MINI USA’s Offers Discount Financing Program for the First Time
The combination of the slow winter months and the current resession have caused MINI USA to offer a discount financing program for the first time in the history of the modern MINI. MINI Financial is offering 4.9% to qualified buyers or a $264 lease for a moderately equipped Cooper. For those of us who have seen MINI sales go up and up over the years this is a moment that we all knew would arrive, we just weren’t sure when. While there have been plenty of dealer and regional offers, to our knowledge this is the first time MINI has rolled out a national discount.
It’s understandable given the current climate and frankly we believe MINI is positioned better than most manufacturers to deal with the current economic realities of the market. Yet it’s still a strange sight.
$4.9% APR Financing / MINI USA
<p>That’s the exact rate I signed up for when I picked up my Clubby S YESTERDAY. Nice to see the discount overall though because MINI’s are an expensive product period and it’s even harder to purchase a new car now for many.</p>
Expect more discounts and financing incentives as the economy worsens. Fasten your seat belts. We are in for a bumpy ride.
This is not the first time MINI has offered discount financing….December 2007, 4.9% was offered WAC
The economy probably will get a little worse before it gets better, that should be expected.
I understand, at least on the card my dealer sent me, was that the reduced rate was for dealer inventory, so I assumed that made to order did not count. I checked the miniusa site and the 2009 convertible also does not count.
One thing at least my dealer (as well as others) should consider is the options they order dealer spec cars to. Mine typically has all their dealer spec cars fairly heavily optioned with most MC models costing greater than 23K and MCS models in the greater than 27K range, with some greater than 30K. Given the economic uncertainty if it were my dealership I”d be ordering some of my dealer spec cars bare bones, i.e. MFSW (cruise) as the only option thus having some inventory of <20K Coopers and <24K MCS available for walk up purchase.
And yet in Jim’s recent interview he claims they will beat last years record sales figures?!
I wonder how strict they’ll be regarding creditworthiness, and which bank is behind the financing. It’s an attractive rate, and may get people in the door for a test drive that otherwise wouldn’t have ventured into a MINI dealership.
@<a href="#comment-254284" rel="nofollow">veggivet</a>:
Likely BMW(MINI) Financial Services and criteria for acceptance possibly “Top Tier” customers with credit beacon scores above 750+.
Good to hear MINI is looking at some ways to help people get into a MINI when the market is tight, but the rate isn’t great. I bought a new Honda for my wife a year ago and got 0.9% finanicng for 4 yrs. Lots of other brands, even imports are 1.9% and 2.9% right now. Even BMW is offering way better rates right now than 4.9%.
@<a href="#comment-254287" rel="nofollow">Mk1</a>:
The market will take care of that.
@C4
Based on the realities of the credit market today, particularly the fact that household debt in the US has now reached <strong>100%</strong> of GDP, your estimate of the score needed to qualify for the promotional rate is probably spot on, but I hope you are wrong about the lowering of rates or the extension of incentives in the future. As bad as it is for the automotive sector of the economy, loose lending practices and the <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/02/household_debt_vs_gdp.html" rel="nofollow">resulting mountains of consumer debt</a> have contributed greatly to the current meltdown of the entire banking system. The financial institutions really need to right the balance sheets before broadly loaning more money to consumers with suspect abilities to repay.
All of this from someone who is planning on purchasing a MINI in the last quarter of this year and will need financing to be available. Even with a solid credit rating, my guess is that I will have slightly less than a 50/50 chance of getting a loan with an attractive rate and favorable terms.
@<a href="#comment-254291" rel="nofollow">R554M</a>:
I could not have said it better myself.
Mk1: When a car company offers rates lower than the prime rate (or their normal rate) it’s a subsidized rate, which is looked at similarly to discounting the car. The lower the rate, the more they are discounting. Since MINI hasn’t ever discounted, a 4.9% rate is pretty much in line. It’s a little better than most banks are offering, and is better than the rates MINI has offered recently too. The reason that other brands are doing 0% or 1.9% or whatever they are offering is because they can’t sell anything right now. Companies seeing 25-65% reduction in their sales numbers from last year are doing anything they can to sell, even if they don’t make any money from it right now
As far as I know, as long as you’re able to get approved for financing you can get the 4.9% rate. It doesn’t increase as your credit score goes down, it just isn’t available if your score is under a certain point. .
I doubt that a 4.9% rate is going to help sell a lot more cars, but it might help MINI to win more financing business instead of having to lose it to local banks and credit unions across the country.
This is not a discount but an offer to make a new debt more
accessible.Mini raised prices across the board in the face of worldwide recession/depression, and deflation. That reflects presumption/arrogance. Yes, Mini will make a few more dollars on each car sold, but the # of cars sold will shrink. Higher price = smaller market. (c.f. econ 101). What caused the current crisis? Too much easy debt. Leave it to the Germans (I mean English) to engineer a great car, and then bunghole the merchandizing.
MINI raised prices due to increases in production costs and a falling dollar for a car made in the land of the pound. BMW/MINI Financial is a very strict lender, making it hard to get financing through them for the average consumer. This is some effort to help support sales, however I don’t think that many extra people it will allow to get financing who otherwise wouldn’t have. It’s more of a plus for those on the edge of making the outlay.
Plus, they’ve already decreased production keeping supply in line with a decreased demand. Doing the same for the BMW line as well, although they are requiring more agressive deals like 0.9% on a 3er. The european car markets are also faltering, it’s far from a problem with just USA sales.
It’s good to see MINI offering a deal. I do wish it included pre-ordered cars, but a good credit rating would probably let you get it w/a little push. I also wish dealer-spec cars had some variety- all of the Clubman dealer inventory around here have premium packages, none with the Sport package. Maybe I’m spoiled by the order-to-spec now…
Going along the lines of the subject regarding falling car sales worldwide, you guys should check out some of the pics over at Jalopnik.com showing acres upon acres of unsold cars piling up in fields across the globe. For instance, the situation is so bad at some Swedish ports that Toyota (The once mighty auto giant) has had to rent cargo vessels from Wallenius Wilhelsem to park 2,500 unsold brand new cars. Imagine that….Floating parking lots!
The 4.9 financing is applicable to pre-ordered cars, as long as the customer takes delivery prior to 3.31.09
Drew was correct in saying that as long as you can get bought by MINIFS, the 4.9 is yours.
@ Ragtop
I don’t think MINI has raised prices across the board. I have blasted MINI’s price for the convert (>25K for metallic MC with no options?) and a JCW MIni but the MCS and MC hatchback have held steady since the introduction of the 2nd Gen R56. It went up 500 dollars, but DSC was added as a standard item, in effect no price increase. The clubman is not too bad a premium over the hatchback either. The JCW and covertible are different stories.
The dollar is actually strong against the Euro (more likely currency MINI deals in) relative to last spring. Last spring I went to Germany and it was 1.60 dollars/Euro vs about 1.25 now.
This promotion started in February and is scheduled to run through March.
If you qualify for financing you get the 4.9% regardless of credit score.
C4 – I had to search Jalopnik a while to find the link so I’m pasting it here for easy ference. Pretty wild stuff:
<a href="http://jalopnik.com/5135675/where-are-automakers-stashing-unsold-cars" rel="nofollow ugc">http://jalopnik.com/5135675/where-are-automakers-stashing-unsold-cars</a>
Thanks Robble. My bad for not posting the link.
Be advised of the fine print in the lease offer:
“* $274 first month payement. $1,999 Down payment. $300 Security deposit. $2573 cash due at signing. Excludes tax, title and dealer fees.
Closed-end lease offered to well qualified customers by MINI Financial Services through participating dealers. Subject to credit approval. Must take delivery by March 31, 2009. Based on $22,200 MSRP of 2009 MINI Cooper including Sport or Premium Package with automatic transmission, metallic paint, destination charge and $725 acquisition fee. Purchase option of lease end for $14,874.00. Lessee responsible for insurance, excess wear and tear as defined in the lease contract, $0.20/mile over 10,000 miles per year and disposition fee of $350 due at lease end. ”
So say you live in MD or DC you’ll be responsible for $1,338 of taxes. VA you’ll be responsible for $669 in state taxes. On top of that whatever your dealer charges for a dealer processing fee – let’s use $299.
Plus license fees of roughly $200. So now you’re going to have to cough up roughly $3062 – just to rent a car at that price for 10k miles a year.
4.9% is a deal, but not enough of a deal, you can get 3.99% from penfed.org
Makes one wonder if all of the negative online press about the R55/R56 cold start rattle issue (now starting to be manifested in reports of failing engines) is starting to measurably contribute to decreasing demand, in addition to the obviously larger impact of the economic downturn. The latter is certainly masking the former.
By the time MINI USA realizes the impact, they may be in for an ugly public relations mess that can’t be fixed by financing incentives, especially so if/when R57 buyers start experiencing the same issue.
@<a href="#comment-254328" rel="nofollow">Gary</a>:
I also think the R56 is due up for a mid-cycle refresh. A perfect combination would be high gas prices plus a newly refreshed MINI = sudden jump in sales.
But you are correct to state that MINI needs to address the Prince engine reported issues. It is hard to root for what is otherwise a top notch product when engines are sounding like 30 year diesels in cold temperatures.
Gary,
I bet people don’t find out about the cold start issue until after they buy a car and learn about something called NAM. A few months later, they figure it out on their own.
I thought you were going to say we can discount Finance the wheels and tires 😉
Thats the rate I got when I picked up my new 09 Cooper S. It’s strange to see, but I did enjoy receiving that deal.
Re: the cold start issue…I’ve had my engine replaced TWICE and so far the third engine is rattle-free (2000ks). BMW in Germany were very comfortable about offering the replacements and my understanding is that the affected engines were flown back to Europe for inspection. If you’re experiencing something similar I recommend asking for an engine replacement – you may too get somewhere.
MINI raised prices due to increases in production costs and a falling dollar for a car made in the land of the pound.
Uh, no. Now the U.S. dollar is very slightly stronger against the British Pound than it was in March, 2002, when MINIs first went on sale in the U.S. Besides, BMW/MINI have been raising prices in every major currency. Also, the redesign lowered production costs, and with the Clubman and Convertible (and more options) MINI has successfully boosted per-vehicle margins even more.
The previous commenter is correct: MINI raised prices precisely as the world entered a global recession fast moving into a depression. It remains to be seen how much MINI will suffer as a consequence, and perhaps this was still the correct business strategy for MINI, but only time will tell. In the meantime, let’s not try to become MINI pricing apologists. MINI’s management did what it did, and everybody should have no misconceptions about it.
<p>Can this be applied to my JCW from october? lol</p>
<p>IT JUST GOT BETTER!!!</p>
<p>2.9% financing up to 36 mo. all hardtop models except JCW
3.9% financing up to 48 mo. all hardtop models except JCW
2.9% Financing all hardtop JCW models up to 60 months!</p>
<p>The hard returns didn’t work in the above post. You should still be able to figure it out.</p>
<p>There it goes our resale values. Desperation is hitting MINI hard!</p>