I test drove an 05 MCS at a dealership over the weekend and my initial impression was that it was quite solid. Steering was tight, no rattles, shifted smooth, pulled hard. I got a chance to check out the car two weeks prior but at the time, it wasn't ready to drive and was going to Mini for service.

I did a little detective work on my own by calling the Mini dealer where the service was done and found out the t-stat was replaced because the car was overheating. Is this a cause for concern? And is there anything that can be done during the inspection to see if it caused damage to the engine? I plan to have a compression test done at the least but I'm not sure if this will tell me anything.