The £800 Mini Cooper Stopgap

[alec.e]

As a bit of a departure from my usual cars, during the first lockdown, I bought myself a cheap daily to tide me over till I found the right proper daily- which became my Mercedes CL.

This was offered to me by a work colleague for £800.

It was late 2006 with 83k on the clock, 1.6 120bhp petrol, 5 speed manual. Metallic blue with 1/2 leather interior.






Interior is quite a decent spec, electric mirrors & windows, cruise control, steering wheel controls & auto climate control.






Did a quick and dirty smart repair on the rear bumper. The paint had peeled off and previous filler repair cracking. Had to re-fill the area, then spray in that area. The join is pretty much invisible
Before:


After:


Did the following in just over a week:
-Bumper repair
-Sill cover replaced with new clips
-Rear arch cover replaced
-New floor mats
-Interior cleaned
-Wipers repainted
-Oil & filter service
-Scraches polished & touched up
-Exhuast polished
-Engine bay detailed
-Number plates straightened

Some for sale shots:

















Total spend including eBay advert fees: £100.

Sold for £1450, for £550 profit.

[anonymous-user]

Shame you sold it, yes you made a profit, would have interesting.

[alec.e]

The Spruce Goose said:

Shame you sold it, yes you made a profit, would have interesting.

I couldn't justify 3 cars taking up space, as cheap as the Mini was to run. At the end of the day, a small car with engine at 3k on cruise isn't my idea of a daily. However, writing this, I do miss it in a way, would have made a great budget track build.

[sutoka]

Sometimes those colleague motors can be good weekend flippers. I've done a few over the years.

I think my most profitable was a 2004 Rover 25, top spec rare Automatic with 33k miles and a FSH. Elderly lady was giving up driving. Her daughter said they wanted it moved quickly as they'd no space in her driveway. I said' let me know what you want'

They wanted £600 so I snapped it up , spent a day cleaning it. Put it up for sale and someone offered £1500 within a day.

I bumped into the daughter in work a few days later and she wasn't best pleased when I said I'd moved it on. Not sure what she expected to be honest but £900 for a days work isn't bad.

[samj2014]

sutoka said:

I bumped into the daughter in work a few days later and she wasn't best pleased when I said I'd moved it on. Not sure what she expected to be honest but £900 for a days work isn't bad.

If you're into cars and you put enough time and interest into it that A. you have a good idea of what X car is worth and B. You increase the value of the car be it through cleaning it or advertising it properly, something that the seller obviously didn't feel like doing, then where's the issue? Not everyone is interested in cars, you might as well gain from it.

I'm the same flipping bikes (push bikes). I work in the industry and invest sufficient time and effort into nerding out and wrenching on bikes that I occasionally manage to make a decent profit on them.

[andy43]

Nice mini - and it had the Chrono pack!
I’ve never bought and sold cars but it proves it’s not what you sell for it’s the purchase price that matters.