[Saurabhdutt]

Few days ago I received a call from my local dealer regarding their March deals. I was asked to come down to their showroom and they had a few JCWs which they wanted to move and the deals were unmissable.

So I went to see them with my F56 Cooper (manual, chilli, media, sunroof, parking sensors, 17” cosmos, leather heated seats, spot lights, led drls, jcw wing and rear view mirrors, sun protected glasses, paint protection, tlc and few bits more). I had paid £19K (rrp was £22K) 9 months ago and they offered me £10K for my car. I nearly fell of my chair.

They had a JCW (fully loaded) for £34K and offered me £2K discount on it so the cost to change was £22K..

What a waste of my time.

 

[jeremybingham]

Good grief no thanks!

 

[KYDan]

Stealership?

 

[johnan]

They obviously don't want trade in stock to be bothered with, must have too many unsold second hand cars already.

I went to my dealers last week to have a look at the new convertible..only from a design interest point of view, you understand...honest...and I was met with complete disinterest.
The sales crew seemed to disappear as we went in.

When I bought my Mini a couple of years ago they were fighting with each other to be the one to show me the cars.

It is a new bunch of staff, but their ethos, training, or motivation has completely changed. Not pleasant and a silly way to do business.

 

[derekh929]

Time to change dealer that is shocking and more like conman than dealer, we got far better discount on very lightly specked JCW at launch than that, would have been looking at 4 to 5K figure with that spec and a better trade in value , deluded comes to mind or insulting your intelligence IMHO

 

[Saurabhdutt]

It was a joke. I got more discount on my cooper back in july from parklane..

 

[Ian Chadwick]

They obviously don't want trade in stock to be bothered with, must have too many unsold second hand cars already.

I went to my dealers last week to have a look at the new convertible..only from a design interest point of view, you understand...honest...and I was met with complete disinterest.
The sales crew seemed to disappear as we went in.

When I bought my Mini a couple of years ago they were fighting with each other to be the one to show me the cars.

It is a new bunch of staff, but their ethos, training, or motivation has completely changed. Not pleasant and a silly way to do business.

The reason for the lack of interest at your dealership is that all mini convertibles have been grounded, there is a problem with the roof but mini are saying nothing I ordered my mini 10 Nov 2015 £38,000 with all extras and was promised delivery for the 5th March to coincide with the launch, the delivery has been put back 5 times its been sat at the dock since 17th Feb its a massive problem every roof has to be changed I spoke to mini uk what a waste of time, I emailed the head of customer services who replied via a sidekick that told me nothing, I even emailed HAROLD KRUGAR guess what! email intercepted same sidekick replied, its a disgrace its like building Wembley Stadium and putting the wrong size goalposts up, there are things that you would expect a company like mini to get right one is customer services/excuses and the other is the roof on a convertible

 

[kenl]

£38 000 for a MINI!

 

[Saurabhdutt]

£38 000 for a MINI!

That is a 4 series convertible money. Well, each to their own.

 

[johnan]

The reason for the lack of interest at your dealership is that all mini convertibles have been grounded, there is a problem with the roof but mini are saying nothing I ordered my mini 10 Nov 2015 £38,000 with all extras and was promised delivery for the 5th March to coincide with the launch, the delivery has been put back 5 times its been sat at the dock since 17th Feb its a massive problem every roof has to be changed I spoke to mini uk what a waste of time, I emailed the head of customer services who replied via a sidekick that told me nothing, I even emailed HAROLD KRUGAR guess what! email intercepted same sidekick replied, its a disgrace its like building Wembley Stadium and putting the wrong size goalposts up, there are things that you would expect a company like mini to get right one is customer services/excuses and the other is the roof on a convertible

I actually tried the electric roof while in the showroom and I am not surprised it has problems.
Before it moves, the side windows, ie the door windows and I think a smaller window behind each door, have to be lowered slightly, about 4inches, before the roof starts to move and then the whining and grinding of the mechanism on my example sounded very unconvincing of long term reliability.
If I had one I would be scared to use it, just waiting for a "twang" noise and a drive home with the roof neither up nor down!
I'll stick to my Midget and TF, they have enough problems of their own.

 

[brandonbardsley]

I think if I was even considering a JCW, I'd go barebones and pay nothing but standard money at £23k... Nothing is likely to go wrong then and well I'm sure you'd be able to take it for what it is! I simply cannot believe anyone in their right mind would pay £36k for a MINI, that's a £24k mark up from the basic MINI ONE... Speechless, at the end of the day, if they can sell a MINI ONE for £12k brand new, what does that say about the quality of this £36k car?

I'm not dissing MINI ONE's btw... I'm just putting something in to perspective.

 

[Saurabhdutt]

I made a quick video on convertibles whilst the stealer worked too hard on messing my car's part ex value.. ;-)

 

[Davyboy]

Great video

 

[Davyboy]

On my previous JCW after 18 months I was offered 50% of the £30k it was new, after the 3rd year it was still about the same and after the 4th year when I traded it I still got nearly 50%, it takes a few years to balance out

 

[Saurabhdutt]

Great video

Cheers @Davyboy

 

[bjblyth]

Very good video. Love the two colours on display. Is there even less leg room in the rear on these though?! Looks bad!

 

[Saurabhdutt]

Very good video. Love the two colours on display. Is there even less leg room in the rear on these though?! Looks bad!

I found it quite snug too.

 

[mowflow]

The first dealer just sounds rubbish. These "events" are never anything more than dealers trying to hit the next level of target. It sounds like this dealer is in a spiral of missing target with stock cars from last quarter still kicking about.

The figures sound absolutely shocking. It's no wonder they aren't selling cars with offers like that. I bet WBAC or the like would offer more than that for your car. Getting an online quote from the likes is probably a good thing to go armed with to these events.

Interesting to see some of the discounts mentioned here. I'm used to anywhere from 10-20% on other manufacturers and have been quite surprised by what some have told me about mini. I've heard a few tales of measly 3 figure discounts and zero off so good to see folk here doing much better.

 

[Cessa]

As you mentioned, dealers will only offer big discounts if they are within reach of meeting their incentive targets otherwise they wont budge much at all. It doesnt matter how much you plead. The best thing is to shop from yard to yard as they all have their own set targets and will be very competitive with their immediate competition, the mini yard next door so to speak.

 

[dylan]

The best thing is to shop from yard to yard as they all have their own set targets and will be very competitive with their immediate competition, the mini yard next door so to speak.

Likewise - made an appointment to test drive a 5dr at Cooper Reading and was met with disinterest only to be told that their demo car wasn't there at all so we couldn't go out. Salesman walked off and didn't even offer to spec anything up - told we'd get a call back and got nothing.

On the other hand, our next nearest dealership was a Ridgeway - let us go out on our own in the car for a while and quoted up a brilliant deal (beating a really good competitive lease deal online) all because they needed to reach their March sales.