Whats up guys!

So this is my first post here (runs and ducks for cover) although I may be new here I'm not new to the car scene. I've been a member on numerous car forums over the past 10 years, have had my share of German cars, and done all of the fixing and modding myself.

What brings me here is the fact that I have finally won the car battle with my girlfriend and got her to ditch her POS in favor of something better...a Mini. She fell in love w/ them and based on the fact that I can easily mod them I was ok with the decision.

She picked up a gold 2004 w/ 28,xxx on the clock. It is an automatic transmission, I wanted manual but we live in a city that is nothing but hills and she has a stop and go commute....so I lost that battle.

Anyways I do have several questions regarding the automatic transmission.

To begin with we bought the car at Manheim (her dad is a Ford salesman) and it was sight unseen (other than pics), we had a private inspection done and it passed. When the car showed up at the deal her dad took it for a spin. He thinks there may be an issue with the trans, now I haven't seen or driven it yet but I wanted to get as much info as possible before looking a the car in person.

Basically here are the issues:

1.) He says that when he takes his foot off the gas the car slows up really fast compared to other automatics (almost as if it were in nuetral.) Is this common for te Mini transmissions? Is it a feel type of thing compared to other makes and models?

2.) He also said the transmission felt like it might be slipping on the highway....could this occur w/ 28,xxx on the car? Could it be a bad shift solenoid or some other part?

3.) What is the quality of an '04 CVT transmisison?

4.) Is it easy to find a replacement out of a car being parted and what would I be looking at in terms of cost to replace (just parts only)?

Thanks guys! I plan on continuing to be a member and support the community here in anyway I can in the future!