I think there are warning signs all over the place. But sounds like you already feel in love!...
good luck and keep us posted on you decission!

 

Who are your Mini Techs in O-town?
I like to know who the independents are if I ever need one in the Orlando area.
ANYWHO...
Before spending anymore money on another car, I would consider getting the first one paid down, to where you are no longer upside down.
Ive been down that path many times and have wasted thousands of dollars on impulses.

Good Luck!!

 

Hello and Happy New Year to all!!!!
Well I had a close friend and My brother check the 06 MCS for me as I trust their judgment as I wasn't able to be there because of work.

This morning they did me the favor and brought the car to a Recommended tuning shop for Mini's called 1fastMini here in Orlando to have the car evaluated. The dealership agreed for the 06 MCS to go to this shop and have it looked at.

At the shop they met what they assume to be the owner. He gave the car a good check up and came to the conclusion that the car has very nice modifications and all the mods were worth over 10K if I were to do these same mods to my current vehicle if purchased new.

As he inspects the Mini he notices these problems.
-Needs new Rotors in all four corners and brake fluid.
-Needs the big service done to Minis
-Broken top hats on the Coilovers.
-Some other little things
As there were no codes on the ECU for the tuning shop to read, he mentions that if the car was running lean and was misfiring on cylinder 3 that it can be many causes to this problem and the best way to take find out is threw a compression test.

I wasn't willing to fork out 100 bucks to do this compression test as I was going to give up on the Mini there and then.

Eddie, The person at 1fastMini mentioned to them that yes the car was an autocross/tracking car and driven hard.
He also mentioned that the car is in great shape and just needs some basic tuning due to the amount of modifications done to the car but are costly.

My question was, Is it a keeper?
He says yes but in its own way no.

He says it needs about 2500-3000 worth of fixing to get back to a safe reliable state. Do i want to fork this out? NO!

So back at the dealership my friend and brother discussed the problems and the amount that needs to be invested back into the car to get it running in the safe reliable condition.
The dealership owner then starts by acknowledging that we are very wise and educated buyers and is willing to gain our business.

The dealership agrees on doing the compression test threw 1fastmini for the sake of my comfort even though he can do it at his own compression test at his shop.

This is the agreement.

If it passes the compression test by 1fastmin's shop then he will call me and give me the good news and move to the next step. 1fastMini will also contact me to confirm the status of the car.
The next Step:
If the car doesn't pass the test, then he will sell it threw an auction and take the loss.
The dealership wants to gain my business so he would like for me to leave a $500 refundable deposit and get the car back up to reliable and safe condition (they way it should have been in the first place) tuned by 1fastmini if I'm willing to leave the deposit to show that I'm going to be a serious potential buyer and not just leave while he is stuck putting in parts in this Mini and taking a bigger loss trying to get rid of it.

Next:
The dealership will pay for the cost to get it back in reliable/ safe shape threw 1fastmini and then discount the car from the cost off the $21,900.

on the other hand 1fastmini will contact me telling me on what the car truly needs and if its worth buying or even worth considering.

So what do you guys suggest?
O.... by the way! the 1fastmini shop read this post last night and this morning. He was very surprised to see that this was me going to his tuning shop.

Thanks again for the help...

 

There must be other MINIs in FL without these issues - IMHO, I would keep looking...

Ken

 

If there are 10K worth of mods to that car then you didn't list them all.

I still think that you should walk away but that is me.

 

Iris, guess I'm with the rest but I've learned something over the past few years that I've tried to work on following... "When in doubt, don't." I mean if it's taken you this long to figure out whether this car is worth trading in for... don't you think there is some initial reason for you not doing it already? I mean, it's kind of like, trust your gut on this one. I think your intuition has been screaming at you NOT to do this since it raised obstacles when you started thinking about doing it. If it was the right thing to do, would you have not already justified its purchase already and been comfortable with your decision?

 

List of mods if purchased new for my Mini:
-Wilwood big brake kit front and rear $2000 +
-JCW body kit not painted 1200
-PSS9 Bilstein Coilover 2100
-Miltek Exhaust 900
-Web Motorsports rear sway 300
-Alta CAI 300
-M7 Subframe brace 350
-H-sports upper and lower control arm 477
-Alta 17% pulley w/belt 130
-JCW 18" wheels (price not known) est 1000
-Factory Driving Light Kit 390
-Nology hot wires 200
-3M film 300
-Alta rear endlinks 130
-Out motoring toe hook 60
________________________________________
Total: 9837
And more accessory goodies such as smoked fender lights, Different gauges, antenna stuby, hood stripes, black out belt line, paint of the aero kit and labor cost...

 

Just one more bit of rambling from me. Please bear with me as it's12:58 a.m. here in Germany (2009) and I just stumbled back to my room if you know what I'm saying. My 2005 that I traded my 2003 in on needed some TLC. I knew this when purchasing the car. Sometimes I wish I had just kept my Solid Gold 2003 Cooper. In the end though, I really like my 2005. I had MINI flatten the strut towers out (I could have done it myself, but I felt they needed to do it). I had to pay money for parts to beef up the strut towers. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, you feel compelled to rescue things. Since I purchased my car knowing she needed some TLC, I understand first thing where you are coming from and how you feel. I, however, don't like to see people suffer from a mistake that could be avoided. The car sounds like a good deal, but as others have stated, this car sounds like it has been abused, and this dealer is trying to milk every bit of money they can out of it. The 2003 Cooper i traded in....I got $14,000 flat for the trade in. You know how much that car went back on the market for? $19,500 !!! I guess they felt they felt the CAI, Remus exhaust, katera Wheels, lowering springs, braided brake lines, tower bar, etc. added $5,500 to their asking price. I guess what I'm saying is, you make the call, but personally, I would keep your current ride and fix it up. This way you get to put parts on it that you want, and you know the car's history. Keep us posted.

 

Having bought and sold about 200 cars over time, so far, if it were me I'd pass on this one.

Not only are there the concerns you mention, but bottom line cost to you seems a lousy deal, financially. Maybe if there were no mechanical issues the deal would be "OK," but factor in dealing with the unknowns, man... I'd forget that thing.

Like others said, modded cars always are a concern. Implies too much about the former owner, in a negative way.

Do you know how the MINI came to be for sale? Maybe the previous owner dumped it because of its impending doom?

Bottom line, to me anyway, too many questions and not low enough in price to justify the risk.

Patience, another BETTER deal will come up.

 

Two words: Walk away.

 

Just me,but i would not purchase a car that has been modded to the degree the car you have described.The dealer is probably selling the car,as is,therefore no warrenty, i would go with your "or" and buy a different Mini.Q

 

I happened to meet Iris' brother and friend today over at 1FastMINI when I brought my car in for a little work. Since I had an opportunity to see the MINI Iris is speaking about in person, I thought I would comment on the car. As Iris already pointed out, the car is definitely in immaculate shape. Many of the mods on the car are tastefully done and it doesn't appear to be abused in any shape or form. Now as for the drivetrain, I'm by no means an expert on these matters, so I'll leave that diagnosis to the people with experience.

Eddie has worked on my car countless times in the past and I can most certainly vouch for his credibility. He has never steered me wrong thus far in my MINI ownership, whether it involves typical maintenance or an upcoming mod I'd like to perform/install. So if that says anything, I trust his judgment and if he says the car needs some minor repairs and maintenance, I see no reason why Iris shouldn't purchase the car if he gives it his blessing. By no means am I trying to coerce anyone into purchasing this particular MINI, I just wanted to state my perspective, so an informed decision can be made.

GotMINI

 

New guy, audi owner x2, so used to mods. Just bought 06 mcs for daughter with 18k less miles, a clean carfax (for what it's worth) and an excellent mechanical history for 17,5k. Granted no mods, but it's more fun to do them yourself and know what you're getting and why. Look elsewhere.

 

"Just walk away, Renee..."

 

For what it is worth, and what you have to spend, and WILL have to spend...find you an unmodded car with the options you want and go from there...you'll spend less, have a car that has not been abused and have a reliable and safe car...most of the opinions told you...stay away from that car, it's a terrible deal for what they are asking...if the dealer is willing to do all that, he wants that dog gone!!!

 

Do people really decide to trade a car in when they owe more to the bank than its worth? Something called common sense tells me that this is a bad idea any way you try to swing it. That in the complete opposite direction to full ownership of your car.

 

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How much more do you need to hear? Seriously, you came here and asked for "help", and you are getting it (and these responses are just from this page!!!).

 

what eles is going to go wrong that you don't know yet. pig in a poke? can you aford it living in the shop

 

Being another Female who knows her mechanical stuff...I would not even take the time to have a shop look at it!! Any and ALL indicator lights are an idication that something is not right!! Why would you want to waste more money to FIX a car that you just spent $20,000 to make it reliable??
You already have a GREAT Car (a reliable MINI) and you only need to spend $500 on for a Mechanical Service for it...so what am I missing??

 

There goes the $500 you had wanted to avoid on your current car.

 

Is there any chance that the DSC light (traction light) being on is because he has the Ian Cull trackmode DSC on? I have that on my MINI so I leave DSC off all the time.

Also to add some info to your potential car. I bought my '05 MCS with 37,000 miles on it. It was one year old. I had a 2003 MC at the time--I bought the '05 in 2006. So I had a 3 year old Cooper that I sold to buy the 1 year old Cooper S.

The Cooper S was on sale because the owner was relocating and his MINI broke down during the move. His spark plug blew out of Cylinder 1.

To make a long story short, two years later of constant misfires, and random engine problems-- my rings blew in Cylinder 1. I ended up having the entire engine rebuilt (bored out and larger pistons put in).

So in these two years--I have added another 60,000 miles and in that time, have replaced just about everything..injectors, coil pack, wires several times, crank pulley, SC pulley, axels...for a one year old car, it has had a LOT of problems, and despite putting in well over $15,000 in mods and repairs just in this past year...it's still making rattling noises like something is about to fall off..but the local MINI shop I use is closed....so reliability feels pretty poor. I keep telling myself, if I can drive it for 5,000 miles without a single problem, then I'll feel better about it's reliability, but that hasn't happened in a long while.

Beware that problems may not be apparent until years after ownership...I love my MINI to death....but I fear it's death may be unpreventable, lol.

Richard

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Thank you so much everyone!!!!!
You are all great. I didn't realize how many people replied in such a short time....
I looked at my email and it shows me all of the replies from the thread and there's a lot of them.

ARE YOU GUYS SURE I SHOULDN'T GET THIS CAR..... (joking)

Again, you have to see the car in person. It's very nice! But I do now know the answer. With out this forums help I think I wouldn't be able to make an informative decision. Yes there is problems with it but, how many of you here haven't had your check engine light come on at one point? Only you know the answer.

But let me say this!
Theirs an 06 Mitsubishi Evolution with 15K miles and no signs of an aggressive driver and I have my eyes on it. But keep in mind this car is a car designed to be driven aggressively, True? Do we drive are Minis aggressively?
At one point it could have been tracked, who knows....! I know that I drive my STi hard core at times. My Subaru is in Super mint condition and has lots of mods.
Has the check engine light ever come on???? Yes. Why? because of all of the mods that are on it but I fixed the small issues.
If I ever decided to sell it and the next person who ends up taking a look at it will end up saying... WOW this car is in mint condition but has a lot of tracking parts on it was it abused.
O, the check engine light just came on after my test drive, I wonder why?

-First off, does this means it's an unreliable car? No! if they would speak to me I would be able to explain why the light is on and whats the simple fix.
In my situation the person is not available. But any who.... Lets play mechanic.

-Cylinder 3 misfire code shows up. Does this mean it's a bad car? No! Question is how long it's been running this way. What causes this problem, wires?, injectors?
-Lean mixture code. Hmmmmm????
This tells me to much air not enough fuel. Could it be a faulty injector? or does it need colder plugs? Worse case scenario is that this car needs a compression test done to evaluate how severe is the situation. I look at the mods on the car. CAI, 17% pulley, Exhaust. Might need an ECU map upgrade to straighten out the problem.

What about the other components such as tranny or even the hub bearings??? Get all this checked by a trust worthy mechanic before buying.

It's a nice car and it's a difficult decision.


I'm looking for something more exciting. My Mini is in tip top shape but I don't want to put so much money into it. Maybe none other then the maintenance.

Since I had my Mini its been to the dealership more than any of the previous cars that I've ever owned with in a year and 8-months period of ownership.
I'm not sure if my dealership sabotages my car every time I go for some type of problem but my Mini has put a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth. ....There is something that still makes me love this car though! Maybe it's it's cool interior.

Okay! More than 70% of you here have modded your Minis in some way or another right? Probably less than 50% have auto-crossed or driven really hard to see and test the new part? Many of you probably never even posted about your check engine light after your new part was put on, right?

So Driving aggressive, autocrossing or going to a drag strip and all of the above.

Does this make your car bad? Does this make a car not worth buying? Does this make the car unreliable? After this type of driving does this make your car worthless.
Only you know.

So my question now would be,
-Are we looking at that it's been driven hard?
-Are we looking at the check engine light?

I see a Mini owner who enjoyed his car and now it's time for something different and I stumbled across his or her's toy or maybe his old problem.
If the diagnoses after the Mini specialist is good then I'm might reconsider but if not then the rest is history. I'm truly leaning to keeping my Mini.


Happy New Year and lots of love.....Thank you so much for the help....
W/B

 

Well, if the compression test comes back okay, then that's a good sign, of course. I would still be weary on all the other things that need to be taken care of to get the car back on its feet. This is something the dealer should take care of, but then they will lose money. This is why I don't care for MINIs from a non-MINI dealer. A lot of times you're getting a car that either someone didn't like any more, which is fine, or somebody else's problem, which is not okay. In this instance, I would almost say that you are getting someone else's problem. I will say this. Modding your own car is such a wonderful and rewarding experience. You can sit down and think about what you want your car to do, then start planning. Sure, this car you want has $9,000 worth of mods on it. Are they the mods YOU want? You take your current car and build it up. You don't have to go and drop $9,000 on your car in one day, unless you have that kind of money to throw around. I know you said you liked the color of the modded MINI. Sometimes it's not a bad thing to just roll with a color that you might not particularly care for at first. Trust me, I had a Solid Gold Cooper for 3 years. Just be wise and take your friend and 1fastMINI's recommendation. It doesn't sound like they will steer you in the wrong direction. Me, and this is only me talking, I really don't ever want to go through the situation of fixing someone elses problems again. It seemed like not a bad thing at first, but then I realized I probably could have gone to a MINI dealer and gotten something better. Good luck.

 

There is no doubt you have stumbled across someones toy. They had their fun modding it, racing, tracking and beating it, now they have moved on to something else. It also appears there is quite a bit of work to be done to get this car back into shape again. You will however, never be able to remove all of those hard miles and wear and tear from that car. If that car could tell you it had been driven at RED line for 40 hours straight with the Super Charger whining in 100+ degrees heat would you feel different?

A quick look at the numbers shows you are upside down on your existing Mini with respect to it's trade value. After the deal, you will be into this new car immediatly upside down as well. Then take into consideration it is a "ticking timebomb" as far as when the next major repair (Super Charger, Clutch etc...) will be required, you are taking a big risk.

Part of the fun is modding the car yourself. Keep your car, or find some "cream puff" somewhere that was only driven to Church on Sundays and go mod crazy.

I know what it's like to fall in love with cars that are bad news, and nobody could change my mind and I bought them. I always to learn the hard way, and several of these deals cost me several thousand $$$ to get out of.

I hope that this and the overwhelming negative feelings presented above helps you steer clear of this deal.

Heck, maybe you can go to the auction that this dealer sends this car to and buy it for $12k when he realizes it's a pig in a poke.

Best of luck

 

I understand where everyone is coming from regarding stock versus modded cars, but ANY car you buy can have its own fair share of issues. It's always possible you could get lucky and find a pristine car, but having owned used cars my whole life I know that is far and few between. Can anyone honestly say that most MINIs out there aren't driven hard? I suppose to what extent is the question, but I've seen more stock MINIs at autocross than modded. Also, coming from a MINI owner that bought his car absolutely stock with 36k miles, I've had more issues with this car than with any other car I've previously owned. I suppose I should have sold the car after having to replace my transmission and ECU and countless other items on my own dime, but I have such an emotional attachment that I find it difficult to part ways.

All I'm getting at is I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss this car. Even a stock car could have been driven hard its whole life, yet it might not be apparent. I suppose you could always look for the tell-tale signs, like what condition the brake rotors are in, but that doesn't necessarily prove anything. It seems most people should just advocate buying new... that way you don't have to worry about inheriting any problems from the previous owner.

GotMINI