Good Morning All,

I just purchased my 2006 Mini Cooper S - Manual - Convertible with 67,800 miles on Saturday for $4300. I got it from a private seller in KY. I had originally posted on another page about to hear y'alls experiences. I heard both good and bad reviews as expected.

The drive back home was about 3.5 hours. I was getting about 31mpg which i'm happy with. I got a new job which is a little over an hour drive one way. The previous company that I worked at, I had the privilege of driving a company vehicle but this new company was a better opportunity for me to grow but no company car. I have a 2014 Mustang GT that is supercharged - Making about 630rwhp - I didn't want to put miles on it (Mustang is my fun car/crowd control ) and and you can imagine the price in gas that I was spending.

With just the 3.5 hours driving back home in the Mini, I think I like it more than my mustang lol there is something about the Mini that is so appealing to me. I absolutely love the car, it's fun to drive, it's peppy for a small car, and it gets good MPG, well a lot better than my Mustang. Look forward to hearing from you all, Thanks!

 

Welcome to the forum. Lots of good info here. Think about upgrading to a 15% underdrive supercharger pulley (plus one step colder plugs). You'll be amazed at the difference in acceleration.

 

Congratulations on the new purchase. I'm a new mini owner also and liked it so much I bought a second one to work on 😎

 

Welcome. Congrats as that sounds like a great deal with the low mileage.

 

.Welcome to the superior world of topless motoring. You've gotten the best of the fleet. We've enjoyed ours on the back roads all over the country and looking forward to further adventures. One we're looking at for the new year is the Kentucky whisky tour. We've been thru KY in the past and made a short stop, have a shipmate lives in Madisonville, on our way to Gettysburg for the 150th anniversary. Beautiful back country roads over there.

 

Nice. That is pretty low mileage! According to my calculations with my new Roadster I got between 35 and 40 MPG in my last tank. That shocked me. I will do it again with the current tank to check.

 

Welcome, Super low miles for a 2006.

 

I am a little late to the party, but congrats on your 06 MCS! It is the best year for the gen 1 Mini and a great car. You are always going to here bad stories, as most people don't realize European car need regular maintenance and rarely get it in the US of A!
We know people with over 600K miles on gen 1 Minis'
The Mustang is fast straight car, but the Mini is the twisties King! It handles and drives like a go-Kart! The supercharger is smooth power and allows you to really cut the curves hard!
Enjoy, but look in the gen 1 area for tips to make it last better and pretty trouble free!
We need to see some pics!

 

Thanks buddy! sorry, i'm late on the response lol

I feel more peace at mind after reading your comment. I've had the Mini for a week and i absolutely love it. Today got a little warmer than usual so i took advantage of it, folded the top, and took a drive on the back roads. like you said, it handles like a go-kart!

I noticed that the Mini was getting a little hot so i checked the coolant and it was low low... filled it up and still had the heat issue so i bled the coolant system. the Temp is back to normal now. I'm guessing since the previous owner only put about 20k miles on it for the 10 years they owned it, some air got into it... i don't know but it's fine now.

Anyway, i'm happy with the purchase and look forward to the many drives in the Mini!

 

If it has the original coolant tank, it will be split and hard to nail down, but if the heat shield is wet, replace it! Most of us use an aluminum one that takes the stock cap.
It will keep spitting out the coolant, if you don't replace it and that can get costly. Also the thermostat and housing can start to leak, or waterpump and where the nipple comes out of the front of the engine block.

 

Great find....great car! Just a little advice drawing from my own past experiences: Before you start to do fixes/changes/upgrades/etc on your new toy, keep in mind that these cars are fun and easy to work on or mod, which means previous owners may have already had their hands in the pie doing things the way they want, at their skill level. Never assume anything when buying pre-owned. Your number one purchase should be a good shop manual. Good luck!