[Tuned n Slammed!]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of purchasing a used 1st Gen Cooper S.

I'm looking at getting a post face lift '05 model.

There are a few i'm on my way to see today at a couple of local dealers...Blackburn, Colne and then onto Bradford.

The cars seem reasonably priced at £12.5k-£13k

My question is, would I be able to get the dealer to move on the price and what would be the best approach to get them to do this...other than the obvious...ASK!!!

Any negotiation tips would be helpful. I am not part exing.

The dealer prices do seem reasonable when you compare them to private cars being sold on pistonheads.

[mab01uk]

Not much you can do with current high demand for used MINIs and with the MINI being top of the lowest depreciation charts. However January is traditionally a quiet month in the used car trade so this may help you and near the end of any month can sometimes get better deals if a salesman has not yet achieved his monthly sales targets.
Other tips.........don't appear too keen or eager to buy (even if you are !), don't say too much let the salesman do the talking and work to keep you interested, make sure he can tell you have done your homework on specs, etc and are not afraid to walk away to find other deals.

[sav112]

MINI Cooper 1.6 4-Cyl 16V Mileage 32,384 Transmission Manual Fuel Petrol Exterior Electric Blue Interior Cordoba Beige Leather Registration SM05HDY Reg. Date May 2005 Price £11,231





16" 7 Spoke FIN Alloys
Aerodynamic Bodykit
CHILI Pack
Chrome-Line Interior
Elec Panoramic Glass Roof

Front Seat Heating
Leather interior
Metallic paint
Nationwide Delivery


I actually feel the prices have dropped, I know cars that were 14K now look to be 12K. 05- 06 cars have all felt the newer 07 cars coming in. one of the dealers up here has more 07 cars than anything else and by the looks of it they want shot of the older models…..

I know one 05 was reduced, well in saying that it did not start at a price and get slashed but it came on to the dealer stock lower than expected and ive been following for around a year the prices 04 are now 9K.

only thing puts me off is I want the New Model as I suspect most do with better fuel but this one cought my eye.

07's are now in at 14K....

[Tuned n Slammed!]

Just got back from Mini Stealers, after viewing a couple of cars today, am very keen on 2.

The forerunner is a 2005 on a '55 Hyper Blue Cooper S with the following Spec:
1 owner, 12.4kmiles
Cloth/Leather Octagon Black
17" Web Spoke Alloys
Limited Slip Differential
Multi Function Steering Wheel
Electric Fold Exterior Mirrors
Heated Mirrors & Washer Jets
White Bonnet Stripes
Roof & Mirror Caps in White
Darkened Glass
Air Conditioning Automatic
Cockpit Chrono Pack
Chili Pack
JC Works Exhaust
JC Works Air Filter
JC Works Strut Brace
Driving Lamps
TLC Service Pack till 2010


The car was up for £13.5k, I was offered a deal for £13k, 6mths tax,half tank petrol!!! plus usual warranty and breakdown cover.

The other car was a 2005 on an 05 Black Eye Purple Cooper S with the following spec:
1 owner, 23.2kmiles
Leather Cordoba Beige

Limited Slip Differential
Multi Function Steering Wheel
Electric Fold Exterior Mirrors
Heated Mirrors & Washer Jets
Heated Front Seats
Harmon Kardon HiFi
Roof in Body Colour

Darkened Glass
Air Conditioning Automatic
Cockpit Chrono Pack
Chili Pack
Visibility Pack
Driving Lamps
TLC Service Pack Till 2010

This car is up for £12545, but the dealer wasn't willing to do a deal until I gave a firm commitment. He wasn't willing to move on the price, but may be willing to consider road tax/petrol.

I really like both cars, the interior on the Black Eye Purple is amazing, and it has more extras, but the Hyper Blue has the JCW bits, and sounded great, plus much lower mileage, which is swinging it for me as I plan on keeping the car for a long time and will hammer the the mileage.

What are your views and what would you do?

The Hyper Blue has been offered on Mini Finance as well, which I know the dealer gets a kickback on.

[tyrerc]

for me mate its a no brainer, hyper blue low miles and the best spec, depends on what you want to spend though,

im actually looking into a new model just for tax, mpg issues and this has worried me as my car is a 54 and was hoping for about 12k but looking at the deals you are being offered my trade in will be about 10k!

good luck, instinct is always the winner so id just trust that

Chris

[Tuned n Slammed!]

Yeah Chris my gut instinct is telling me to go for the Hyper Blue, also the dealer was straight forward, did the deal no messing about.

How much do you reckon they're making on the car?

Yeah I know it makes sense in many ways to go for a new car, but I prefer the 1st Gen car, it just looks so much more solid. My mate has a new diesel, really nice car to drive, and tax for the year is £35!!!!!!

Im going to try and get the dealer to give me a better deal to sign on the dotted line, fingers and toes crossed!

[tyrerc]

mate i love the 1st gen, and had an 03 cooper before i had my 54 S, if it wasn't for me needing to free up some monthly expenditure i wouldn't even be looking, but been told i have 6 months before i have equity in my S for a deposit, if i had my way i would keep this forever.

In general MINI make 2k on a cherished car = i traded my 03 cooper for 9.5k and a month later it was on the forecourt for 11k if i remember correctly.

At the end of the day as long as the monthly payments suit DO IT.

Chris

[andy500]

Just bought a 55 S convertible auto, very well spec'd, from a main dealer in Surrey (I'm near manchester!). Drove it back today.
I only managed to negotiate a (full!) tank of petrol and 6 months tax over the phone - nothing else - but the spec is what we've been waiting for. Appeared on the mini used website this week, less than 48 hours later the deal was done (without even seeing pics of the car) subject to actually viewing and driving it. It's taken maybe three months of looking to find the spec, colour etc we want - if the cars you're looking at aren't 110% what you want, wait, one will turn up.
The main dealer thing is worth it, from the cars I've seen outside of the dealer network, it's safer (and in our case a good £1,000 cheaper!!!) to buy mini cherished. Warranty, breakdown cover, all adds up, but they pitch them fairly low to sell convertibles at this time of year.
Of the cars you describe, I'm with the hyper blue one - the genuine JCW bits will help keep the cars value up, and it's possibly a more desirable colour than the purple - personally I think the hyper blue is the best colour they've done, why they discontinued it I don't know.
Best of luck!

[laura f]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tuned n Slammed! (original)

Yeah Chris my gut instinct is telling me to go for the Hyper Blue, also the dealer was straight forward, did the deal no messing about.

How much do you reckon they're making on the car?

Yeah I know it makes sense in many ways to go for a new car, but I prefer the 1st Gen car, it just looks so much more solid. My mate has a new diesel, really nice car to drive, and tax for the year is £35!!!!!!

Im going to try and get the dealer to give me a better deal to sign on the dotted line, fingers and toes crossed!

It depends what they bought it in for and how much they've had to spend on prep and getting it up to scratch They can make more on finance normally and bonuses for hitting targets

The Hyper blue one, it's newer, has fewer miles and the colour is more popular so it should make it worth more/easier to sell on

[Lolance]

Hyper Blue defo!! Nice spec and low mileage.
When looking around cars, I always let the salesman do the talking, and only nod occasionally. Act interested. When he gives you an offer, haggle, then say you'll think about it. He'll ring ya within a week if he's any good. If not, go back and tell him you're interested about the car. Then rediscuss prices. And don't believe any BS about "ooo, the car is popular. We've had people in about the car already...it might go within the week" and the rest of it!

The diesel's not a bad shout...I've got my second one coming soon!!

[Tuned n Slammed!]

I did a nationwide search yesterday, also did pistonheads and autotrader. The 4 cars I viewed today were amongst the most competitively priced anywhere, I was surprised that the Stealers for once were cheaper than private sellers.

I wanted a Cooper S with LSD and low miles as I'm keeping it for a long while, any extras was going to be a bonus, so the Hyper Blue fits the bill perfectly. The car is in excellent condition and hasn't even been prepped yet.

I understand advice about staying cool and not showing interest, but at the same time the salesman showed his cards by giving me a deal straight away as I mentioned I was viewing a few other cars. Out of his desperation to sell this car, he could offer this deal to someone else and I could lose out on a good deal, granted there will be other cars, but I'm really happy with this one.

I think comments about £2k in profit sound about right as there was also a Liquid Yellow Cooper S priced at £12.5k which he said he didnt want to budge on price as it cost them £12.4k, but would rather do me a deal on the Hyper Blue one. I said I didnt believe they were in the business of putting cars on the forecourt to not make any profit, at which he chuckled and confirmed what the Yellow car cost them.

Anyway Hyper Blue it is then....will keep you all posted and hope to post some pics...as it happens I took some pics of it when I was there.

[tyrerc]

keep us posted, good luck.

To be honest i'd be going back for the full test drive etc and to go over 'official' figures, at least then you know exactly what you will be buying/paying per month and at the end of the day you can still take the info and tell them you will 'go over the finances' and let them know the following day.

There are enough out there but if this is the 'ONE' then dont miss it

PICS

Chris

[S8RAH]

Good choice Tuned.
If it is stealer close to me (as per my location) see if you can hold out to end of month, may be worth tshirt or that other half tank!
please post piccies when you collect him/her

[Woody'sCooper]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tuned n Slammed! (original)

How much do you reckon they're making on the car?

Knowing BMW, they are probably carrying a bare minimum of £1000, depending on how long they have had the car. Unfortunately, you can't odds how much they are making, as at the end of the day, the dealers are there to make money and earn a living.

Reach a price both you are happy to pay, and he is happy to let it go at, and get that deposit down!!

Remember, todays discount, is tomorrows depreciation and the fact the MINI normally "don't do discount" is what helps to keep our residual values nice and high

[Tuned n Slammed!]

Quote: Originally Posted by tyrerc (original)

keep us posted, good luck.

To be honest i'd be going back for the full test drive etc and to go over 'official' figures, at least then you know exactly what you will be buying/paying per month and at the end of the day you can still take the info and tell them you will 'go over the finances' and let them know the following day.

There are enough out there but if this is the 'ONE' then dont miss it

PICS

Chris

Quote: Originally Posted by S8RAH (original)

Good choice Tuned.
If it is stealer close to me (as per my location) see if you can hold out to end of month, may be worth tshirt or that other half tank!
please post piccies when you collect him/her

Will definitely be taking a full test drive before making a final decision. I already got a set of figures from salesman as he reduced the price, so I wanted to know what I'd be paying monthly. I then left...i phoned him 30 mins later and got the chap to email me full spec so that I could compare against the Black Eye Purple car at another dealer, he said to me that he may be able to get me a better APR, I said that and a drop in price would be even better!!! He laughed and said he would get in trouble, I laughed and said that he wouldn't lose his job!!

I think he will be contacting me tomorrow to see how I got on with the other car. I will tell him my budget and see if he comes down anymore. If not then will have to THINK about it!

The coming weekend seems an eternity away now...want to phone in sick and go down and just do the deal...but....I will control myself and wait till Saturday for test drive.

[tyrerc]

good job, just make sure you can afford all the little things like insurance, road tax, tyres etc etc etc

chris

[Tuned n Slammed!]

Quote: Originally Posted by tyrerc (original)

good job, just make sure you can afford all the little things like insurance, road tax, tyres etc etc etc

chris

LOL!! Yeah got the insurance quote for upgrade to Cooper S. I used to own an M3 Evo, so know all about tyres etc etc etc.

Only problem, the salesman didn't call today do you reckon he realized what a **** up he made with giving me the discount?

He didn't even know the car had the JCW stuff on it, until I pointed it out to him.

[astilla]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tuned n Slammed! (original)

Will definitely be taking a full test drive before making a final decision. I already got a set of figures from salesman as he reduced the price, so I wanted to know what I'd be paying monthly. I then left...i phoned him 30 mins later and got the chap to email me full spec so that I could compare against the Black Eye Purple car at another dealer, he said to me that he may be able to get me a better APR

Just a word about Mini finance... I'm in the process of getting a new 'S' for March and they initially quoted me 12.1% interest, although they don't tell you that, they steer you towards a monthly payment to hide it. I just took the figures home to look over and then fired up the Motley Fool website and saw some 6.5% loans kicking around. Went back to Mini and they instantly dropped their rate to 7.7%... I'm still going to source the loan myself in a few weeks but just watch out for their initial APR figure...and ignore it... :-)

[Tuned n Slammed!]

Quote: Originally Posted by astilla (original)

Just a word about Mini finance... I'm in the process of getting a new 'S' for March and they initially quoted me 12.1% interest, although they don't tell you that, they steer you towards a monthly payment to hide it. I just took the figures home to look over and then fired up the Motley Fool website and saw some 6.5% loans kicking around. Went back to Mini and they instantly dropped their rate to 7.7%... I'm still going to source the loan myself in a few weeks but just watch out for their initial APR figure...and ignore it... :-)

I was quoted 8.1% APR on Mini Finance by the dealer, and wouldn't go lower, although he called me later to say he might be able to use another provider for the finance who might give a better rate. But when I got home and checked on a comparison site, the monthly figure that I was quoted for the loan was more equivalent to 7.7ish%...go figure

On another note, Ive come across another car from the same dealer, which has slightly more miles, less extras, 2months younger, but costs £500 more

Can it be that the JCW exhaust etc, hike the insurance and makes it less desireable to potential customers, and thats why the Hyper Blue car is being offered for less, or has the dealer made a pricing blunder?

When buying, do people prefer standard cars to ones that have the performance extras?

[Vitesse]

13k sounds very cheap for an MCS with those extras and low milage especially from a dealers.

It sounds like he has screwed up on the price but he may have problems shifting it.

Generally dealers like to part-ex unmodified cars because they sell on better. The fact that it has some JCW bits on it, but doesn't have the full upgrade (I assume it doesn't?) may be putting people off