Hi everyone, I am a new mini owner , I have a 03 base mini that i bought about a month ago. I has 149,000 miles on it with a rebuilt transmmision thats about 2 years old. I want to know people opinions on minis when they have extremely high miles on them and what kind of repairs i should expect to happen if i plan to keep it for about 5 years.

 

I just turned 360,000 miles this evening on the way home. As for repairs, as any car with high mileage there will be some. Since yours is a base model the transmission is the weakest part on those, since it was just rebuilt you should be good. Most of the stuff should be fairly inexpensive in comparison. Some usual items to replace w/ age:
Window regulators (couple hundred)
Bowden cables (door lock release, $20 each)
Then general with any car, brakes, battery, plugs, wires etc.

Good luck

Nik

 

I just got my 04 Mini a few weeks ago with 236K on it. I had to replace the front control arm bushings and inner lower ball joints. It also has a slight grind going into second gear which I already know will require the trans to be rebuilt. I plan to do in the next few weeks. Not a big deal for me since I own my own repair shop but for the average person it's an expensive fix and a known weak point in the base Mini. For now I just shift from 1rst to 3rd. Other then that the rest of the car is solid as a rock and I am very happy with it.

 

Is it an auto or manual, if manual you can get high mileage with the midland transmission is you just keep up an maintenance and change that transmission fluid, should be fine. Have almost 250K on an 05' Cooper ( NON S ) getrag 5 speed .

 

You should take a look at this thread here on NAM. I linked to post #1192 on the most current page with some info. Take a look and reach out to those who have higher mileage about their experiences so far. Good luck!

 

Here is my report at 200,000, not much to add to it except a fuel pump and alternator........

Nik