Well i'm not so mechanically incline, but i've done some minor stuff... kind of know what you mean with post fix sense of accomplishment but that requires a lot of tools that let say aren't cheap. a mechanic is as good as the tools he has! well maybe not always but you need time and tools for this stuff...

 

True. Doesn't have to be a bulk investment. My tool collection has been a slow & gradual process. I made my own tensioner tool from measurements shared in this forum somewhere. Bought myself a cheap Stanley crank pulley puller way before my damper went, a set of metric sockets, torx & allen bits, a drill & dremel, some pliers here & there. That's about it in my strictly-MINI tool kit. I've always favored hardware stores, bike & car shops over malls since I was a kid. That's what you become when you have a crafty mechanical engineer who overbuilds everything for a dad.

 

I can't get over the fact that you would sell a car that is below average in reliability AND charge a lot for maintenance. I usually like to think that things cost what they cost. A business has to charge a certain amount of money for something to cover costs and make a reasonable profit, and free market helps keep things in check. Only with MINI the market isn't as free for people who feel the dealer knows best. And there are very few dealers. And it seems that the dealers are usually (always?) a BMW dealer. They get away with charging nearly $200 for an oil change in a BMW, so they do that with MINIs too. It was, to a lesser extend, similar at the VW dealer. I think they charged $90 for an oil change (non-synthetic). (I used my freedom to change my oil elsewhere, but VW previously put the filter on too tight which led to major problems getting it off, and this led to a $1200 bill to repair the radiator at the VW dealer.) What is it with German cars? Those mechanics live in the same world as the mechanics at the Ford and Toyota dealers. They're not paying higher taxes to cover universal healthcare and other social programs in Germany.

And as for when to get a new one? When my wife gets un-laid off. We've shopped and configured and everything. But since we just got a new Acura, we can't drop the coin on another new car. Yes, it's addictive this MINI. And part of getting a new one is knowing I won't have to deal with maintenance expenses or fixing anything for a while, so we only want to buy new. In southern California where I live, people put too many miles on their cars. It's hard to find anything with even average miles--that much closer to the end of the warranty.

Mike Todd

 

Funny thing is I've long been convinced that BMW made the MINI w/ this many quirks to encourage owners to learn wrenchin'. It's double the fun of driving....If you get it right. Often, both frustrating & satisfying. That's the inspiration to coining MINSANITY, long before Jeremy's LINSANITY came about.

 

I'm not sure the engineers at BMW would really do that but the amount of required maintenance on these sure does make one wonder....I'm of the same logic with wrenching...I love it and don't know why but there is something deeply satisfying with putting work into your car that makes the driving experience all the more satisfying.

 

Do you think the size of the MINI community the world over would be this big, the bond/comraderie among MINI brethren this strong, if BMW made this badge reliably bulletproof? I doubt. They just couldn't completely erase the British genes of this brand!

 

I'd just like to think those engineers aren't THAT much smarter than me to trick me in such a way

 

Agree. Look at what the so-called German-engineering has come to now? They engineer & the Japs perfect. Germans = Koreans? ( cars, I meant. )

 

At risk of continuing this off-topic-ness...the Koreans have come a long way. Just look at Hyundai...their cars are nearly bulletproof now I'd love one of those first-gen Genesis Coupes if they weren't still so damn expensive lol

 

I saw several posts of the poor trade value. I purchased my 2004 s in august of 2006 for 19k blue book was 22 at the time. in February of 2007 i was in a tight for money and went to the same place i bought the car to trade it in on something cheaper. Blue book was 21 and i owed 16. There was a full-size dodge 3/4 ton hemi on the lot for a mere 14k blue book on it was 19 and bank would loan 16.5. So to get the trade i needed at least 13.5 on trade. They offered me 8000. I had just bought the car from this very place six months previous! I cussed everyone that worked there. Im surprised i didint get arrested. Well its good that i kept it anyway because gas shot up two dollors that summer and the blue boom went up on my car. You couldnt get a 02 r50 for less that 20k. I wouldn't sell it now. Ill stuff a north star v8 in it or set it on a 4x4 chassis before i turn loose of it nowadays.

 

I would also agree that Korean cars aren't what they once were. About 5 years ago (I think) Kia made itself a mission to become the 2nd best (again, I think--and why would you just shoot for number one?) auto make in actual quality and number three (I think) in PERCIEVED quality. And they're getting there. When I bought my Acura RDX last month, I was really almost set to get a Serrano. I'd done the Internet search to find out which local dealer had the model and color, and was just waiting for the weekend to get it. The SX V6 I was looking has almost the exact same features, and even the cooler (to me) panorama moonroof. For roughly $10,000 less, partly because the Kia dealers are dropping their pants right now. Now, I realize that Acura has a much longer tradition of quality and resale--I know the hidden costs of cars. But it was close. And if I was gonna buy a sedan, the first thing I'd drive is the Optima, they just look dang cool.
Mike Todd

 

Generally, I'd say when it becomes a burden instead of a joy.

You know how it goes. At a particular mileage, things start to fail and it can go on for some time. Sometimes replacing parts before they become a problem is the way to do things.

This is my second Mini S, the first was an '03 and I sold it in late 2005, recently picked up an 2005 S with 60k miles. Just had it serviced, so far so good.

 

Some of you guys need to own an Audi for a few years. That will help you appreciate Mini maintenance costs.

 

Yeah, more of that German engineering & perceived value. Me? I came to own a MINI prepared. We've to pay to play. Sad reality.

 

This whole thread is curious to me, the OP bought a 10 year old car, didn't have it checked out before buying it, then was surprised that it needed some work? And the car is somehow to blame?

I don't find MINIs any harder or more expensive than anything else to work on these days - they're ALL frickin expensive!

True enough, you do have to take more stuff off of a MINI before you can acutally do the work you want to do, but it's not any harder to do that on a MINI than any other modern car.

There's no magic to owning a MINI, but being able to do you own work will save you some bux for sure, especially when the dealer labor rate is $125/hr. But it's the same rate at the VW dealer, and the local Ford dealer here.

I have a friend with an '02 S with right at 100K on it, up till now he's spent little to nothing on it, but has decided to keep it "forever" so we're going to do a lot to it in preparation for the long haul. Parts look like $2500 (Including a clutch) and I imagine labor would run twice that if we weren't doing it ourselves. But he thinks it's worth it and so do I....

 

LOL. I tell you, dealer a$$ crowns will do anything to get your hard earned money. I bet he was going to ****** that from you himself.