Mini Select Finance

[jayjayedin]

Hi,

Has anyone here used Mini Select to finance the purchase of their new Mini? Was this a good/bad experience? Are there any other options that people would recommend?

I asked my local dealer for some quotes and they came back with the following figures, which seem to be really expensive:

Mini Cooper

Cash Price - £18270

Using Mini Select (with £1000 deposit):
Over 36 months £392.73 with a GMFV of £8,861.45.
Over 48 months £344.82 with a GMFV of £7,586.21.

Mini Cooper S

Cash Price - £20415

Using Mini Select (with £1000 deposit):
Over 36 months £427.68 with a GMFV £10,247.28
Over 48 months £379.13 with a GMFV £8,711.05

Cheers

Jay

[ianking]

How many miles per anum did you set it to.

[Craig]

Hi Jay,

your quotes seem about right, going by the same rough price as mine and I got a better rate in Nov 2006, your payments seem right. :)

Yes it's expensive, but you are buying an expensive car when the base rate is nearly at it highest for about 3 years. :(

Hope this info helps

[ianking]

Well I only put £1k deposit on my S as it seemed a bit pointless throwing lots of deposit at it not to get it back. Im over 48 months a pay quite a bit less than those prices. Think the GFV is about the same as well. Price of my car was only £500 less.

[The Dogfather]

Shop around, we got really cheap finance by shopping around and going back to the dealer asking them to match it.

If you're local dealer won't drop the rate ring round for a better quote. You'll get a better deal by financing the whole lot over a longer term as well, it won't cost much more than the 36 months quote per month but you'll pay a lot less in the long term.

BTW that was with Honda though.

[Craig]

I suppose the next question is what is the APR or flat rate on your agreement as that may give a better indication as to how high yours is compared to Ian's, looks like I didn't get that good a deal, but that isn't any surprise considering where I bought it from.. :rolleyes: :(

[ianking]

I haggled a wee bit with the dealer on the rate. They also removed the dealer comission thing which I think was about £200. I based it on 10k miles per anum.

[jayjayedin]

Thanks for the replies.

ianking - I set it to 10,000 miles per annum. Can I ask what dealer you used and the APR rate you managed to negotiate?

[ianking]

Actually just ran up to the loft to get my paper work, my GFV is just under £8500. Car was £19000 new and £1k deposit over 48 doing 10k per anum. Think your quote might still be a bit high though.

I got mine from Eastern in Edinburgh. Speak to Steve or Victoria.

[jayjayedin]

Cheers Ian.

Got my quote from Eastern as well. I'll get back to them and see if I can haggle them down a bit!

[Scottie]

Jay.

Phone and ask for Kam here is a link to their website

http://www.mhcfinance.co.uk/

He will get you an unbeatable deal.

I have never used them but they come very well recommended.

Well worth a phone call IMHO.

If you do phone them please give some feed back to how you get on.

[AndyP & Lenore]

I would also look at straight finance options. We've found when you look at a 5 year straight finance package, it usually comes out about the same in the long run, and may even save you money.

Try The AA . Com (http://www.theaa.com). We use them a lot for finance comparisons. We can usually get MINI to match the rate The AA give for their personal loan finance.

A wee example for you:

Your Cooper priced at: £18270

The AA loan rate for that is £352.76 (over 60 months)

If in 4 years time you wanted to trade it, you would only owe about £4100 on the car. Should be worth well over that, so you would be quids in.

Another thing to look at is the total amount payable....

Using your MINI Select example the total amount you need to pay (over the four years, including your deposit and 48 monthly payments and then the final balloon payment) = £25137!!!

Using The AA payment suggestion your total amount payable over 5 years is £21665.

I'm not an accredited financial advisor, but I have financed a couple of hundred thousand pounds worth of vehicles over the past 3 or 4 years, and IMHO, that deal looks crap.

Can I suggest you give our official Sponsor a ring. Saltire Vehicles will find you a finance package to suit you.Saltire Vehicles on New Mini Scotland. (http://www.newminiscotland.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=24) And their own web site is at: Saltire Vehicles. (http://www.saltirevehicles.co.uk/)

I haven't used Saltire Vehicles myself yet, but they are at the end of the day a commercial sponsor of the site and should at the very least be considered.

If you do need any more advice, help or you want to bounce some idea's off me, just give me a PM.

Cheers,

A.:D

[AndyP & Lenore]

Just to add.....

If you did end up going down the MINI Select route (or any other PCP based finance package), I would strongly suggest you keep the deposit to £500. The more you put into a PCP at the outset, the more you lose at the end.;)

A.:D

[ianking]

Just to add.....

If you did end up going down the MINI Select route (or any other PCP based finance package), I would strongly suggest you keep the deposit to £500. The more you put into a PCP at the outset, the more you lose at the end.;)

A.:D

Very good advice Andy. I was going to put more into mine but I had several people in the know tell me not to bother as it doesnt really make a huge difference to the payments versus the money sitting in the bank.

[jayjayedin]

Thanks for all the advice.

Looks like I need shop around a bit more!

[ianking]

What spec of mini are you looking at?

[jayjayedin]

Looking at the Cooper or Cooper S with Chilli Pack and a few other extras (Bi Xenon Headlights, DAB radio, Auto Air Con, Hi Fi Package, Web Spoke Alloys, Metallic Paint, DSC, tinted rear windows and a few other things - don't have the exact configuration to hand at the moment)

[ianking]

With the money you seem to be spending you are probably better of with a Cooper S chilli pack as it has Xenon and DSC. We used to have an R56 Cooper and it got the same Mpg as my R56 S, drive them both briskly as well. :D

[euan]

Now, I know it's a while since I bought my Cooper and my S, but 18K for a Cooper? Is that the going rate now? I paid 15K for mine, 18K for my S.

[illegalhunter]

i went to the bank & saved £45 a month

[jayjayedin]

With the money you seem to be spending you are probably better of with a Cooper S chilli pack as it has Xenon and DSC. We used to have an R56 Cooper and it got the same Mpg as my R56 S, drive them both briskly as well. :D

Ian - does the Cooper S Chilli Pack definately have DSC? I've had a look on the Mini website and it seems to be an optional extra?

[AndyP & Lenore]

Chilli gets you ASC. DSC is an optional upgrade. We had dsc on our cooper. Hated it. It kept cutting in far too quick and took too many decisions out our hands and spoiled the "fun" of mini, in our opinion. However we find asc to be fine; its there when things go wrong, but isnt too intrusive in our driving.

if i were you i would think carefully about whether you really need dsc. Asc may well do what you need it to do.

A. :D

[ianking]

Ah yes silly me. I knew it was one of them that came with it.

If you spend £18k on a Cooper you could stand to loose a fair chunk if you decide to trade it in before the term is up. Much more likely to suffer less of a loss on an £20k S.