I have a chance to purchase a 2004 Mini Cooper S JCW. The mini is in great condition and has all COA for the JCW package. The car has leather, heated seats, xenon lights, Panaramic roof. The only bad on the car is the roof was painted white at some point. The vehicle has 42,000 miles on it. Is $14,000 a good price for this vehicle. KBB is stating good value trade in of $13,995. I will be using the vehicle only on weekends during good weather.

I do not have any background on the Mini's. I have experience with Honda, Acura, vintage 70's Porsche, and VW. I am currently looking for a weekend car that will be fun to drive. I currently have a VW CC, and a 2003 Acura type s that I use as a work car. . Any issues or possible problems that I should watch out for?

Any suggestions would be helpful

Thanks
Trevor M

 

I would find it when it was last serviced and or have a mechanic look at it.

 

Are you sure the roof was painted is was it wrapped. $14k is a good price. Use True JCWs are hard to come by down here in Florida. 42,000 miles is very little for an 04. I would definitely check the maintenance history of the vehicle. Your local dealer can run the VIN and get the service info. Good luck and please post some pics when you get her.

 

I am pretty sure the top was painted white. When you open the back hatch you can see the white paint under the rear spoiler was not clear coated. Some of those areas you can see a red color under the white. The roof paint looks good, no orange peal or defects in the clear. I didn't notice untill the guy showed me the trunk area under the spoiler. He is the third owner, second owner was someone in Virginia, and first was somewhere in Florida. I have the vin and will verify the JCW number. The last service was 5 months ago where an oil change and spark plugs were replaced.

The mini is chili red, white roof and mirrors, all ground effects and quarter panels are painted in the same chili red.

 

From the factory each roof was first painted the color of the car, the sprayed over the top a different color for the roof. I am not sure of the year but early cars could not be ordered with the roof the body color but they allowed that option later on.

What you may be seeing is just the normal factory painted roof. See if you can post some pics of the area for us to look at. Not as good as seeing it in person but better than nothing.

Sounds like it is a private sale. If it is then the trade in value in KBB is going to be less than the private sale price which means that the price is probably reasonable.

 

It's a nice looking Mini. Maybe some of the JCW specialists can chime in.

 

Does anyone know where I can go to verify the work history besides going through local dealership? Is there a main corp phone number that you can call? It seems they don't care unless you are purchasing through them. The last resort would be to rely on the CarFax report.

 

Get a CarFax report, it will list any accidents, repo's etc, and let you know if there are any title issues with the car. It's cheap insurance.

 

Is it a true JCW car, or just a Cooper S, with the available for separate purchase JCW intake only?

Just curious but that could greatly affect the asking price.

If it is a full JCW car, then it is a pretty good deal, with how little miles are on it.

 

It is a full JCW car. It has the intercooler cover, JCW tag number S3411, and full exhaust that I can visually see. I have seen regular S with same mileage go in this price range. This is why I want to be cautios and ensure I do my due diligence on the history. I will get a carfax report and see if anything shows up.

Thanks for the information

 

I have been reading up on the super charger issues on the S model. Are there signs that I can identify on a test drive before I make a purchase? Are the JCW superchargers better or worse for premature failure. I did not come accross alot of discusion on the JCW supercharges. I know there are alot of variables that play into the failure but any advice or information would be very useful.

Thanks