Buying a new mini

pat21

Hi there.

Has anyone else tried to purchase a new mini recently?

All the dealers seem to be quoting the exact same prices on the mini website and are not negotiating.

Is this price fixing?

photome

Supply and demand I suspect.

k3lvc

pat21 said:

Hi there.

Has anyone else tried to purchase a new mini recently?

All the dealers seem to be quoting the exact same prices on the mini website and are not negotiating.

Is this price fixing?

Why would they negotiate when they can sell more cars than they can make ? Spare a thought for all those who've had orders/deposits placed and now being told either their cars will never be made or they'll be made with a different spec and (usually) an additional cost.

They seem to be one of the most impacted brands in the current situation

Car_54

The manufacturers are well aware of the illegality of price-fixing, so their prices are "recommended".
In normal times, dealers will offer discounts. At the moment, as said above, they can sell all the cars they can get at list price. They would charge more if they thought they'd get away with it!

Benny2020

Try Carwow

Grumpy_chap

pat21 said:

Hi there.

Has anyone else tried to purchase a new mini recently?

All the dealers seem to be quoting the exact same prices on the mini website and are not negotiating.

Is this price fixing?

What lead time are you being offered?

That likely explains.

iwb100

Have you been into the dealers and gone through it or are you just phoning or emailing them for prices? They aren’t going to reduce a price at all unless you go in and look serious and negotiate. Even then it’s a new car sellers market right now. Short supply, big demand. Means they won’t be doing you a great deal. Especially on a mini which is a popular car and something that they don’t need to discount to shift their targets which will be lower than usual due to supply constraints.

ontheroad1970

pat21 said:

Hi there.

Has anyone else tried to purchase a new mini recently?

All the dealers seem to be quoting the exact same prices on the mini website and are not negotiating.

Is this price fixing?

There is nothing improper when a retailer/airline/dealer etc makes a fixed price that is non negotiable.  Price fixing as an improper or illegal act is if say for a theoretical example, BMW and Mercedes decided to fix a price of an executive saloon, and their prices remain the same in all circumstances.  That would break the rules on uncompetitive behaviour.  

A dealer refusing to discount is not breaking any rules, just as Tesco will always refuse to negotiate on their shelf edge prices.  With long delays on new cars discounting is pretty rare.  

Stratus

AutoeBid are showing 4.8% discount on a number of different petrol models and even more on the electric.

iwb100

Stratus said:

AutoeBid are showing 4.8% discount on a number of different petrol models and even more on the electric.

Are those discounts on top of any pcp contribution or discounts? Places like carwow for example will call a manufacturer contribution to a deposit a ‘discount’. So that needs factoring in.

shiraz99

pat21 said:

Hi there.

Has anyone else tried to purchase a new mini recently?

All the dealers seem to be quoting the exact same prices on the mini website and are not negotiating.

Is this price fixing?

If you just looking at price's on the website then these will generally be the RRP, I'm assuming you're referring to an actually "new" car rather than a new to you, used vehicle. You need to actually go in and talk to a dealer and see what they can offer. Also, again I assume this is a cash purchase, don't rule out their PCP deals either because quite often they'll offer dealer/manufacturer contributions and then as soon as you've got the car cancel/settle the finance off without penalty.

There was a time where if you couldn't get around 20% off the retail for a new BMW/Mini you weren't trying hard enough, not sure if that's still the case in the current climate.