so was wondering, i did do some research and couldnt find what i was looking for but i am a newb lol, was wondering i was looking for a mini in the 02-03 range. are they any good? or stay away? i knwo the autos in them you need to stay away from them. i was actually looking at a S model with 6 speed. any info would be great thanks!

 

Go for an '05 or '06 if you are looking for a 1st Gen MINI. To narrow it down even more, go for the '06. All S's on those years are 6-speed.

Good luck.

 

I bought my 02 Cooper two years ago, and have had zero problems, I have been to the Dragon twice, Colorado once and Florida and it has been great. Have no problem saying get one.

 

i wish i could get an 06 but looks like i can only afford an 02 MAYBE an 03. any other advice? i hear they are very tight to work on? is this going to be a dealer only car to get fixed? my wife has a 02 TDI jetta that we are looking to replace with a mini and i can go a fair amount of work on the TDI by my self and dont really want to be dealer dependent if i dont have to. thanks!

 

S models are natural more prone to having more work done on them since they are higher performance and have more parts. I do most of the work on my car, the main thing that I couldn't do was putting on new tires (that's a given) and new bushings that I didn't have to tools to install.

I bring my car to an independent mechanic and would never bring it to a dealership.

Maintenance will depend on the mileage of the one you may find. Mine had 81K so I had things that I needed to replace as preventative maintenance because of normal wear and tear.

 

Most '02-'04 around me go for 10-15k S and non S. I got my non S (R50) for $9k and 38k miles on it in Feb.

 

18 months ago bought my '02 Liquid Yellow MCS for $9K. It had spent it's life in Virginia, so no rust. Clean CarFax, 73K miles, Original Paint, tons of maintenance records including oil changes, completely stock right down to the wheels. I brought it home and went though the car, replaced the coolant tank because of a slight leak ($40) and a broken muffler hanger, new SC belt and an oil change. It has been my daily driver since and now has 82K. Only repairs to date was a bad RF wheel bearing. I replaced both front bearings because of my past history with FWD cars. I found if one goes the other isn't far behind. Cost ~ $300 and took less than 3 hours for me to replace both.

Some people might not agree with me, but I have been working on my own cars for 40 years, so here are my suggestions for buying a MINI as a daily driver:
Although it tempting to jump right in, take your time. Check out and compare cars that are available. If you don't find exactly what you want don't settle, just wait, more cars will become available. It took me 8 months to find mine.
Only buy a car with a CLEAN CarFax, say away from salvage/rebuilt cars.
Buy a southern car if you can, you won't have to mess with corrosion issues.
Don't buy a modified car!!!!! If it isn't stock walk away, modified cars have a tendency to be driven a lot harder. Things like over driving the supercharger can lead early failures.
Buy from someone who car produce maintenance records. MAINTENANCE is VERY important on these cars, especially the supercharged and turbo cars. Poorly maintained cars can lead to a lot of pre-mature failures in the future.

Start looking, your MINI is out there waiting for you.

 

thanks rodder, the intended use for the car will be my wifes daily driver and car we take on trips, so it will get around 20-25k miles a year. being in nevada we dont have the rust problem. i would like to find a non s MC with a 5 speed just for more reliability and less things to go wrong type deal. this was the one we where looking at that is near our price range and what we where looknig for, but now when you say no modded ones looks like this with intake and exaust probably got road hard most likley
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/2453267933.html

 

FJ crawler, I would check the car out. it is low mileage for the age and looks to be well optioned (moon roof for one). When I talk about a modded car I'm talking about things like over driving the supercharger, different intercoolers, aftermarket headers, CAT deletes, larger injectors etc. where they are looking to make some serious HP over stock. A CAI and an aftermarket exhaust isn't a biggie. CAI just lets the engine breathe better. The only issue with exhausts are some of the aftermarkets are very loud and can have resonance that can really wear on you if you are doing long distance driving. To tell you the truth when my MCS needs an exhaust I will be looking at aftermarket not for the sound but the fact that the stock systems are really expensive to replace unless I can find someone selling a good used one. By the way, the exhaust tips on the car your looking at look like the stock "Beer Can" tips, if he is talking about the exhaust having a nice sound it may just be a "one-ball" mod where the resonator on the passenger side is removed. This gives a nice sound over stock but it is not a serious HP gainer.
One more thing --- REMEMBER....MAINTENANCE RECORDS & CarFAX!!!