I owned a 2006 Mini S with approx. 36k miles of easy driving. I sold the car after experiencing the recall on the Intercooler, a failure of the High Pressure Fuel Pump & a Leak in the Turbo Oil Line. All occurred in the last 1500 miles I owned the car, and then traded it in. I loved the car and after being away from it am thinking about buying the latest gen.---IF they have improved the reliability of the drive train. Have they???

 

That will be hard to say until about a good 3 years in so we can find out all the issues with this gen. If you want to go by the last gen which started in '07, then the answer is probably not. Though they did dump the problematic Prince engine with its crippling timing chain issue from last gen, so that's something. Time will tell if there's some other bad issues though.

 

You must have had an 07 S if it was a turbo. I have always heard that was the most problematic year for the Gen 2.

 

The R56s reliability improved dramatically with the 2011 "Life Cycle Impulse," which brought a revised engine. It's anybody's guess what the F56 reliability will be, since none is yet in the hands of a US owner.

 

We just received a new F56 here. Everyone who has driven it says it is like night and day compared to the R56. I am going to post pics of it tomorrow if we get decent weather.

 

^^^^^^

 

Explain "night and day" ?? Good/bad?

 

My mistake Swimbaxter--it was a 2007