I'm hoping for many years of enjoyment with mine.

 

This thread is brutal... kind of depressing...

I'm a believer that a well maintained car up your chances to keep it a good bit longer than otherwise. But a good amount of people take the no care route. Don't spend a dime and push the problem on the next person... Hence the hardest is to find a used car that has a good "care" record. Saddly it's a tough find. I would say look for a car that has just 1 previous owner. This will help you in getting a feel for how well the car was looked after, and also how it was possibly driven.

If I were you I wouldn't give up just because you hear complaints. There are actually far more people who will voluntarily complain, than there are those who will voluntarily signal that everything is alright

 

Agreed. From what I can see (through records), mine had a few owners and was well cared for throughout.

 

Sounds like you have a good one, MiniTigger. '04 to '06 Cooper S seem popular for under $10,000 models, and most any year base model.

 

I bought mine a year ago with 150k miles and have been driving it nearly every day - about 60 miles round trip.

It needed various things that the P.O neglected: struts, plugs+wires, valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, and several other small things.

But I consider it a reliable daily. Like others have said: check the fluids and keep it maintained, and it will treat you well.

 

The 253K miles I put on my R50 over 13 years were 99% daily commuting highway miles (75 miles each way).

A repair here and there, but when we were done that Mini owed me NOTHING. In fact, I was still on the original clutch and tranny and neither were showing signs of decline.

 

I decided to get a 2007 subaru impreza 5spd. Found one local with low miles. I guess having gone through the bmw e46 drama I kinda felt as though the mini could be a bird of the same feather which is the last thing I need right now. Plus the awd the subaru offers is a big plus where I live. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

I'm hoping so. . I hope he lives FOREVER!!!

 

I've had real good luck on long commutes, actually. I've driven from WI to PA and back without issue, and last year from June to Jan of this year I drove over 22k miles for work (construction project). Had zero issues in the job site or the commute itself.

My mini also has 147k miles as of yesterday, and still very much mechanically sound. YMMV

 

Nice.