I am looking at Cooper in San Diego and have noticed the dealers are tacking on an additional $2800.00 for standard Coopers as a "Dealer Charge. I refuse to pay this kind of fee and would gladly buy one in Phoenix or Vegas to avoid it. Are other people seeing similar charges? I remember when the Cooper first came out dealers in SoCal were charging $4K extra for the S.

 

I think part of it is the "cherished" part of it so that you have a years warranty and of course their profit to pay for all the nice showrooms!!

 

Wow. I've bought two Mini's in Texas and paid sticker price on both. They don't budge from the sticker, but at least they don't hike it up. Sounds like the CA Mini dealers are pulling the same stunt that all the Harley-Davidson dealers used to do...celebrate their popularity by shafting the buyer!

 

If they're sitting on the lot they'll waive the dealer fee. I bought one from Brecht for sticker.

 

I bought mine from Rassmussen Minin in Portland, Oregon instead of the much closer Seattle area dealer because the Seattle guys had a "because they can" charge too. Rasmussen sells them for MSRP. When I last checked, The dealer in Salt Lake City also sells them for MSRP, while the dealer in Sacramento adds an Additional Dealer Mark-up. I would travel to a distant dealer to avoid additional fees just as a matter of principle. Heck, the longer drive home is a great way to enjoy your new car!

 

Anything more than a sticker price do not seem to be appropriate. It's not like you are on 3 months waiting list or something.

 

Regarding a dealer not budging off sticker, As an ex-BMW Sales employee, I can tell you that BMW and MINI share similar pricing strategies. At full sticker, the dealers are only making 7.5% which calculates to about $1500 on a $20,000 car and $1875 on a $25K car.

Unlike domestic dealers...there is no dealer hold back either.Considering the cost of building and running a dealer facility,....this doesnt seem unreasonable to me,.........however, I can tell you that I saw MANY new BMWs go out the door for Zero profit.........all in the name of meeting monthly sales quotas. Last day of the month still has got to be the best day to buy a car................correction,.....taking delivery of the car by the last day of the month so they can get it on the books.

 

So what is so bad about earning "only" $1,500 on a car, especially when they are in such demand you don't even have to make any effort to sell every one you can get your hands on? An absolute moron should be able to sell his quota of Mini's. That is, unless he artificially jacks his price up (which would just make the case that he is a greedy moron). I have a hard time believing hard-times stories from dealers when I see that they have lavish all glass showroom full of expensive Marble and Pewter modern art sculptures setting amongst their precious vehicles with their marked-up sticker prices. They may have a high class image that they feel they to portray and maintain, but I sure don't want to finance it. I work too hard for my money for that. I would much prefer to do business with a modest dealer with a decent service department. I have seen both ends of that spectrum in Mini dealers. I would travel long and far to avoid the former and find the latter, for the principle of it, if nothing else.

 

AMG - did you order your Mini at Brecht or was it on the lot? Curious to see if you ordered at sticker, thanks. I'll only be in Hawaii for the next four months and then off to San Diego and have contacted Brecht - but will purchase the vehicle somewhere else if the dealer markup is ridiculous.

 

My dealer had some 07's on the lot and they discounted them $750 off of MSRP