Well, I thought I found my dream... A cute little '09 with 29,740 miles for under $18k. Gray, with Rooster Red accents, manual tranny... ahhh....
A VIN search revealed "all clean", yet bought by current seller at an auction... A second thought and I place and a call to the originating Atlanta dealership and find...
A new engine at 23k miles, a new turbo shortly thereafter, leaky valves, broken hoses...
I think my poor little heart is broken...

By the way.. I'm a newbie here and really appreciate all the discussion on these boards! It's answered many questions for me!

 

Move on... the perfect MINI is out there for you.

Know what you want and wait until you find it. Patience when searching for a used car is definitely a virtue.

There are plenty of gently used and well-loved MINIs on the marketplace. But you may have to travel to get one. We flew half way across the country and picked one up back in 2008. It was fun and well worth it !

Good Luck !

 

That right there...waiting until you find the right used MINI (or whatever car you're looking for) is definitely worth it, over just picking up the first one you come across. I have a friend/co-worker who bought the first [CAR MAKE REDACTED] he saw...TWICE.

It did not work very well either time...he had to put an additional $8-10k into each car get them running properly. Some people just don't learn.

* Had to redact the make (it's not a MINI), because he would know if he ever saw this...and I don't have the heart to tell him he got royally screwed on both purchases.

 

Thanks y'all! And I finally found her! But I had to forego the S... that's okay though! I really have learned a lot from these forums!