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And quite frankely they are good cars and they're made in the UK
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If buying a MINI you also need to consider that you HAVE TO have a few extras if the basic spec doesn't match up to something like a Yaris. If you don't MINI dealers and punters won't give you so much come sell-on time.
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True, bur a lot of the extras are cosmetic and I suspect won't make much diffreence the other end. For SWMBO's Mini One last year we specified just aircon, a sunroof (we like both) and the trip computer: those seemed to make more sense and were all she needed.
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Isn't there also a bargain servicing package which eases some of the pain?
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I own a new R56 MINI Cooper and am absolutely delighted with it.
Yes, MINIs are expensive but depreciation is good and ownerships costs low due to the TLC pack, two services and a brake fluid change for £150. Services on the new engine are ~20k miles.
If you choose options carefully, eg. SALT or PEPPER pack on the ONE, you get decent value. A lot of these option should of course be standard!
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True, bur a lot of the extras are cosmetic and I suspect won't make much diffreence the other end. For SWMBO's Mini One last year we specified just aircon, a sunroof (we like both) and the trip computer: those seemed to make more sense and were all she needed.
Avant, just the sort of extras I was referring to. Cosmetic maybe, but that's how the market behaves. Look like good choices IMO. A base One come sell-on time is pretty unattractive.
(BTW, I had a 52 Cooper from new for 2 years and now have an 05 Cooper S. I'm drawing on conversations with MINI dealers.)
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Only here in Blighty - see other threads on car snobbery - could anyone think paying £13,000 on a 2 seater with no boot as a wise way to get rid of excess cash!! Would a Frenchman buy it? What would a German think it worth?
I saw elsewhere a S-type Jag SE, 3 years old going for £8,000. You could get a Phaeton/Bentley for £13,000 soon!
BMW must be laughing...a lot!
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My old boss, his wife had an 02 plate Cooper.
No glovebox or alarm, great in a car that price!
That got traded in for a 06 plate Park Lane, over £16.5K they paid for it with the options & you still had to turn your own wipers & lights on.
Overpriced fashion accessory that isnt even nice to drive.
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Exactly! The sales succes of the MINI is the result of brilliant marketing by BMW. The boot on the new MINI is, let's not forget, smaller than the boot on the new SMART For Two, and the rear seats are about as useful as a chocolate teapot to a driver of average size. But it is seen as 'trendy', and low depreciation is, after all, a result of excess demand over supply (although this won't last forever)
In Europe you see very few outside the 'fashionable' city centres. Those who have to spend their own hard-earned need more value for money. Second hand values of cars hold up better in general in Europe and so the advantage it has in this market of low depreciation (and therefore lower PCPs, etc.) doesn't hold.
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The main reason Mini's cost what they do is because people are willing to pay the asking price and more for extras. It's as simple as that and if this stopped then the price will fall, after all it's only a commodity. A desirable one that people want so the price reflects this. Or am I being too simplistic?
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The only good things about the Mini when I drove it was that it was pretty small, nippy & easy to park.
Bad things, no glovebox, no alarm, joke of a boot, joke of a screen wash filler neck & tank, having to take your eye of road to look at speedo, no standard radio control on / next to steering wheel, tyre pressure warning light that had to have a few tweaks to the software & they still never managed to fix it, nasty run flat tyres, back braking ride & that electric power steering pump that is so dam noisy.
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thanks guys, it looks as though I'll be better off with a less fashionable, more reliable Toyata Yaris :)
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Sorry to say this, and it's not my specialist topic...but my guess is that the Yaris is fashionable of its type.
If you want value, buy the fastest (i.e. not Toyota/MB/BMW etc) depreciators, around 1-2 years old, with FSH.
There will be some great Fiestas, Puntos, Corsas (well maybe not them)/Clios/C3s out there.
I often reckon car problems come with the driver not the car but that maybe my good luck, and it probably merits another thread anyway!
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