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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences MINI Cooper Prices Paid and Buying Experience
1111 messages, Last post on Oct 10, 2008 at 8:06 AM
You are in the Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum. Your Hosts are car_man & kyfdx
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The overall cost of the Mini here is 26,600 with the mark up. The last quote we got for 10k miles, 3k down, 4 years... 412 with tax. I just got finished talking with OK City Mini and for the same price they quoted me 390 a month with tax, 12k miles though instead of 10. Now the pros and cons to buying the Mini here are: Pros: Get the car now, no hassle of bringing the car into state and will be able to return the car to the dealer if it needs to be in shop for a few days and get a loaner. Cons: $22 more, I didn't get to create it myself online, 1.5k goes towards mark up instead of additional features such as DSC and Xenon headlights or seat warmers. But the 1.5k extra.. Wouldn't it cost just about the same brining the car into state and having to register it here and all? I know when my mom brought her Jetta here from NM she almost had to pay about 1k. And that extra $500... Flying to OKC and driving home. I'm just wondering... Does anyone buy a Mini offlot? It feels sort of impersonal getting a Mini that someone else designed other than myself and not seeing him be developed. I missed out on all those years of my Mini.
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Replying to: gopguyca (Apr 12, 2005 6:37 pm) If you have the patience to wait, I suggest you order one for purchase, not for lease, from out of state. Take the time online to personalize it. There are a few dealerships that advertise the fact that they ship to your door for only $500. And the wait outside of CA is only 2 to 3 months. And, you know, you are not required to go to the same dealer you bought your MINI from to have it serviced. If that were the case, too many people would be raising cain about it and that policy would have been dropped already. Leasing for over $400 a month? A MINI? You might as well buy it. Save yourself 10's of thousands over buying it at the end of a lease (these cars have virtually no depreciation, you will pay A LOT to buy it out). I hate to sow seeds of doubt over your decision to lease, but at the numbers you're quoting, it really is in your best interest to buy it at the beginning. Better to pay a little more each month for 5 to 6 years, owning it after it's said and done, than paying 22K through 4 years, then owing another 17 to 20K (counting for depreciation) to buy it out after a lease period (which means taking out a loan for 5 more years, do you really want to pay for your car for 9 to 10 years?). Look, I'm just trying to save you money, but all of the above is just my opinion. Heed it or ignore it completely.
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That is how I at first thought buying out in the end works after hearing about it from Toyota and you confirm it... It is a rip off. I think we might go ahead and try to buy out from the start through USAA. We have a check they sent us in the mail for a car loan with 4.84% APR and the payments aren't really that bad if we put 6k down and finance the rest for 60 months. I really wish we could use the Mini Select financing program! As for ordering... Do you think that is nessecary? Sure the Mini will be exactly how I want it but I'm just as happy with the one I'll be getting from Bob Smith, the only difference is that instead of that 15 hundred mark up I could get DSC and nicer headlights or save the money but at the cost of waiting though with waiting I could watch it be made and it'll be more personal. Am I going to be the only Mini lover to not have had ordered their Mini? =/ But with the service thing... I know any Mini service department will work on my Mini but they won't give me a loaner. If my Mini is going to be in service for a week they won't give me a loaner unless I bought the car from them, which is the advantage of getting the Mini at Bob Smith. |
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In this pamphlet I got from USAA it says they will go and negotiate the asking price for the car I want... Is that something I should ask of them? The dealer already took off half of their mark up for us, would they be able to do anything more? Also, that half off mark up is with them thinking we are going to lease. Would they maybe give us the full mark up if we said we are going to buy the car out? |
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The only extra cost to buying out of state is your transportation there and the gas back... Whatever you have to pay (taxes, inspection, etc.) when you get back, is what you would have to pay anyway.. unless CA has something extra... I'd much rather have $1500 or even $800 in options, rather than put $1500 extra in the dealer's pocket. Buying after leasing isn't a "rip-off", but if that is your intention from the beginning, it will be cheaper to buy it from the start. The "rip-off" comes from the dealers playing with the lease numbers.. Get your own 60 or 72 month financing lined up beforehand, and the dealer may even get you a better deal on the financing, when he learns what he is competing against. The dealer that is marking the car up $1500 over MSRP? They won't drop the price because you bring in a 3rd party or finance instead of lease.. Neither of those things helps them in any way... It is all about the money.. Get your financing in-line.. pre-approved.. Go back in and tell them you will buy today at MSRP... You might be surprised.. If not, go out of town.. regards, kyfdx
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Replying to: kyfdx (Apr 13, 2005 6:43 am) Gopguyca, IMO order what you want and buy it, since your not impatient a 6-8 week wait for it is not as long as you think, you won't regret the decision nor be putting all that extra money into a salesmans pocket. I bought my Cooper outright and handled the financing thru a home equity loan since the interest is deductable on my taxes unlike a car loan/dealer financing. and being from upstate N.Y I'll trade you one George Pataki for Arnold anyday LOL Ray T. 
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The dealer markup is 3k but she was able to get us 1.5k thinking we are leasing.. If we were to say we are going to buy the car out instead of lease, wouldn't they maybe give us the full mark up? Doesn't the dealer make more money through leasing rather than selling flat out? We could afford to finance through USAA putting 6k or so down and making the term for 60 months or so but I'm scared they might give us the full mark up with us not leasing from them. Unless the dealer prefers a buy out, I don't know. But with 6k down we could get better lease payments but I think it's crazy to put that much down on a leased car as that money is just being thrown out the window really. Or am I wrong? Because that down payment doesn't go to buying the car out in the end, does it? Going out of town is still an option and the wait doesn't really bother me but I really just want to get my car now, ya know? This is going to be my first car and I'm happy with the one they are expecting. I just regret missing out on seeing the car be made and the fact that 1.5k is going to a dealer instead of my car, but really... It's like cutting in line or beating the rush that MSRP dealers in CA or avoiding the hassle of going out of state to pick it up. And for me, driving the car home from OK or TX will probably be as much as their mark up by the time I stop for gas, food and lodging.. I like to eat during road trips! Also my Mom would have to come because she is a co-signer, so for the two of us to fly out and all it'll be about the same price. Also, we plan on doing some driving around this summer, don't want to get burnt out already, lol. I just hate that mark up really. I can do without making my own in exchange for the getting it now seeing how the car they are expecting I like and would probably make anyway, but I hate that mark up.
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Replying to: gopguyca (Apr 13, 2005 3:20 pm) All your posts make it sound like you're conflicted, which is even more of an indicator that you shouldn't make any quick decisions. Here on the east coast, the wait is 2 months. Is the whole west coast subject to the 6 to 9-month wait? If not, try Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, etc. Besides, when it comes time to pick it up, Greyhound bus really isn't that expensive  . Also, if you buy out-of-state, and are worried about not having a free loaner car from the local dealer, think about the following... The average loaner car is about $25 per day from your average rental agency. Let's say your MCS is at the local dealer three times a year for whatever reason (let's hope not, considering the oil change is every 10K miles), and you have the loaner car overnight until you get your MCS back the next day. It's cheaper for you to pay $150 a year in loaner car fees than it would be to pay an extra $1500 markup to get the car now. It would take ten years of three overnight visits per year to equal the CA dealer markup. Also, chances are better a loaner would be available from a third party, considering the small number of MINI dealers and, consequently, the high number of vehicles being serviced per dealer. Is this making fiscal sense to you? Another, more patience-testing option is to order within California, save yourself the mark-up, wait 6-7 months, and in that time, have accumulated enough savings for a 8 or 9K down payment. That'll get you closer to your $300/month target. Honestly, if you can afford a 6K down payment right now (most people can't), AND you recognize the fact that all that money is considered gone if you lease, then I can't see how you would justify leasing. Just BUY the d  mn car. Well, I can't think of much more to say that would convince you to buy up-front. It sounds like you want your Cooper S NOW, and you're willing to go the exorbitantly more expensive "lease-to-buy" route. I'm rooting for you whichever path you take (because it's a MINI), but if a line is drawn in the sand, I step over to the BUY side. Good luck. |
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...what everyone is saying. But I do not have a car, period. Going out of state isn't bad especially looking at it from this new perspective you offered regarding the costs of getting a loaner car on my own from Enterprise.. From that perspective, you're right, the loaner car at the dealer at times of service isn't much of a reason to justify the mark up. Especially considering the fact that I surely hope my Mini only needs service for oil changes, lol. But I do need a car now, and not just me but my family. It's going to be my first car and it really isnt' mine exactly but more like the families. We have a huge SUV which just guzzles down gas and we are having to go over the hill every day it seems, the SUV is costing us too much in gas. Also we need another car. My brother is about to start driving and we don't have enough cars for us to get around as I have a job and my brother is about to have a job as well. We need the other car. If it was just me getting a new car or wanting a secondary car... Sure, we can wait. But the fact is we need another car and I need a car period. Fortunatly for me my Mom is going to help out some because we do need another car in the family and something more cost effiecient compared to our SUV. Personally.. I would much rather take that 1.5k and get additional options such as DSC and the better headlights with the chance of an adventure -- Going to pick up my Mini and driving it home. But my Mom isn't overly crazy about that as she sees it more as a hassle rather than an adventure, though she doesn't mind it at all if we got it in OKC, which is possible as their wait is onyl 3 months, but the fact still remains that we do need another car. We also went over the possibility of financing if we put down 6k for a 60 month term through USAA... I forget how much the payments are but they are around the same price if we lease with a 3k down payment. But we came to the conclusion that we really can't afford to put down that much. So we are just going to lease with a 3k down payment. I know it's a rip off whether we buy out in the end or not but it's really the most easiest option for us at the moment. I thank you for your input though and adding that new perspective, I never looked at it from that angle.
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Replying to: gopguyca (Apr 14, 2005 12:06 am) I reviewed your post about a 4.84% check for a car loan. Is that limited to a 60 month term? If not, you could put down 3K, finance for 72 months, and end up paying almost exactly the same per month as you would pay for a 60 month term w/ 6K down payment. Run the calculations. Try any online loan calculator. Definitely an incentive to buy in my book. |
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