I bought my Mini online. Despite the things you may have heard, it wasn't a bad experience at all. I was able to view the car facts and there were countless pics of the car available for me to look at. After receiving the car I had 7 days... 7 days to take the car to my mechanic of choice and have it checked out and evaluated. I can do anything I want in those 7 days. If there is anything wrong or that I do not like I can return it or trade it in... No questions asked. So I got my Mini and took it to my guy to have it looked at. The car was in excellent condition. There was however a few "aftermarket" upgrades already on the car. Both of which I already figured out as soon as I drove the car. One of them I saw in the pics that I reviewed before I bought it. The later being an aftermarket exhaust. It seems that whoever owned the car before me decided to go with a... Magna Flow full race exhaust? Why they decided to go with Magna Flow is beyond me. I'm guessing he or she was on a budget. On the bright side, its not as bad as you would think. The exhaust sounds very good. It has a nice deep, gurgle, to it. It's kinda strange having 4inch wide dual exhaust tips though. They look so... big. The 2nd aftermarket upgrade the Mini came with (this is even stranger than the Magna Flow exhaust)... Fully adjustable coilovers. What kind of coilovers... Gecko... Yup... Gecko. Until now, I had never heard of Gecko coilovers. I have never heard of Gecko suspension anything? I took a look at their website and they seem to be a respectable company with a good product... Not cheap. When getting under the car to look at the coilovers they are neon green and purple. If I would have paid better attention I would have noticed the adjustable area near the camber plate, but I didn't. It made sense now... During the drive to my mechanic I can remember thinking that this Mini had absolutely the best handling of any car that I had ever driven. Which of course it does. The handling is super tight and responsive. The whole "Handles like its on rails" quote definitely fits. I had thought that Minis reputation for superior handling had been understated... This wasn't just superior... It was "dominant". It didn't matter if I had never heard of Gecko, I didn't care. The car handled to good for me to care. I do wonder why this person went with Gecko over all of the other coilovers that are suggested to pair well with Mini? Looking at Geckos website the brand seems to be geared more towards JDM cars. Either this person was familiar with Gecko and really enjoyed the feel of their product, or they wanted to experiment. In my opinion, the Domestic, Euro and JDM makeup of my Mini does extremely well. It's odd... But it feels and sounds good. Have any of you ever heard of Gecko suspension products. I have been out of the racing game for nearly 17 years, but I never stopped having interest in it. I still read related articles and watched shows... Anyways... Nothing is wrong with the coilovers at all. My guy says they are in perfect condition. Will they last. Just how good of a product is Gecko. Well, thats the story of the weird set-up that my "purchased online" Mini came with. Am I lucky or cursed?

 

Hello,

Got some pics of the MINI? Never heard of gecko coilovers, My guess is they are like megan racing/godspeed or something near that or shared. Lots of JDM places will get into the euro scene or one of their workers has one so they build a kit. Let us know how they last.

 

Depending on how much time you have left of the 7 days, would definitely recommend indy garage look at the car, starting with running an OBD2 scan and seeing what it might be throwing after getting thrashed on track days. Consider the possibility he couldn't sell the it to a private party because of 'issues' so he let it go wholesale to one of the online bigs where you bought it.

At least you don't have to pass emissions in Kentucky - here in the DPRK you'd insta-fail just for the non OEM exhaust.

 

I'm pretty sure Gecko are made in the same factory in Taiwan that makes BC Racing, Megan and a bunch of other coilovers.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, if they work, they work.