Minis are better value they they look (at least when bought new) as they hold their value much better than the competition. I doubt, though, whether a buyer of an automatic would get back much of the extra cost: most buyers of small cars prefer manuals.

The "Cost to Build" would not be what the dealer pays would it? The manufacturer has to cover their costs and make a profit. Not quite the same but figures for an iPad are

Apple's iPad mini launched last week, and before i teven went on sale, enterprising fans has acquired one and ripped it apart.

However, today another site, IH, has gone one step further and worked out exactly how much the gadget costs Apple to make.

The firm says that the Wi-Fi 16GB base model costs roughly £117 ($188) for Apple to build - and it sells them for £269 ($329) each.

Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 11/12/2013 at 09:06

Yes bot OP is not asking about price in the show room - he is asking abiut the cost, to the manufacturer, of the vehicle as it comes of the production lin, I think

I don't know, but there was a contributor with VAG connections, who stated the VW Passat cost price to mfr. was around £3000. This was at a time the vehicle sold for £20k. He seems to have been away for some time, possibly connected with his disarming frankness on this and other matters:) So, assuming cost price is in the same ratio as VAG back then, and having nothing better to go on, I'd guess cost price of the MINI at the gate is 15% of the retail.

People often seem (to me) to confuse variable costs with fixed costs, I wonder whether the quoted GBP3000 is merely the incremental cost of materials for making an additional Passat and ignores the cost of the R&D, Design, Factory and Machinery, possibly even labour etc etc ? Sure there's going to be a profit or else the shareholders might ask why the manufacturer is bothering.

I have read that large cars are more profitable than small cars because they command a higher price but many of the manufacturing costs are similar whatever size the vehicle is e.g. it will have a roughly similar number of parts to assemble albeit smaller ones, the metal, glass etc being a relatively small part of the cost.

So, I'll bet that Passat really costs more like GBP10,000 to make - still offering a tidy profit to the manufacturer, dealer and HMRC from the GBP20,000 the punter hands over?

The demise of Holden this week suggests to me that most car manufacturers are not making super-normal profits and that they rely on volume in the same way that Tescos do in retail,