I had an 04 R53 which I traded in about 6 years ago. I don't think there is another car out there that could be so hard to see the red light at an intersection or hit me in the face with the door so many times and still have me miss it so much.

Fast forward to now, and I currently drive a 2015 Colorado, am married, have a second child on the way, and own a home (hence the need for a truck). The truck is great, gets about 21mpg on the highway, burns regular gas, is comfortable, etc...

With the baby coming, my wife and I will no longer be able to carpool, so I will be putting 500 miles on my truck per week with just work. I also put around 7000 miles a year into repeated trips to Connecticut. So yeah, I've had the truck a little over a year and it already has almost 40k on it. The problem here is that my last car I bought brand new, had it for 4 years and 8 months and traded it with 126k on the clock for the truck. I did some math, and doing this every few years gets expensive and I haven't been without a car payment in probably 10 years.

So the plan: basically buy a used Mini to use for the bulk of my commuting, keep the truck for truck stuff and hopefully not have to trade in the truck before it's paid off like my last vehicle.

I can post the math if anybody wants to see it, but basically I factored in for a $6k mini (R50 or R53), planned for more repairs than I usually spend because I have been trading before I get to that point, and I still save $20k over 12 years. This is including extra tax/tag and insurance.

Any other thoughts? I know that there are cheaper and arguably more suitable cars to have as a mileage mule but hey, I miss having a Mini and most other cars are difficult to find in a stick. Also, out of all used cars I personally think Minis were way ahead of their time in terms of safety, I'd put my baby in a 12-year-old R53 before a brand new Fiat any day.

Sounds like you are trying to find someone to convince you to go ahead and buy one even though you want one.

You won't find anyone to tell you not to here lol.

But if you are spending 6k, go ahead and get an r53, you will thank yourself later lol

In the Mini world, I've never owned anything other than an R53 - but based on what I've seen, I agree.

I have tried to convince myself multiple times that a second car makes financial sense. I have to have a 1 ton Dually for pulling certain trailers so a commuter car seems to make sense. I have done it many, many times. It has NEVER saved me money. It has always cost more to have a second car, especially a car you love because you will constantly be tweaking this and replacing that. Better financial sense says take the 6 thousand you plan on a Mini and pay down your truck. Of course, this is a do as I say, not as I do because I not only have 1 commuter car, I currently have 2. What I haven't seen you factor in is that while your truck is sitting in the driveway while you drive your Mini, it is still depreciating. If you only need a truck once or twice a month for a trip to Home Depot, you are money ahead selling the truck and renting the one in the parking lot for $20 to take your stuff home. I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but two registrations, insurances, engines to maintain etc always equal more than one. I could see this possibly working if you drove a hugely expensive, inefficient vehicle like a new Mercedes G Wagon, but you already have a fairly inexpensive, fairly efficient and reliable vehicle with your Colorado. A used 12 year old Mini doesn't get significantly better mileage (I average 22-24) and may take a thousand or two to make it reliable to put 500 miles a week on it.

My advice, buy the Mini, tell your wife it's cheaper, and get a second job so she doesn't notice the money gone.

I didn't forget about depreciation, but I looked at everything on a 12 year plan, and when you buy two new cars in that time and put that many miles on both of them, they're worth squat on trade in. From a depreciation standpoint the difference between new cars and buying used cars that have already depreciated is astronomical.

From a gas mileage point it would have to be a $500 car just about with gas prices around $2 right now to pay for itself in mileage. But if I "skip" one whole new car then I just have to make the second car not cost $35k over 6 years to come out ahead.

Yeah I am pretty much looking for someone to talk me into it, but also I am looking to see if a mini is an honestly good choice to try and reach 300k miles without wanting to roll it in a river. When I had my R53 I bought it with 14k miles on it, brought it up to 45k before I traded it, so I have limited knowledge on what a high-mileage mini is like. BMW's are supposed to last forever too but at 150k I was resetting my wife's old X3's ECU and hoping the lights didn't come on when we limped it to the dealer.

Don't forget to factor in the grin factor. It's hard to put a dollar figure on, but at almost 120k miles, my R53 still makes me crack a smile every time I turn the key. My wife and I have shared one hot hatch and one truck/SUV for years now (started with a '91 Civic Si and a Ranger, now it's the Mini and an XC90), and in my experience, driving an entertaining car for the daily commute is a quality-of-life issue that should not be overlooked.

For those moments where it's difficult to see the red light, I highly recommend a lightinsight. Have had one since day one.

Impossible to say how many problems you might or might not have but I think for the most part they are good reliable cars.

Check out this thread. Plenty of people with a couple hundred thousand miles and even some with 300 or 400k miles. Skip to the end though lol ...59 pages and counting.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...right-now.html

You'll have more weird problems than you'd get in a Honda, but if you're able to fix some of the issues yourself they are cheap enought to maintain.

I say go for it. If you don't like it just sell it and try a different car.

Having owned 2 MINIs now it's the absolute last car I'd want to own as a commuter vehicle and rely on every day. My R55S was terribly fun and terribly unreliable. Got rid of it with 55k miles on it. Bought an '05 R53 to play around with and most of the time it sits in the garage looking pretty. I just rolled 160K miles the the other day. It's fun but the two years I've had it and putting only about 6K miles on it in that time, it's cost a pretty penny in maintenance. MINIs are fun, that's about where the superlatives stop for me. If I was forced to get a commuter car it would be a 2005 Scion xB 5 Speed.

If you can do most of your own wrenching, it's a wise choice. I have 160k on "my commuter car" ( I convinced my wife ) lol. I paid $5,000 for it and have spent about $1,500 fixing a lot of deferred maintenance items. Otherwise the car runs fine and it's a blast to drive. Good luck

There's a local guy around me with right at or over 300k on his mini. And I know someone on here does too. It's a vendor but I can't for the life of me remember which one it is at the moment.

Anyways if you haven't bought it yet...................

Yes, lightinsight will help with the signal lights and retrofitting face lift door stop arms to save your face if you end up with an earlier MINI.

Door stop arm retrofit??

The face lift door stops are thicker plastic (coated metal?) with deeper recesses for the door stop positions. There have been a few posts here where the owners have replaced the worn out metal door stops on the 2004 and earlier cars with the later arms. They said they bolt right in with no modifications. I've posted links in the past, but can't find them right now. I'll repost if I do.

Here it is, the last half of post #45:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4218251

Here's a video for the replacement:

I say go for it-live once or atleast enjoy your daily driver. My second car is a Corvette Z06 so this is pretty fun driving every day in comparison to an older Honda CRV. I guess think how long you may keep the mini looking for the best you can afford. I grabbed an 06 R53 one owner trade w only 62k mi and optioned well except Nav-totally happy!

You could consider renting out one of the cars on Turo on days when you don't drive. It's good way to make a little money though it can be a pain.