I'm a shopper
 

Before buying my last car, I shopped for a mini, but none seemed to fit the bill. Well the car has died in less than a year, rod knock in the 4th cylinder. Now I'm back shopping and looking into minis again. This time, I plan to have a lot more research under my belt and this site looks perfect for providing information.

Currently, I'm deciding between the R53 (03-06 S?) and R56 (07+ S?)

The car to be traded is a 2005 Mazda3, which I had done some suspension work to. I enjoyed the fun driving nature of the car in its modified form, but would like something that rides a little smoother, so the mini will remain essentially stock with the exception of a short shifter potentially.

Any thoughts you guys can share are appreciated, though I suspect there is a lot of information related to the pros and cons of supercharger v. turbo and R53 v R56.

The last of any series usually has less problems than the first of the next series.

Minis seem to have more issues than most cars so I would go with the 2006 MCS.

Then again, I'm biased...

The 2005's and 2006's all seem to be holding up pretty well. We recently sold our '05 MCS and it hadn't given us any problems. It was a great car but my sister needed something bigger. I have an '09 base Cooper automatic, aka MCa, and it's been problem free. It's a little finicky about getting good quality gas but otherwise perfect. I've two bad tanks of gas, both from top tier gas stations, and my car stalled. If you want speed, the '05 and '06 MCS are going to be faster than any of the MC. If you want something newer, then you should be able to get an '09 pretty easily. Most of the '09s are out of the service period, but should still have a few months left on the warranty(3 yrs service vs. 4 yrs. warranty), so there should be quite a few available for sale. I love my '09. It moved me from Dallas to Boston last week like a champ. Even with the car packed and the A/C on, it drove beautifully.

Thanks to both of you. I'm actually planning to look at 3 cars tonight.

2004 MCS with 31k miles
2005 MCS with 60k miles
2005 MCS with 84k miles. This is the least inviting due to the miles.

I'm not seeing many 2006 MCS in the Denver area for sale at the moment. Might be something to that.

What kinds of problems were most seen on the earlier model and is there a way for me to identify precursors to these issues or the issue themselves if they are concealed.

What are some minor things that you guys found that annoy you?

Hello!
I don't have a 1st Gen MINI, but have you seen this forum?
Stock Problems/Issues

There's lots of info there to give you some ideas of what to be on the look out for and what questions to ask about the car.
Good luck!
It seems that many 1st Gen owners love their cars.

You can't buy an '05 or '06 in Denver, I'm trying to find one!!! Just kidding. I hoping to find one this fall. I haven't seen too many around and am seriously thinking of going out of state.

I would try talking to the MINI dealerships and Carmax to find out how much it would be ship in a MINI from another state. I love the color of my MINI so much that if something happened to it I'd make my local dealer hunt down a MINI with the same options and color to replace it. Most of the MINI dealerships are great and are happy to help. There are a few bad apples but thankfully those are very few. Good luck!