Cooper Roadster Depreciation?

[Barchiba60]

Hello from Aberdeenshire!

Wife and I are both into our cars and in a moment of madness back in April we bought a spanky new Cooper Roadster out of the showroom in Aberdeen. Got a discount without asking, but car has £4k plus of extras so still paid a little over £22k - should have been £24 plus.
Like the car, it is a wee go-cart, fairly comfortable and economical but change in our circumstances have caused us to look at changing it already - with only 2k on the clock!
Shock, Horror and total disbelief at offers - worst of all was offer from the same Group that sold us the car so recently (and suggested it would have good retention value!). Trade in against a near new TT (so not a cheap car) started at £13-14k and finishing at a top offer of £15k. So - depreciation of near 40% from new price in 3 months!!!!
Have raised with both Mini UK and the Dealership, their response basically being "sorry you are disappointed, not our problem, market trends"!!
If that is the case, my suggestion to budding Mini Roadster buyers is DO NOT DO IT!!

Appreciate it is OUR problem but wonder if anyone else has the same experience recently? Likely keep it for now and face the consequences later!

[Boogs]

Unfortunately I think you are reaping the downside of the cars being discontinued. There is a row of over half a dozen in our local dealership, all unregistered well specced and with 7/8k knocked off them.

You can get a decent spec new one for £18k.

I know it's no comfort, but may help explain the values.

[lee111s]

My girlfriend is looking for a cooper hatch at the moment. They're surprisingly cheap for the amount of car you get for a 9-12 month old model with 5-8k miles on them.

We've seen a lovely one wth chilli pack, media pack and a few other nice to have's for just a touch over 14k. It's a 64 plate with less than 6,000 miles on. I was bery surprised how much car you get dor the money, considering it would have probably cost close to 20k if not more when new.

I think the problem with Mini's in general is that the options are expensive but you don't recoup any of the money from them, with the exception of the chilli pack really.

[5bob]

Have you tried We Buy Any Car or similar companies to get an idea what they'd pay for it? We've got a 61 Plate Cooper S Roadster and their prices weren't too bad when we thought about selling, though we're now keeping it.

[AntonyMark]

Hi there in Scotland
Ouch that is a big hit in a few months !
Must be a sign of the times and the fact that the dealers now sell most of their stock on 3 year PCP cycles and anything
out of cycle gets penalized. As the OP mentioned being discontinued cant help either.
I would not be surprised if you still got an offer of 13-14k if you sold it in 2 years from now
There has always been a hefty price to pay for chopping and changing early so good luck with what ever you decide
regards.
Antonymark

[Barchiba60]

Thanks to all for replies. Probably hold on to it as it is actually a great wee motor and looks real smart too!