Well I finally did it. I pulled the trigger last week after looking and searching for many months for the best deal that I could find on a Mini. I feel that I got an excellent deal on my 2003 R53 and am very happy with it so far. There were a couple of items wrong with it at the time of purchase but I used that to negociate a lower price and figured that I could fix the issues myself. 1st thing was the driver's seat fully reclined and not adjustable. I used the forum to direct me to the modified body slam approach to getting the seat to reset! Now to figure out the little details. I just purchased a new A pillar from Ebay to replace the broken one on my mini. Now for a new lens cover for a driving light and most trim issues will have been taken care of. I still have to figure out if a sensor needs replacing since my ABS and a couple of other warning lights are on...