Hey guys, this is my first post. I'm looking into buying this MINI.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/2264829908.html

My only concern is the high mileage, but with all the upgrades that it has I don't think that's as big of a deal. What do you guys think? Is the price right?

 

This looks like a car that may have been driven hard. And note that in 2003 the factory did not make the JCW and this has Mini Madness parts including the cold intake and pulley. Any JCW parts would have been installed at the dealer. Does it have the JCW head and injectors? Is it the stock or OEM supercharger? Why was the transmission changed? Sounds like it was raced a bit.

And it says nothing about any repairs it may have had. Steering Pump? Radiator fan? Supercharger? A/C compressor? Lower control arm bushings? Ball joints? Clutch? None of those are cheap if you don't do it yourself and even if you do, the parts are not cheap either.

I wouldn't touch this unless I saw it and got answers to a lot of questions. Unless you are going to race it and/or will be doing any maintenance and repairs yourself, I would think about this one three times before I pulled the trigger.

///Rich

 

Just the response I was looking for! Thank you very much.

I'm relatively new to MINIs (I'm a Jeep guy ) so this is all very good information to know. I will check with the owner and ask all of the questions that you stated, but most likely I will be staying away from this one.

Thanks again.

I'll for sure be around here more as I continue my MINI search.

 

Right, with those miles major repairs are on the horizon that won't be cheap. I'm thinking for that cash you could find a MCS with one-third to one-half of those miles and likely not driven too hard. Just keep looking.

BTW: If you do decide to buy it, offer him $5k. He did say OBO --then plan to put the other $5K into some maintenance.

 

Alright guys, I found another one.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/2267826450.html

From the pictures he emailed me it looks really clean. It's also in the same city as I live in, so checking it out is going to be really easy.

 

I'd sell you mine but i'm in the Seattle area. It's got alot of miles but this car looks brand new inside and out. It was a highway commuter, and was driven lots of miles daily.

05, MCS, 6 speed, Hyper blue, black leather? interior, heated seats etc.

I'd be happy with 9500.

I posted pics of my recent maintenance teardown, had it all apart. Supercharger looked brand new inside. Just replaced supercharger oil in both ends, water pump, spark plugs, plug wires, air filter, fuel filter, coolant, oil, filter, transaxle oil, and i'm sure i'm forgetting some other things.

It's very nice.

188k miles, clean title.

 

This MINI is more like it jfox. Check the car out. Drive it. It should feel solid as a rock and drive pretty much like a street legal track car. If this is not the case, the car has issues that will cost money to fix. The best way to find and gauge the cost of repairing issues is to take the car to a MINI mechanic and have them go over it. It's worth ~$50-100. If the owner has kept up maintenance, it really should not need a lot of work, and it's very realistic to keep it going another 100K. Many first gen MINIs (2002-06) are making it to 200K with only routine maintenance and a few repairs. Neglecting maintenace on a MINI is costly.

 

Thanks, unfortunately it sold before I could check it out.

How about this one..?

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/2276582845.html

How much am I looking at for a clutch replacement if it needs one?

 

If you are going to have the get the clutch replaced, subtract $1,500 from the asking price. This is a pretty tricked MINI and 102K is not too bad for miles, assuming he has done proper maintenance. Offer him $7K and see if that works. I personally wouldn't pay more than that. There's too many nice MINIs out there if you are willing to buy outside your local area.

Keep in mind, a fair number of "early adopters" bought these cars as second cars --not as daily drivers. I don't think that is so true with today's MINI buyers.

 

I wouldn't touch a 1st gen Mini unless it was an '05 or '06. There were some worthwhile changes leading up to those years that I think make sticking with an '05 or '06 worth it.

See this article: http://www.motoringfile.com/mini-r50r53-buyers-guide/