NAMers,

In my area there is an 03 MCS with 150k miles on it. Original SC, and power steering pump going for 5k. Passenger door doesn't open, AC doesn't work and needs tires for cert. Would you go for it?

K

 

Bump... any opinions? Now I know it depends on the condition, what maintenance has been done, etc. but is that cheap enough for some that you have some cushion in case something does go wrong?

 

I know that you probably don't want to hear this but I would advise you to walk away. While Mini's are great cars, they have been known to be tempermental even at low mileage. In my opinion 150,000 plus miles is too much. You might run into issues with the supercharger etc. If I were you I would spend an extra $3000 to $4000 for a MCS with lower miles on it.

 

i purchased my 2003 MCS with 86K. I am now at 120k. i spent 2000$ to get Maintanence II done as well as servicing my SC and installing some engine mounts from TSW and BSH. I did this at 116k miles. I have yet to have any real problems with my high mileage MCS. Depending on your area i would just get it checked out by a trusted or well known mini mechanic. Get it diagnosed to see what needs to be fixed and how much your difference would be if you bought it and fixed it up compared to a newer MCS with fewer problems.

Food for thought =D

And good luck you definately want the Supercharged one =P

 

If you really have your heart set on purchasing the car please take it to the mini dealership and have them do a prepurchase inspection as well as a compression check.

I purchased my mini cooper s used with 62,500 miles on it. When I bought it it came with a 60 day full coverage warranty from the dealership I bought it from. I decided to take it to the Mini Dealership and have them inspect the car to see if there were any problems. Sure enough there were and the dealership I purchased the car from ended up spending $4,000 in repairs which was covered by their warranty.

I drove my car for another 18,000 miles with no problems aside from general maintenance. Then during the holidays I had all the fluids flushed including the coolant. Next thing I know about a month later my car starts missfiring. Turns out the previous owner hadn't changed the coolant in a long time and the coolant coagulated and sealed the warped cylinder head I had until I went and flushed all the fluids. That cost me $3,000 to fix.

Before you take any more advice from anyone on this forum please take the car to a mini dealer or independent shop and have them do a compression test in addition to a prepurchase inspection.

 

here's a worst case data point for you to consider...

my '04 Works MCS reached 129k a couple of years ago, and compression testing indicated that the motor was getting tired.

I love the car, and did the math on a rebuild versus a trade-in to a new car, and finally decided to do the rebuild.

The rebuild included pretty much everything ahead of the firewall - crate motor, blower, CVs, axles, the lot.

Total - 11k.

No regrets in my case, but that is a BIG number! I learned that the crate motor is cheaper than a rebuild, which surprised me.

The bottom line is that from 150k, there are many likely failures that would be expensive to manage. The motor is 5k or better, the blower is 2k or better, and things like PS pump and such are also 1k or better.

So I'd recommend caution unless you have a sizable contingency fund, and have a damned good reason to prefer this particular car.

 

Great advice everybody, thanks. I will pass on this one.

My original logic behind even considering it was that 1) I feel the early 1st gen MCS are temperamental regardless of mileage but of course, higher the mileage the higher the chance that things could go wrong 2) It's going for 5k which meant I would have a bit leftover in case of repairs (not enough for a new motor and blower though) 3) This particular car has been really good to its owners 4) My sister had an '04 MCS with numerous problems and it had less than 90k on it...i figured this one had already gone 150k without problems so maybe it's not a "lemon"

Flawed logic?