what's the deal with Mini Cooper's markup?

[andylawcc]

good lord, was looking up a used Mini and they barely depreciate. a 2005 Cooper S is $28,000; and I've seen some even higher.

 

[Ns1]

that's pretty high.

I found cooper S's for 15-22 on LA CL

28's like JCW territory

but yeah, very similar to honda depreciation. funny, considering BMW's depreciate like a rock.

 

[schizoid77]

My guess is because it's the current yuppy car and these people can afford to make them hard to buy.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: schizoid77
My guess is because it's the current yuppy car and these people can afford to make them hard to buy.

I believe that it says a lot about a car if it's been so popular, even if it's a "yuppie" car, for 7 model years now.

 

[schizoid77]

Yep, so now we should start monitoring the resale values for these "smart" cars.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: schizoid77
My guess is because it's the current yuppy car and these people can afford to make them hard to buy.

What's 'Yuppie' about a Mini? lol!

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: schizoid77
My guess is because it's the current yuppy car and these people can afford to make them hard to buy.

Yuppies can afford to make cars hard to buy?

That's a real bitter working-class chip on your shoulder right there...

 

[GTaudiophile]

If it only it were reliable...

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
If it only it were reliable...

Define reliable? I would say they are better than your average Mazda. They have their quirks, but I rarely hear of stories of the cars leaving someone stranded on the side of the road.

 

[Vette73]

Another thing is they get good gas milage and offer some form of sport/lux that is hard to find on small cars.


But their reliabilty is below average from what I have seen/read/etc/... But it is a european car which are not known for their reliability.

 

[thecritic]

You're better off buying a new one. Here in the Bay Area, we can get new MINI coopers for MSRP easily. No discounts though.

 

[alkemyst]

The mini has an insane option list. Many of them are pretty nicely equipped here.

Some go used for more than the 'base' new sells for.

 

[thomsbrain]

Any car that has a large used-car market with 20-somethings is going to retain extremely high resale values, since there are always a crap-load of 20-somethings looking to buy a nice used car to replace their older used car.

Mini
Prius
Fit
Civic
Mazdaspeed 3

and so on.

You'll notice that the Corolla is conspicuously absent from that list. You can get one cheaper than the Honda equivalent because the younger people that drive the used-car market are less interested in it.

 

[thecritic]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
The mini has an insane option list. Many of them are pretty nicely equipped here.

Some go used for more than the 'base' new sells for.

It's typical BMW, EVERYTHING is an option.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: thecritic

Originally posted by: alkemyst
The mini has an insane option list. Many of them are pretty nicely equipped here.

Some go used for more than the 'base' new sells for.

It's typical BMW, EVERYTHING is an option.

I prefer to have it a la carte versus Honda's stupid method of choosing no options.

 

[thecritic]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: thecritic

Originally posted by: alkemyst
The mini has an insane option list. Many of them are pretty nicely equipped here.

Some go used for more than the 'base' new sells for.

It's typical BMW, EVERYTHING is an option.

I prefer to have it a la carte versus Honda's stupid method of choosing no options.

Just to have a reasonably well equipped BMW pushes up the price up at least several thousand bucks.

I wouldn't mind if the more common options were actually standard. For example, a center arm rest and cruise control are options on a MINI. I'd expect those to be standard.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Ns1
that's pretty high.

I found cooper S's for 15-22 on LA CL

28's like JCW territory

but yeah, very similar to honda depreciation. funny, considering BMW's depreciate like a rock.

Los Angeles CL is an ass rape waiting.