I am considering buying a used 2004 Mini on the advice of my son. The mileage is 13k. I drove it, absolutely LOVED the handling. My only concern is I live in Syracuse and there are no authorized dealers. If a warranty issue arises I am stuck traveling to either Buffalo or Albany. How reliable are the first 3 years of owning a Mini. Thanks!

 

couple things on this, and hopefully many more experienced folks will chime in and give you much better advice.

1. you will definitely be seeing the dealer and you have to manage them.

2. part of the package on a new MINI is 3yrs50kmi free service. that's worth several hundred (+) of value. don't know if that transfers to 2nd owners. seach this forum. (maybe you care, maybe you don't).

3. things break on these cars. not more than other cars, but you may really want that warranty, and frequently it will be worth the drive.

4. drop in and speak to your local BMW dealer's service manager (not a sales guy). they may be willing to help you with some service, tho surely not for free. Also, I have found here in NJ we have a lot of "ex-BMW dealership" mechanics that have opened their own service shops and if you find one of them, they'd probably work on your MINI.

5. outside of a BMW guy, I'd hesitate to let other mechanics work on my MINI unless they definitely show that they know the cars. There just aren't that many of the cars around and they're rather idiosyncratic.

6. to answer your core question -- the car is fairly reliable. but it's not bomb-proof, and, frankly of all my past vehicles -- volvo, saturn, toyota, kawasaki -- only the kawasaki never saw the shop in the first 3 years. but the toyota was a close second.

hope this helps.