It looks like Mini is in trouble

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/caradvice/mrmoney/4698941/Has-the-MINI-bubble-burst.html

Is there any doubt now that even small expensive cars will be sitting on the lot unsold while cheap cars from South Korea and China take over the market.

I would like to see a stripper Mini for sale at about 12K.

I laughed because I got an email from them today offering 4.9% financing for 60 months on any Mini in stock.

I'd LOVE to see a manual everything Mini for sale. Heck, the Mini One would be a good start.

-Rob

Snowdoggie wrote: I would like to see a stripper Mini for sale at about 12K.

Hmmm. Around here mini strippers are between $150-$200.

Lets face it, Mini is in the luxury car business, just the fuel efficient luxury business. If it is just fuel economy that you want there are cheaper choices. If you want fuel economy with some luxury/style the choices are much smaller.

At least in the US, Luxury and economy are not often combined.

The original Mini was not a luxury car. A 12K mini could save these guys.

I just went to the Mini website and built a total stripper version and it was $19,200.

They went up a bit from the original 16 and change. Our first Cooper was 18,200 with a few autocross friendly options. Our 07 Cooper S was 24,500, 09 Clubman was 22,800.

That said, our cost of ownership has been exceptionally cheap with low depreciation.

I think it would be tough for them to make a 12k car with manual window...cheaper just to make it with electric stuff. A lot of the cost is just the engineering of the safety stuff..zillion airbags, etc.

The UK Mini site shows invoice of 10,195 GBP, or 13,026 USD for the base Mini One. MSRP is 14,981 USD. If they sold them here, it should be possible to do so for ~15,500 or so once shipping was figured in.

MINI's margin is a lot higher than other cars of that size. They could easily drop $4k off the price and still make an industry respectable profit.

Not on the dealership end....

That said, our local MINI dealership had a crappy January but then started selling them like hotcakes in February.

Does anybody know what kind of deals there giving at the dealership right now?

I know that a lot of dealers are give discounts right now that aren't advertised.

RandyS wrote: MINI's margin is a lot higher than other cars of that size. They could easily drop $4k off the price and still make an industry respectable profit.

I'm not sure the "Industry" profit margin is what any company should be measuring itself against right now...

MINI is in better shape than most auto manufacturers these days. They layed off their contract weekend shifts due to the downturn. That's a lot different than shuttering plants.

http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/news/2009/02/20/4002864.htm

Could be worse, could be Chrysler, Dodge, Saturn, Pontiac, Buick, Saab, Volvo, etc..

They make a pretty unique product at a higher margin than most. I suspect they'll do O.K.

jwdmotorsports wrote: Does anybody know what kind of deals there giving at the dealership right now?

I'd be surprised if they are at all. I went into a dealership late autumn and they didn't have a single new car on the lot, except their demos. A bunch of CPO cars, most of which were listed for not much less than new, and a 30+ day wait for a new one. Their current inventory (online) is 10 new cars, most of which are above $24k.

I had an 02 "launch edition" it was the 110th car off the line. Paid the price for it, loved it , not it's apetite for transmissions. Nom Nom Nom!

Would love a Mini Diesel!

Here in Canada, even used a S will get close to 20 grand.. lots of good cars out there for that kinda dough.

Jensenman wrote:

Snowdoggie wrote: I would like to see a stripper Mini for sale at about 12K.

Hmmm. Around here mini strippers are between $150-$200.

I don't even want to KNOW where you can order those.

The deals right now are about 500 off of MSRP for cars that are on the lot. The problem is that there are very few 'enthusiast packages' on the lots. We searched for a low-option car with just the sport suspension and found zero. So...pay near MSRP and wait 4 weeks and get exactly what you want.

I know I'm biased, but I think MINI is doing it right.

Too bad they can't get a little competition in this country from one of these;

http://www.fiat.co.uk/500abarth/

Just so we're on the same page, could you provide pictures of these MINI strippers?

I tried, the NetNanny at work nearly had a nervous breakdown.

I sooo want one of those Abarth 500's wish they would bring them here. I believe they were considering it before the economy tanked, who knows now..

Chris Rummel

Rumnhammer wrote: I sooo want one of those Abarth 500's wish they would bring them here. I believe they were considering it before the economy tanked, who knows now.. Chris Rummel

Yes they where, don't know if they still are (probably not). A friend of mine bought a Yaris not long ago and got called to do a consumer survey which involved test driving a few similar cars. One of which was the Fiat 500 (not the Arbath though). He also drove the Smart car (and yes he thought it shifted like crap). I can only assume this was targeted at seeing if consumers would like the Fiat.

This was in Southern California BTW.

02Pilot wrote: The UK Mini site shows invoice of 10,195 GBP, or 13,026 USD for the base Mini One. MSRP is 14,981 USD. If they sold them here, it should be possible to do so for ~15,500 or so once shipping was figured in.

I think that has a lot more to do with the depreciation of the pound (or perhaps the relative gain of the dollar?) than them getting a product for cheaper.