Deals on Mini's !?!?!?!

Lemonade_Pockets

KeithP wrote: »

And that £500.00 is probably the best you will get.
Why would a dealer offer a larger discount than necessary to sell cars?
It appears that Minis sell very well and there simply isn't the need to offer further incentives.

I'm not convinced that's still the case tho hence my question.

Maybe i should qualify it a bit more. I used to work in car sales for a number of years and still work in the industry. There was a time when a broker couldn't get more than a couple of % of a mini, clearly thats changed. I know what their margins are and i don't expect them to p!ss it all away they have to live as you've pointed out.
I thought i'd try and asses the market this way instead of ringing round dealers getting quotes etc which takes time and ultimately wastes severals salesmans time. I know who i want to buy from - local dealer has offered me a solid deal already with a strong px val. I didn't really negotiate as i wasn't in a position to say yes, mainly because before i start negotiating i wanted to do a bit of research - knowledge is power as they say.

Lemonade_Pockets

jack_spratt wrote: »

It does not quite work like that !! the broker I believe will put the car through there fleet department hence the better discount !!
I am not saying it is not impossible to strike a deal that is just as good with a local dealer !! I have done this before by just saying to the dealership if you will match the deal offered by the broker I will buy from you but you need to know what your car is worth as a trade in ???

For some Marques you are quite correct however this is changing now you will have noticed the discounts been offered are now closer to what you can get from a dealer on most cars. For most cars this is why pre-reg are cheaper as they are purchased on a FON (fleet operator number) which requires the car to be registered to that company for 90days. If you are the first registered keep normally this means the car has been sold as retail unit using retail margins.

Mini i beleive - it certainly was the case a year ago, don't have fleet terms for brokers or anyone else for that matter.By which i mean they have the same margin to work with for fleet and retail customers. Someone like renault or ford will have a 10% margin to play with for retail customers and 20% for a fleet customer. (not actuall figures)

The brokers that introduce you to a dealer will be taking a referal fee and the dealer will sell the car to you as a normal retail car - all be it making less money than normall, maybe.

Doozergirl

Lemonade_Pockets wrote: »

Mini i beleive - it certainly was the case a year ago, don't have fleet terms to brokers or anyone else for that matter.

Ah, BMW definitely don't (conversation with a leasing lady a couple of months back on here) so yes, you're probably right there with MINI too.

AdrianHi

Don't know about the Mini side of the business, but BMW dealers work on an 8% margin on an individual car but can make as much as equivalent to 12% if they make volume of sales targets.
I got 8% off a 1 series last September when market conditions for car sales were deteriorating.
It was my local dealer who I bought my car from, I knew about the 8% and 12% figures and simply said I want as close to 10% discount as you can offer me and I don't want to have to go else where to get it, but I will if I must.
It took about 5 minutes for them to come back with the 8% which we thought was good enough to not spend the time looking for another 1% somewhere else.

Mini's hold their value extremely well, so they don't discoutn easily and it still ends up being quite a cheap car considering features and performance as you get so much of your money back come resale time.

Lemonade_Pockets

AdrianHi wrote: »

Don't know about the Mini side of the business, but BMW dealers work on an 8% margin on an individual car but can make as much as equivalent to 12% if they make volume of sales targets.
I got 8% off a 1 series last September when market conditions for car sales were deteriorating.
It was my local dealer who I bought my car from, I knew about the 8% and 12% figures and simply said I want as close to 10% discount as you can offer me and I don't want to have to go else where to get it, but I will if I must.
It took about 5 minutes for them to come back with the 8% which we thought was good enough to not spend the time looking for another 1% somewhere else.

Mini's hold their value extremely well, so they don't discoutn easily and it still ends up being quite a cheap car considering features and performance as you get so much of your money back come resale time.

Yeah its pretty much the same for Mini's. Your approach is pretty much the same as mine will be.

almillar

Lemonade Pockets - looks like, as expected, there's not much discount out there. If I were you I'd print out your £1,500 deal, and take it round a few dealers. They'll point out lots of benefits of buying from them instead of drivethedeal, and the fact that you're on their side won't help, you should appear very will to buy from drivethedeal, and see if they will match that (be very careful with the specs) or get a lot closer. Be prepared to take something that's already sitting on the forecourt perhaps that you might be able to get some more money off.
We squeezed hard for a £700 discount on a mini cooper (already delivered) for my sister in March.

Lemonade_Pockets

Just thought i'd update this.

Placed an order last night: I didn't get to the brokers level of discount but a storming px valuation made up for any shortfall

So to confirm there are deals to be had on mini's even on factory orders!

Hintza

Well done LP. When I first read your opening post I was rather taken aback by you asking the question. But I see where you were coming from.

I'm a bit late now but I think I might have looked at who was doing the cheapest lease deals (assuming they were a dealer) and seeing if they could have offered anything. Probably a long shot but it might have worked.