Ok guys hang in there with me on this one.
I am trying to do some research and figured I could get my answers from the real sources instead of a bunch of reviews.

I am looking at purchasing a 2005 Cooper S with 50,695 miles on it.
I have the vin number and called the dealer to check service records.
The vehicle came from San Antonio and only 1 thing throws a red flag for me.
The clutch and clutch slave cyclinder were replaced in 08?

I know San Antonio has a bunch of hills and probably had an owner that didnt know how to drive it.. I can only assum this since the clutch was replaced at 27k.
Everything looks fairly clean on the car nothing crazy from what I can see.
They are shipping it to Dallas so I can see it (carmax) and probably will end up purchasing it.

My question boils down to this..
What should I be looking for when it comes to a supercharged motor are there any red flags that I should be looking for.
I have never owned a supercharged car only NA cars.

So help out a potential owner should I hold out for a new model and go turbo instead of the supercharger?

 

Tripp, there are just so many threads like this I will leave the bulk of the answer to your search skills, but as far as the clutch, it is a wear item, once replaced it is new, so don't worry about a replaced clutch.

 

Except that they've driven it 23k more miles since it was replaced, and might not have gotten any better at it.

 

Sounds like you're looking at a good year model with low miles. Take both above posts to heart - they're both correct. San Antonio doesn't really have any more hills than anyplace else, though. Someone who doesn't know how to use a clutch will burn it out in daily traffic.

No, you shouldn't have any specific supercharger issues to worry about. If you want a turbo Mini, you'll be paying much more for it (newer model year). They're a different animal, but they're not necessarily faster or more reliable than an R53.

 

I had them throw it up on a rack the other night and everything looked good.
It had a small leak on the back side of the valvle cover that you could see while looing up thru the header. So they are fixing that and a few other things I was picky about.
It should be ready aroun 2 today.
When I drove it the clutch felt good. It had good pressure and didnt seem like it was sticky or slipping under load.
Cant wait to get it back... Let the mods begin

 

Is this a lite grey car from the SA carmax? If so, I looked at it, it looked nice. Carmax is great to buy from, they will fix anything within the first 30 days and your warranty will take care of the rest. I bought several cars from them to include a Porsche...they fixed everything no questions asked.