Good afternoon all,

I have not been on the forums here in a while, and frankly not really been in my MINIs life for a while. The mini got downgraded to 'project car' status about a year and a half ago, and unfortunately I really just don't have the time for it for the foreseeable future. I was hoping to post about it on the forums here first to see if there was any interest before throwing it out there on FB marketplace. Hopefully its ok to post here, but if not, please let me know.

I bought my 2004 R53 Cooper S in late 2014, and daily drove it on and off until 2020, when I picked up a new daily driver and the mini got put on the back burner. I'd hop in it to run to the gas station, or check the mail once a month maybe, but it never really got driven like it should. I had plans to do racecar things eventually, but with a full time job, a nearly full time side business, and a now 4 year old at home, I just couldn't find the time for it.

About ~14 months ago I had planned to finally sell it, but it desperately needed some new control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, and inner/outer ball joints. You could hear/feel things clanking around as you shifted or accelerated quickly, as that rubber was long gone. As some of you may know, this process is a bit involved, and requires dropping the subframe and all the disassembly that goes along with that. Well I got nearly to the point of having the subframe down, and I broke one of the 4 big front end frame rail bolts.

I spent another couple weeks tracking down a replacement bolt, as well as some other bushings I figured I should replace while the subframe was down, and then played the waiting game for them to arrive. Around that same time, my side business started eating up more and more of my free time as it ramped up, and my halfway disassembled R53 sat alone in the garage for the next year.

Here we are ~14 months later and my wife is ready to have her parking spot back in the garage, and I still do not have any free time for a project car. I am ready to let the mini go cheap to someone that is looking for a mini that needs some love and can restore her back to glory.

The Details
The car only has about ~98K miles on it, and ran perfectly fine before I tore the front end apart. It has a bolt on no-name exhaust that actually sounds pretty good, and some Motegi MR116 aftermarket wheels with Hankook ventus v2 rubber. Unfortunately that rubber is probably ~5-6 years old now, even though they only have <10K miles on em.

The car also spent most of its life in the north, so expect what you will on the underside as far as surface rust and salt residue goes. I am currently located in Southern Central Louisiana, the car has been paid off for years and I have a clean title in hand. If anyone is interested, please let me know. If I can manage to find some free time in the coming months, I plan on trying to get it back together, but id also be happy to let it go on the cheap in its current state.

Feb 2020



Current state:

 

Thanks for the head's-up.
You might want to place a for sale listing in the Mini Market Place located here on the NAM site.
Sorry hear your intended revitalization project had to end in this way.
Best of luck.