Hello all! My wife recently fell in love with a 2012 Countryman 4s that is Lite Coffee colored that is at a dealership by our home. We drove it last night and the car is in amazingly good shape. No rock chips, clean interior, and a full maintenance history from the 1 previous owner. The timing components were all replaced at 102k. I'm just wary of buying a mini with that many miles. I am mechanically inclined and do not mind working on the car myself.....although I would prefer not expensive repairs that will take the car off the road for extended periods. I am new to Minis and watched some reviews and read on the forum but any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

If you do any research / reading about these cars you will find tons of information about what to watch for and what to expect with regards to repairs and/or maintenance. At 132k I would be surprised if the turbo hasn't needed replacement already. The positive points are that it was a 1 owner who appears to have looked after the car and kept/provided all of the maintenance records. That does count for something! Standard or Automatic ?

 

Depends on the price as with anything. Its probably worth like $6-8K max. Most dealerships will probably ask closer to 10.

These are not dependable vehicles. My wife also fell in love with them so here we have a 2013 ALL4S. In the 25K miles we have owned it I have done wheel bearings, CVs, Water pump - thermostat - associated BS, Battery, Belt, usual maintenance stuff.... still needing struts at the moment. Also probably needs a valve cover as the entire valve cover is integral to the PCV system and I think its clogged up. All stuff on my honey-do list.

I just dont trust the car anymore. We've rented a car for longer trips just because of that fact alone. Kind of sad.

 

Exactly what I am afraid of. The car is a auto and I seen where the front wheel bearings and the valve cover have been replaced under the old owner. There were a ton of recent records from 80k miles to current. I think the old owner could not handle the mechanical issues outside of the warranty and got rid of it. Its 5900 but I just dont want to be constantly worrying about it.

 

I bought my 2012 R60 with 100,000k miles on it and am now over 130,000k and it’s going strong. The turbo was bad when I bought it, unfortunately I was not aware of that.... ugh, but I used it as an excuse to upgrade! I fixed an oil leak at the filter housing at that time as well as the auxiliary water pump. I have replaced the water pump (really inexpensive if you do it yourself) and thermostat. Along with mods too. But that’s only a few things over a couple of years.....not bad really, and it runs and drives like a champ! Just keep up on regular maintenance and 5k mile oil changes and use premium fuel.

 

We’ve got 245k miles on our 2011 base Countryman.

I’ve replaced the rear struts, the water pump (though it actually turned out to be the O-ring behind it that was leaking), and the water pump pulley lost some rubberized tread and started chewing up serpentine belts. Also the engine temp sensor failed.

it is also slowly developing an engine oil leak I need to track down.

other than that, I consider it to be one of the most trouble free cars I’ve owned.

We are about to make a 12 hr trip to Arizona in it!


howard

 

My 2011 base has about 178k on it and I've had essentially the same issues you have had. Noted though that the OP is considering an "S" version which is a little more problematic than the base car.

 

That is my only regret. I told the Mrs. it had to be a base car. Then this S popped up and we just did the deal. Whoops....should have stuck to the plan. I was still having buyers remorse after having had bought a new 2009, which I promptly traded in after the warranty ran out.

 

Yes the base model will have less issues, I suppose. But they aren’t as much fun either! Ha ha. I can see where you may be having some second thoughts, but remember, nobody posts “ car is running great “ they post when there is a problem to get some help. I don’t really think they are that much less reliable than anything else as long as you stay on top of upkeep. Maybe they require a little more tlc than say...a Toyota would, but the driving experience is part of the deal. You have to pay to play sometimes. Yes a Camry is a regular daily driver car, but it’s not exciting either and you probably aren’t joining a Camry enthusiast club or taking it to track day either.
I say buy an S All4, but I am definitely biased!

 

Pfst... I just bought 4weeks ago my 64k 2013 All4S manual... its just fine and best handling car I've had. I'm replacing the spark plugs and coils now (as suggested by Mr. Grumpy). Just get the EasyCare warranty from the dealer for a year, you'll be fine. Got mine from Sam at Santa Monica Mini.

 

2011 S owner here and I am done! Selling it and not looking back, over 20 repair orders on this car and we are still way under 100k mileage, every time we take it in for an oil change it cost us over a grand to fix another issue. Today just got word that the latest repair will be $1600 and the mechanic said not sure how we did not have a fire. No thanks. I am done. Selling it for what we owe and we are done.