Hi Everyone,

I am shopping for a used Mini S mostly on Ebay as there are not any reasonable used ones in my neighborhood. I need to get into one for under $10K. I have seen a few that go for less than that but they have around 90K miles or so and are 7 or 8 or more years old. What is the value of such an example? Am I off my rocker expecting to get one at around $7K or $7.5K?
The car is primarily for my wife. She is a designer and loves the looks and image of the Mini.

Thanks!

TomPhotoMan

 

You didn't say where you are from, but I'd be surprised if you will find a Cooper S in your price range. Chances would probably be better to find a justa Cooper for that money.

 

I have seen a few go on Ebay for less than $10K but all had mileage in the 80K to 100 K+ range. How long can these cars last? I don't want to buy something that is worn-out!

Also I have seen a few with title problems. One I saw today was a dealer buy-back due to not being able to satisfactorily fix a mechanical problem so the dealer had to comply with the lemon law. Are there model years that have problems and should be avoided?

What do you think?

Thanks.

 

I think you'll have a difficult time finding even a clean, median mile '02 Justa Cooper for under $10 grand.

What you'll find for $7K is exactly what you are finding, cars with questionable or branded titles, salvage rebuilds or cars with a ton of miles.

Why would you want to do that to your bride?

Everyone has a budget of course, but if you can move your thinking up just a bit, you can get clean moderate mileage Cooper, something you'll both enjoy driving and that will last well. Be forewarned about the CVT transmission in the early Justa, it's not that they won't last, but if it does fail, it'll cost as much as another car to fix it.

Happy hunting, but I'm not sure Ebay is the place to do it. Maybe start with your local MINI Club and see what you can find?

 

Upon reading this and other MINI forums I get the impression that specific model years are not the problem. I seems to be inconsistent quality that results in a few cars that are nightmares for their owners. Most MINI's, it seems, are quite reliable and low maintanence. I suspect you are seeing mostly the former on Ebay.

I believe you should avoid the CVT automatic transmission which came on the 2002 - 2006 Coopers. I does not seem to hold up well to high milage, and as MINIdave said, it is really expensive to fix.

 

You can find one, that's how I found mine, but you might need to adjust your budget or what car you want. I was keeping my budget around 15k-20k. After about 6 weeks of searching, I found a couple at a local, independent dealer for 16.5K with under 30K miles (perfect, right?)!! I called him right away and was able to snag it. When I was originally looking, I was thinking like you , but found just what you are finding, so my wife and I decided to adjust our budget a little to make it work (darn-it, I wanted a MINI)!!

I had to keep the mileage down, but didn't care how old it was, I just wanted a MINI S. It will take awhile, but I doubt you'll find what you want for that price. Sorry,