Hello everyone!

My wife and I have been looking for Mini Cooper's for awhile and we came upon one at a dealership that seems to good to be true. I want to hear everyone's opinion.

First off, the car is a 2006 Cooper S with 95,000 miles. The dealer wanted $9,995 and I talked him down to $9,300 because we are paying full cash for it instead of financing. I'll post some photo's of the car. It was one of cleanest Mini's I drove and the shifting was so smooth I could tell the clutch was recently replaced. The previous owner was a 67 year old man (1 owner car) that documented everything he did to the car (Date and time) since 2006. Never been in an accident and the car Carfax is of course cleaner than clean. Car is also loaded to the max. Here are a few questions I want to ask everyone

Is this a good price for the car? All the other Mini's we looked at were in the 8,000$ range, but could it be because of the owner and history report?

I am a touring professional golfer and I travel a lot. Are these good cars to travel long distances in?

Also are they hard to maintain because of being BMW? I mean I would be doing a lot of work to the car over the years myself and I want to modify slightly in the years to come the car to take to car meets, ect.

Here are a few pictures

 

Welcome to NAM, BJasinski. Glad to have you with us. I'm certainly not the expert here but the car looks very clean. The fact that it had one owner and all maintenance is documented is certainly a plus. I'm sure that a few more NAM owners, with much more to say about the 2006 model year, will be around shortly. Let's see what they think.

 

Congrats on our new purchase, and welcome to the MINI family! Your 2006 is a R53 hatchback, which was the last year of the R53 (they updated the model in 2007). I'd suggest you read through the threads in the R53 1st Generation subforum to get a feel for the type of issues, maintenance needs, etc. others have had with the car. It looks like a very nice clean car, and your have the 1st owner's maintenance records. I think you paid a fair/reasonable price for a well maintained car with 95K miles.


MINI's in general are not an inexpensive car to maintain, depending on your personal wrenching abilities and tools, but are a lot of fun to drive. MINI dealers are somewhat costly, but usually can diagnose and repair more complex problems. If there is an independent shop that can work on European cars in your area, you may want to check them out.


Best wishes with your new MINI!

 

Just a comment to bring you up to date a little. Getting a better price because of paying cash went out many years ago. A dealership will make the biggest profit if they can arrange your financing for you. Your paying cash eliminates that possibility.

Todays 'shrewd' buyer might lead a dealership on a little by saying they want the dealership to arrange the financing. At the 11th hour once there's a final and fixed price you can announce that a benevolent uncle lent you the cash to make the deal. The dealer will be obligated but he won't be happy.

Good luck with your Mini. They're really a hoot to drive.

 

If you are traveling alot I would want a car easier to fix than a Mini. There are limited dealerships nationally and parts for local repair shops are sometimes limited or delayed. I would want a dealership everywhere I went if I traveled like I think you do. And as previously stated they are not cheap to fix. I have a 2008 and a 2012 and both have been pretty good with no major concerns. My local shop only repairs my cars with oem parts but sometimes it takes a day or two to get the parts. You may miss your tee time.

 

Are you planning on putting your tour bag in the trunk? Because it's not going to fit.

2006 Cooper S are the last year of the supercharger engine. It's might be one of the best years to buy also.

 

The bag can fit, just fold down the rear seats..

 

I like the 06 but we got an 09 for the same price. I found a loaded british green one in MA that was $6000 with a few more miles. I would haggle some more with them, and shop some more of those 8k cars.