First let me say that there is some good reading here, I have been looking for a MINI for a couple of months and found one that I am thinking about getting.

It is an 06 NON S MINI, 5 spd with 104K miles. I took it to my mechanic and it checked out ok with a few minor things that need to be repaired. One was a small coolant leak when looking under the engine but not enough to make a puddle on the ground. The muffler has a loose baffle and one of the O2 sensors needs to be replaced.
They are asking 10K for the car and are offering an extended warranty for 1300.00 additional

Any thoughts are welcomed and appreciated

Thanks, Kerwin

 

Hey there,

I can't speak much to the price, as it's so different based on location. However, I paid $16,888 for my '06 two years ago with 32,000KM (~20,000 miles.)

I will say it's been a great car, no big issues cropping up with the exception of the seat sensor in the passenger side for the airbag. They're known to fail and it's $1300 or so to fix. Other than that and the thermostat leak which you mentioned and is very common, I don't think there are any big common failures. Some small common issues which you can find elsewhere on the board. Motor mount, etc.

If your mechanic gave it a clean bill of health and the price is on par with what it should be in your area, I'd go for it.

Good luck!

 

There are two common sources of coolant leak. dannyhavok mentioned the thermostat leak, which is usually from the thermostat housing gasket. The other common source is from a cracked plastic coolant expansion tank. That source seems more common in the S, as it tends to get hotter under the S's hood.

Welcome to NAM.

 

Important to know how it's equipped - I have an 05, no sun roof 5speed ipod connector, nice rims, new clutch/brake cylinder etc stuff I did - < 80kmiles and is worth about 9k - did you research prices in your area? It feels high when I've seen S models with less miles not much more than this car. Is the body perfect, etc? Do my questions make sense?

 

I think that once these cars hit 100,000 miles or so, the premium to get into an "S" is little to none, at least over a facelift R50 5 speed. I think that's due to the perceived notion that the supercharged car is going to have more problems, and cost more to maintain as the cars get older. I often see older R50's advertised for $8-10k, and I think they are being unrealistic. But then I paid only $1,500 for mine, so my perception is skewed.

 

Nice price! I agree about the supercharger, fair or not it gets scary for some to think of the replacement issues, especially if they've seen some of the self destruction pics on threads in this forum.. that said, when I had mine it was super great fun but I like the justacopper too and it keeps me more under the radar for bad behavior

 

It does have a sunroof and is clean(which I would expect at a dealer). The S models with about the same miles are quite a bit more than what I want to spend though I would buy one for the right price. The price on this one is a little below KBB for my area. My bigest concern is with the miles that it has but everything else I see has about the same miles for that much money as well.