hello fellow coopers, im looking into buying a mini cooper for a commuter car, also a second car, now my question would be, which would be the better choice, both have around the same mileage, just that the r53 is a manual transmission and the 2010 is an automatic transmission, both would cost roughly the same. any suggestions?

 

R53, both because it has a manual and because R53s have less fiddly crap to break. I'd trade my R56 for a comparable R53 in a second.

 

I am a gen 1 guy all the way, but I do not commute. If you have tons of stop and go an automatic makes sense, but on the other hand, gen 2 Minis have a poor track record for engine issues. The answer may be a newer model. It will not handle like a raw gen 1, but will have a better automatic and work well for commuting. Keep looking! and keep us posted!
best of luck on your search!

 

R53 all the way! I have an R56 that has been trouble free but I much prefer the less sophisticated R53. Unfortunately there was no dealer within 300mi of me when the R53s were new.