According to Vehix:

http://comcast.vehix.com/tv/topTenLi...0Value&cid=443

 

Wow - and not just by a little bit, either. The MINI's residual value was at 63%, and the rest of the top ten were clustered between 58% and 53%.

(In other words, the spread between the MINI and the #2 car was the same as the spread between the #2 car and the #10 car.)

 

Fun to drive, go-kart drive, fast, good in gas, high resale value, timeless & unique design, and so on....attributes that make the Mini worth keeping forever.

 

if you can't show me oil changes every 4-5K mAXimum, your resale value with me is nil.

 

I think you mean maximum?..I think most people here using the recommended synthetics comply with 4 to 5K minimum...

And as far as synthetic oil changes,...4 to 5K range is way more often than necessary.

 

I guess I have MINImum on my mind alot lately .. still makes me have mAXimum to grind with someone who will spend a lot of money only to not take care of it properly.

and that is simply my opinion and my cash doing the talking..

 

And in a perfect world, that would be true, but humans being what they are, are not to be trusted with always doing the right thing the right way.


And I have YET TO SEE A OIL CHANGE ANALYSIS ON SOMEONE WHO HAS GONE THE ROUTE OF FOLLOWING THE MINIS COMPUTER INSOFAR AS OIL CHANGES GO.

When I see consistent results that back up the mileage claim, then I will give it some consideration.

 

Then again, MINI also makes the Forbes list of the 10 most expensive cars to repair: http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/05/0..._0505cars.html

 

Well, I've posted the results of several analyses I've had done on my first-gen 'S', and they pretty much show the MINI oil to be at end-of-life by about 9-10,000 miles. So while I don't think the oil will last as long as the OBC recommends, I also think 4-5k intervals are a little on the short side.

But like you said, it's your money and your criteria when it comes to buying a used car.

 

While I may be old-school in my way of thinking, I change my oil & filter every 3,500 to 4,000 miles. I've been stocking up on Royal Purple at AutoZone ($3.99/qt), and I think it's cheap insurance.
The oil may be good for almost 10,000 miles, but I don't think the filter is. I don't have any empiric evidence to back this up. I just go with my gut feeling.
Even though I'm selling Emily ('02 MCS, <32,000 miles), I still feel better doing this. It just seems like the right thing.

 

that's an impressive ranking.

 

If you want to change synthetic oil on such short intervals, might as well switch to dino oil and save $$$$

 

What is this, over 1 year? 2 years? or what I figure, 3 years?

One thing I found is that the dealership used cars were quite a bit higher in price than private sale cars, I think it depends where the prices are being researched.

Peter

 

Hey everybody, this is my first time. I don't even have a mini yet, but my obsession has reached the point where I must have one. Unfortunately, I'm just a poor college kid right now.

Just a quick note on the different oils. I had an uncle who was running different mercedes engines to their demise in a lab. They were comparing the different oils, and there is a major difference.

When using the non-synthetic oils, they would change it out regularly, and over time things like cylinder walls, crank, etc, would begin to wear out as expected being run like these machines were.

When they used synthetic oils, swapping at the same intervals, the difference was insane. Areas where the other parts (from non-synth engines) wore down, had a mirror finish. The parts had a coefficient of friction that wasn't measurable in these areas. This resulted eventually in blow-by on the seals given the lack of friction, but the parts were pristine.

In summary always use synthetic, even if it means having to put a quart into the engine between swaps in its later years! Oil is way less expensive than important engine components.

I swear I am not a sales rep for Mobil 1

 

Actually most of the oil testing that's been done (Especially on the R56) shows that cars should be changing oil out before about 7500 miles.

 

I have been changing my own oil since 1980. In automobiles which used standard oil, the school of thought was to change it every 3,000 miles.

For Synthetic's which break down slower, Changes were reccomended every 5-7,000 miles.

But, since contamination of ANY oil is a major problem, when running synthetic oil, I would just change the filter around 4,000 miles, adding some to top off what was lost during the change......(usually filling the new filter with the same Synthetic oil before installing did the trick anyways and maintained even oil pressure on start up after change.....bit **** I guess )