it's the most economical thing to do. After that point you have MOT and other things to worry about.

Reality check. The difference for a new car will cost a hell of a lot more than the MOTs and any repairs you'll need to do in years 3-6 of the cars life.

Sorry to be so harsh. There are a lot of reasons to get a fresh car after threee years, but economy isn't one of them. The fantastic residuals on the Mini will not last forever.

Generally a car will be worth 30 - 50 % of the original value after 3 yrs. So assuming you got a cooper for about 12 grand (sterling), thats at least 6 grand difference .... even my first car - which was 10 yrs old when I got it - only cost me about a tenth of that in repairs over 3 yrs.

My sensible / financial brain wants to keep my Mini (almost)forever .... then again if it really had control I would never have bought a new Mini in the first place, I would have waited three years and bought one at half price. And am I glad that didn't happen!! to think what I'd be missing out on!

[MrMow]

Quote:

Originally posted by anthonyyule
nobody with any sense, whatsoever, would EVER by a clubman....
man, they were pig ugly first time round, and totally un-necessary, and i dont know who would want one this time round, even with a BMW styling make over....

Oh, I didn't know what a clubman actually was, it sounded like a 'sports' type to me, ie clubman, motorsports club, weekend 'racing'... guess not! Was the clubman the funky longer mini (funky bad, like off cheese funky, not funky good like a tall slender luverly in knee high boots, short skirt and pig tails funky, ie, Dayum funky)

[Bonjour]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mini_me
Reality check. The difference for a new car will cost a hell of a lot more than the MOTs and any repairs you'll need to do in years 3-6 of the cars life.

Sorry to be so harsh. There are a lot of reasons to get a fresh car after threee years, but economy isn't one of them. The fantastic residuals on the Mini will not last forever.

Generally a car will be worth 30 - 50 % of the original value after 3 yrs. So assuming you got a cooper for about 12 grand (sterling), thats at least 6 grand difference .... even my first car - which was 10 yrs old when I got it - only cost me about a tenth of that in repairs over 3 yrs.

My sensible / financial brain wants to keep my Mini (almost)forever .... then again if it really had control I would never have bought a new Mini in the first place, I would have waited three years and bought one at half price. And am I glad that didn't happen!! to think what I'd be missing out on!

Like I said, it makes sense to me (and to my wallet). Doesn't have to make sense to you really. My parents changed their car every 3 years and advised me to do the same (as well as never buying any 2nd hand cars). It's advice I intend to follow.

[samagon]

I think that you spend more money trading up every 3 years. lets assume you pay cash for your cars.

what is your total cost over 6 years of ownership?

assuming you pay 21k for each car, your total cost is 42k (not counting maint costs, or repair, as it would likely still be under waranty).

what is the total money you get back from your cars?

assuming you get about 13k on trade in after 3 years on both cars, you get back 26k for your cars.

so what is your total cost after 6 years?

well, 42 is your total cost, 26 is what you make back. so that comes out to 16.

you pay 16k for 2 cars over a period of 6 years.

now, lets assume that you only purchase 1 car in that 6 year period.

what is your cost?

21k initial drive of the lot. lets assume you didn't option for the extended waranty (I think you would if you planned on keeping it for 6 years). so after 4 years your ac goes kaput and your master cylinder breaks. 1.4k to fix. year 5 CEL comes on .7k to fix. year 6 sees a new radiator and alternator and water pump 1k for both. so in repairs you are spending 3.1k. so your total investment is 24.1k.

6 years later your make 10k from selling your car in good condition with low miles.

you have spent 14.1k.

by my calc you save 2k when you keep your car.

of course, this is a very general thing, and the cost of repair/residual value will be closely related, IE, the more you spend on repairs, the lower the residual value will be.

so if you have a ford taurus 6 years later it may be worth 5k when you paid 20k for it initially, plus 2 ac jobs, plus a new tranny, plus plenty of interior problems, plus random other issues.

or if you have an acura integra that barely breaks at all the residual will be twice as much than it was for the taurus, while the cost will be infinately lower.

so I think it remains to be seen what the value will be with this car, as there are not enough of them on the road that have high mileage (I would assume someone may be pushing 50, but that would be more the exception) and high years (no one yet) that would show what parts tend to break easily at high miles/years.

I would say though that eventhough the cost is low on the car initially, it is designed by BMW, so the breakage parts, while they might cost more, will not break as often as they would on a poorer quality car.

whoops, forgot to add the point that goes along with the thread

the residual value of a car that has been heavily modded is going to be less than one that is factory backed upgraded hp.

this is true of many different cars.

one example being the SLP engineered camaro.

the stock F-body V8 was tough, but the factory backed aftermarket version done by SLP racing was mean.

it was covered by GM waranty, was an option after the factory, and the residual values are amaising.

if you went out and put the parts on your camaro to make it as fast as an SLP car cost a fraction of the SLP. but that car would not sell for near as much.

[GTT 280]

YOU ARE ALL OFF TOPIC FOR THIS THREAD.

It was a comment on whether to wait for the JCW upgrade....if you remember ???

[Mini_me]

OK back on topic....

If you plan to keep the car for a long time (e.g. 10 yrs) it might even make sense to wait 2-3 yrs THEN get the works upgrade. That way it will almost be like having a new car at the time of the upgrade and you would know that the mods have been more thoroughly tested so the engine, transmission, etc should still last a reasonable number of years (also the first 2-3 years would have been with less stress on the components without any mods).

Cost could still be a bit prohibitive ......although I have to double check what my dealer told me: 3000 euros including fitting !! if correct, that is seriously tempting