I am considering buying a (manual) 2003 R50 with 39k miles on it. The previous owner is a friend of a friend, and she is a slow driver who almost never goes on the freeway. When I test drove it today, it felt very unresponsive, like I really had to sink my foot into the gas pedal to get a response. It didn't feel like the engine was weak so much as it just wasn't trying. It crossed my mind that maybe the car had learned her driving preferences, and if I bought it, resetting the ecu would improve things.

I've test-driven some R53s and found them to have plenty of power, and drove an automatic base zip car a while ago and didn't feel like it was underpowered. Maybe it's just because I'm coming off of a miata which has more torque and a much more responsive gas pedal?

 

I just did more searching, found a thread on a different forum saying it doesn't learn driving habits, and found the sprintbooster thread which makes me happy there is a solution to this problem. Sorry for not searching more thoroughly before I posted. Expect a "hello to my new mini" post in about a week