Well I guess it all got started around 1962 when my sister picked me up in her boyfriends little box-car and I crawled in and found myself sitting at almost the same level as the as the gas pedal.
With a gleam in her eye dear Janice would show me all the wires they used to hold things together and bypass other things with. What was I to think. I was 11 and to me most cars were not all that interesting and had no personality. This British car looked like it was still evolving and people seemed to be having fun being associated with it. Even today I think fondly of all that vibrating and that first look at some green castrol motor oil. well we won't go into the fun itself.
So all this past history made me look fondly on the VW bug and van when they arrived on the scene and I would have gotten into the frenzy myself if I hadn't been so young that my mom refused to let me buy with my earned money a 2 year old bug with 49k on it from little old lady. Instead I was pushed into buying a chevy nova from a couple of jerks waiting for a sucker to come along. On second day car died on freeway and I rolled off into gas station and found somebody had stuffed the valve cover fuel of rags to keep the knocking down long enough to sell the car . :-)
I got my bug fix 20 years later. So when I began hearing noises in the tranny of my 2001 nissan pathfinder a month ago I said **** , what do you think I said. :-)
I jumped on craigslist and looked for good and bad news. I have spent entirely too much time playing with computers to keep up with cars and when I came upon a mini I just had this warm smile on my face. It was old but it did have an impressive list of new parts on it. :-) And people did say that in a few years minis would be more reliable so of course that made me more interested. :-) In only a few years I could drive a mini and not own a truck and trailer and not have a mechanic hit the daily double when my car got pushed in.
So of course this intrigued me to the point I read up on minis. which made me read some more on minis and I ended up in the one place a hopeful future prospective owner of a mini should never ever go. THe Better Business Bureau website
Well I can't tell you the agony I went thru reading about my fantasy car and its downright cruel and viscious treatment of folks cash and fortunes. Depressing, I didn't want to believe it. I lost my soul and read for 10 hours from various people swearing up and down about how their cute little mini bullied them into parting with all they owned and all they were ever going to own. These people writhed on the floor swearing you would be letting the devil into your life if you even you once thought about letting a mini spin out in your life. Forget fortune and fame , forget wife kids and family they all disappear when you say. I love you mini. :-)
I trembled when I finished reading the warnings and realized how close I came to letting a cute mini use me up and not come across when I needed her most. Of course I suffered from intense turmoil from dreams of oil leaks coming from unknown areas of car. I relived bullying auto shop that had no soul, they made me buy one of everything. The constant twisting and turning whle trying to sleep while the dreams of torture and lust and speed all came together as i tried to make some sense of all the input my new car would give me. Would my computer come up snake eyes when I really needed to hit the gas. When following Mr Magoo on a single lane road doing 15 in the curves will my new love be able to pass him like the roadrunner would and spin him into back into the past. One can only hope.
Well that made up my mind I know what is important and I would have no chance of spinning him without a proper vehicle. So about ten days ago I picked up a 2017 clubman S, 23k, all4, financial wellness is overrated. I got 12 speakers in car and my ears are bleeding, how cool is that? I got 4000 mile warranty that should give me plenty of time to read up so I can stay on top of things when the rig goes nuclear in a month or two.
cu all later at the pit.

 

Welcome to the group! I was in the same boat. I really wanted one of these things when they came out, but the horror of how unreliable they are coupled with the high price and need for premium gas kept me away. I bought my 2005 Cooper for $1900 this February, figuring that I would just fix what was broken myself, and that is what I did. It's now a fun toy that I don't use as a daily driver because I don't need to.

 

The extra maintenance for a MINI is worth it for those of us that enjoy driving. I would have a MINI expert go over it and see if there is anything that should be covered by the warranty. Beyond the initial work to bring the car up to perfection, change the oil with full synthetic at 5,000 miles, check the fluids frequently and treat it like the performance machine it is. Give the MINI the attention it deserves and it should give you years of fun driving and cost you a fraction of what you fear.

Post some pictures when you get a chance.

Welcome to the forum and the MINI experience. Enjoy the ride...

 

Welcome and yes we need some pics.

 

Hi and welcome to NAM!
Sometimes reading the bad of everything, puts you into the same nemesis, as the people that write it!
We buy these for the fun. We need to maintain them, to keep them fun! Words to live by!
Congrats! Show us the pics!

 

Fortunately I can afford the car far more easily now than many past years. I did look around at some local dealers and they seemed unlikely to lower their prices any time soon. I found Carmax On the internet and they seemed to price their cars to move. They seemed to have nothing but 2-3 year old cars between 15 and 25 k. I liked that I could check out many cars, their features and prices quickly at home. It was up to me to choose the best equipped car without undue pressure. I had choices between the same car sometimes fully loaded or with just the basic packages. Often it looked like the car was priced wrong because there was no difference in price even if one had manual or the automatic. or the front wheel drive or the all4. I had the feeling the focus was on moving the car vs making sure all the packages were reflected in price. No sleazy salespeople or managers. My main contact was young college age kid who knew the sales procedure but was not out to push me on cars prices or warranties. I talked to one other employee a cashier and I was out of there. record time. Now did I get a good deal? would it be worth paying more for no hassles?
In the end I felt I would be back there first. Having grown up with a father who was chevy saleman and dealership general manager his whole career I don't have much tolerance for the games we are forced into by this one industry.
I paid 22900 for car plus 3.95 % loan and title on car that showed up originally on mini records with 2 miles on 8-7-2017 car was lease fleet cooper s all4 clubman 23k automatic, seems to have almost every package, . all their cars seemed to have the AC and The central nav , system , and music etc. I don't know why but the minis seemed way better equipped than any other cars they had. I did not look at the real luxury brands. But toyotas and hondas only had the backup camera and not the many electronics the minis seemed to be full of . I mostly looked at clubman but I think the other mini choices seemed just as well equipped.
I guess I will need to change habits and take a picture or two of car. Its just a little hard to change and suddenly say, heh look at my car. I am more interested in the driving fun than showing it off. :-)