I plan on keeping Hendrix for a very long time. It is so cool to have a 2005 Purple Haze R50 as only about 200 were sold in the US (so I have read). I've got an H&R rear bar and great tires for cornering .... which is what I like to do ... Turn & Burn!! I'm going to keep it as long as I can!!

 

i just sold mine, i needed something faster, and i want awd (subaru) since i literaly didnt drive it once when there was snow on the ground. Not to mention i didnt want to deal with changing the clutch throwout bearing, power steering pump going, or at some point a super charger rebuild. All to costly and such a bigger pain in the *** to do myself than with a different car. I must say tho, i really enjoyed that car, i also just needed more space.

 

Hendrix...

Perfect!

 

My main reasons too. I'm awaiting the Buick Regal Gran Sport to come out. If it doesn't come out soon, it'll be Mitsubishi Evolution for me. I need more power and more room. AWD is a necessity, but will definitely be fun. After all the work I did on the MINI yesterday, I'm about sick of messing with it

 

Fatherdeth and Mercho,

At this point in my life, this little car has become more than just a car. It's been so easy just getting into and if I didn't know better I'd think it was made especially for me and the few things I haul around. It looks like we're in for the long haul, for better or for worse.

I wish you the best for whichever car is in your future.

 

Mine is still here to stay.

Its had its issues, but, I keep reminding myself that its what I always wanted.

I'm not perfect either ( and I'm a h*lluva lot harder to get parts for).

But a Buick Grandsport would be a neat car to see if its as good as the last one.

Subarus are WAY too expensive for me to even look at (at least the WRX types are).

 

Keeping mine! My 03 MCS gave me so much trouble, I bought another one, an 06 that just had a sunroof leak so far (the first one did too).

Maybe the new ones get better gas mileage and are faster, but you can't beat the looks (interior and exterior) of the first gen.

regards,
Red

 

Keeping mine forever too.

 

I plan on being buried in my car.

 

I would love to keep my GP forever! Can't beat it! Love it!

 

 

Young by some standards... but a mile on Blimey is like a year on a dog, compared to most MINIs.

 

I plan on keeping mine for a long, long time... It's paid for, runs well, a blast to drive and as I continue to mod it, will have a 225+ HP traffic blasting go kart... And all for peanuts compared to other performance cars that don't deliver...

 

I would have surely liked to have kept my 2002 (july, 2002) MCS forever, but it finally fell victim last month at 127,000 miles to the often-cited problems of escalating repair bills (clutch, seals, water pumps, power steering pumps, alternators, etc.) and a lack of truly usable interior space. :(

I will say that having been on this forum pretty much since it started (not much posting in the past several years), NAM is a great resource and terrific community. I miss seeing many of old regulars here and wonder how many of them, and their MINIs are still around.

 

Somewhat off topic, but; What did you replace it with?

 

A 2008 (just purchased last month) 328iT (wagon) that still has 2/3 of its original warranty. Manual transmission and no x-drive. Love that car

Plus, I got about $7000 in trade for the MCS; which is a pretty good deal ... if I don't think about the $5000 I put into it in the last 6 months I had it.

Somewhere here there's a thread about what people would buy if they had to replace their MINI, and I suppose I should post to that someday. But I have to say that one of the criteria for my MINI replacement was to find a car that had the smoothness of the MINI at speed but with considerably more refinement and a lot more utility. The BMW definitely fit that bill for me. Plus, I get to relive some of the exclusivity that I had with the MINI back 8 years ago (when one could go days without seeing another MINI on the road...versus the several dozen that I see each day now). Turns out that a 3 series wagon with a manual transmission is a much rarer beast (here in the US) than a Ferrari. Which is kinda cool.

 

jsun: Congrats on the new ride! And yes three pedal 3-series, let alone wagons are hard to find and an enthusiast model for sure! Enjoy it!

 

I'll be keeping mine for as long as it runs and turns the way it does now

 

Forever, 114,000+ miles and still love jumping in every morning. She still runs strong and corners better then most new cars on the market (for $25,000). As far as reliability, never had a car like her, one powersteering pump and a intermitten SES light thats it. I'm still on the original clutch, and I run hard (7 sets of tires) you will have to pry her from my cold dead hands, but more then likely we will go together in a massive fireball

 

No. My wifes has been nothing but problems. But it is paid for; in the last year I have spend over 2k in parts alone. I do my own labor (I'm a tech for Toyota). Its not even @ 100k yet.

 

I'd have to agree with dinnertime. By 100K, many of the servicable parts are reaching the end of their useful life and unless you have a good independent mechanic (or are skilled enough to do the hard stuff yourself), the economics of owning a 1st generation MINI are sort of hard to rationalize. Sure, some people are just lucky enough to get a "good one" and can make it to 200K or even 300K....but once you start to look at thousands of dollars of parts, you have to question the wisdom of continuing to throw more and more $ that direction. After a while, it becomes more an issue of passion (and perhaps stubborn-ness) than logic. But then such is the case with any car.

I do also think that the situation improved somewhat beyond the 2002 models, which suffered some of the issues that would befall any first year car...such was my experience and that was seconded by the very good independent MINI mechanic who used to work on mine.

 

I don't know.

But, I've had my '60 Morris Mini since I was 19. I'm now 42, so keeping a fun car for a looong time isn't out of the realm of possibility.

 

How many miles did you put on the Morris?

 

I can see myself holding on to my MINI for quite some time. Maybe I'll switch to a used GP later. With a GP, I can see myself keeping that forever, even as gas engines become extinct. As for now my MINI is perfect. It takes me to and from school relatively fast. It's way easier to park than my old ML320 and handles much better too, thus safer in preventing an accident IMO. And I finished payments on it. Why throw away a perfectly great car?

It's STILL cool to drive one; I always get compliments on it or questions about how it is to own one by random people. I'm always surprised when randoms come up to me so intrigued by my MINI. I mean, they are everywhere nowadays. The way I see my MINI is like my clothes. If you only buy investment pieces, they'll always be in style; and if you know how to take proper care of it, it should last you almost forever. (Maybe not the case with the first gen Cooper though... unfortunately) I'm sure I'll run into a whole lot of problems later on but I'd rather spend money keeping it alive so long as repairs don't cost more than buying a brand new car.

As soon as plug in hybrids get get extremely sporty and more common, I see myself staying with mine for a long time to come. Porsche is planning to go all electric in the future, so that will have to be my next car, assuming that this is way in the future and it costs as much as a regular Porsche today. My only gripe with the MINI is that it's not as eco-friendly as I would like it to be.

I'm hope my MINI lasts for 250,000 miles until that happens.

 

Never really kept track. The speedo/odo works intermittantly, so mileage is unknown. If I had to guess, maybe 20-25k, taking into account the years that I've had it apart.