Hey guys,

I've been following NAM for the past 6+ months and have now decided to introduce myself. I'm Dan, i'm from long island (ny), and i'm a college student. You guys have really gotten me excited about MINI's and taught me a lot before I have decided to buy one. I've been looking at used MCS, preferably 07+ since i really want that good gas mileage, and torquer engine. I found one car that is the right color and has all the options I want.

A 2007 MCSm that has the Sport package, Premium package, Cold weather package, LSD, hifi stereo, rear fog lights, and carbon black leather.... So it's pretty loaded. It has ~20k miles and is going for $$21k, which is hopefully a little flexible because i told myself that i couldn't go over $20k.....

What do you think? Good deal? Oh yea i read the carfax on it and it has only had one owner and seemed mostly clear... but it says on it that the clutch assembly was replaced once, then it was replaced again like 2 months later... Should i be concerned about this? I'm going to look and drive the car later today... VERY excited to become a member of the MINI community

 

Depends on the history and condition of the car. Was it ever in an accident? How's the compression in the engine? Was it bought back through the lemon law?

 

According to the car fax it was never in an accident and it was owned for a little over a year before it went to a MINI dealer as a pre owned car. In that year it appears the clutch assembly was changed twice, the shifter **** was changed, and the door latch was adjusted. So the car was being sold at a MINI dealer as preowned and "MINI Next" certified for a couple of months then was auctioned to this dealer. I'm not sure how to tell what the engine compression is like, any way to check this when I go look at it?

 

IIRC, there were some problems with transmissions grinding, and some dealers were replacing clutches to try and fix it. I don't recall whether MINI found the problem and issued a bulletin or not. There was a thread about it somewhere. If the dealer couldn't resolve the problem, or had the car for too long a period, the original owner may have returned it under a state lemon law.

Compression would have to be checked by a mechanic.

 

Okay ill have to ask the seller about that when i go. Could a mini really be certified preowned if it had problems like that? No matter what i think if i decide to get it ill have my mechanic look at it.... Assuming it clears and everything is ok, do you think its a good deal?

 

There's an '08 MCSm down the street from me at a dealer with 12,000 miles, LSD, Cold Weather, Xenon, and rear fogs for $20k. Seems like the one you're looking at has a lot more options, but it's a year older and has a few more miles. Since you're on LI, I think prices would be a little higher than they are here, so I think $21k for the car you're looking at would be a good deal.

But I've always been very skeptical about buying a used car that's a standard shift because you never really know how good the person before you was with the clutch. IMO, I'd be a little worried if the clutch assembly was replaced twice in 20,000 miles.

 

Do you know the name of the dealer or their website? Maybe its worth checking out....

Yea i'm now pretty skeptical, i'll have to see how a testdrive goes, and its definitely worth it to have my mechanic to look at it. Is it wrong for me to think my mechanic could see any problems with it?

 

It's called BUL Auto Sales and Service in Albany.

This is their Autotrader listing:
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...standard=false

And another one:
http://www.autotrader.com/dealers/dd...er_id=55532114

 

If it's at a MINI Dealer have them do a compression test on it for you. I'd ask alot of questions about the Clutch, maybe even try and find out the original selling dealer and see if you can get a hold of the Service Records, that would give you piece of mind in knowing that things were taken care of the MINI way. If it was not serviced by a MINI Dealer then I'd walk, just my opinion, I'm sure others will disagree.

 

Ok so i just got back from the dealer and the car was beautiful. The clutch felt good, didn't seem like there was anything wrong with it. I read about creaking clutches and such, so i made sure it wasn't making any funny noises.
The dealer said (though this could be BS) that the first owner didn't like the color of the mini and was complaining about the clutch to get his money back to get it in white... idk if this is true or not, sounded plausible, the guy was professional about the car.
My father has been driving manual for 25 years and he also said it felt fine... Though idk if "feeling fine" will result in it being fine in 6 months from now.
The car was purchased june 2007 so i still have until june 2011 with the warranty so i'm not sure if its worth spending the couple hundred dollars to have the mechanic tell me what i already know and can get fixed under warranty.
One problem i did see though is the arm rest seemed like it was broken because the top of it i couldnt get to stop sliding back and forth which the dealer said he'll have fixed by mini... He also said he'd change the brakes if they were more than 50% worn and the tires were in good condition

What do you guys think?

 

Sounds good to me if you think the clutch is okay. Is he going to negotiate the price at all?

 

So far just talking to him we asked him what he'd give it to us for and he said $20,500 and we weren't even talking numbers too much yet, so i'm hoping to get it maybe at/under $20k...
I just registered the car on the owners lounge on miniusa, i looked at the service log and it was taken in for, it says the following:
I'm not sure if that is good or bad news... Oh one other thing, where can i go in the owners lounge to check what options the car has? Just so i can confirm that i'm getting everything promised such as the LSD

 

The grinding noise issue happened to a number of 2007 MINIs. It was something about grinding when downshifting into 2nd, IIRC. I'd search this forum for the thread about it, and read the whole thing. I recall posts about having the clutch replaced, and sometime later the problem recurring, and something about MINI replacing entire transmission and sending them back to the mfg. for analysis. They may have found the problem and resolved. Or, they may have just been putting new clutches in and the issue never being resolved.

If the warranty is transferable, you would have some time to get it resolved if it recurred.

 

Where in the Owner's Lounge can you look at what your Mini has gone through?

 

Found it under "Service History" ...duh.

 

You can see the Service Log under "YOUR MINI", but it doesn't show warranty repairs or software updates. My MCS had a software update, and the tailpipe recall. All my service log shows is "1ST ENGINE OIL SERVICE - FULL MAINTENANCE" and "BRAKE FLUID FLUSH - FULL MAINTENANCE PROGRAM".

 

Yeah I noticed that too. Mine doesn't have anything listed. I was in for a reprogramming and a leaking water pump.

 

Okay so update....

Went to check out to make sure every little thing on the car works (heated seats, lights, etc) and found that we couldn't get the mirrors to fold in, nor could we find the buttons for the heated seats... I quickly realized that this didn't have the cold weather package like he had advertised.... We went into his office and checked out the options list and found it only said "cold weather version" not cold weather package.... What does that mean?

I don't blame the salesman, I don't think he was trying to trick us or anything because he spent a good 10 minutes sitting in the car looking for the heated seats buttons. But i'm still a little annoyed that i thought this car had it, and it turns out that it doesn't.

I figure that this will slash down the price a couple of hundred dollars at least... But i am wondering, is there anyway to have the cold weather installed at the dealer? Because i may just take the money he cuts the price down and put that towards an install.... Or even be so bold as to ask him to bring it over and install it himself, since they did claim to have it, lol...

I don't think this is going to break the deal for me since its only heated seats... But it would have been nice to have... And it's not exactly easy to find a used MINI with the color i want, lsd, 2007, etc...

 

Hi. New to the board. Was looking at this thread on clutches. Seriously considering a 2008 or 2009 MCSC with manual but have been reading about problems with the clutch and transmission on some models. Wonder if this is still a problem for those with 2008 and newer. Love the car but the cost of changing a clutch frequently has me worried. thanks

 

U did good by walking away. there are better used MINIs out there, and dont dismiss getting an automatic. Ive driven sticks all my life, but after all my defective clutch problems with my 05 MCS I drove a 2008 MCSa demo and was hooked. now I can thumb thru the gears, 2 hands on the wheel blazing thru the twisties, clutch issues the furtherest thing from my mind.

yes the fun is little different in an auto MCS, but it's a whole new bit of fun, and certainly no less than a manual. Esp with a JCW kit, which amplifies the already-sound performance.

 

I actually did end up getting the Mini from my OP... So far i've had it a month with no problems, clutch works great...