I thought the comment about perhaps mini63's dad wants to see him argue his point, as in convince him why it's a good car for him, was pretty valid. I had to do the same when I was young and it gave me confidence about my automotive choices.

 

I'm in college and my last car was dying at over 200k on an american car that could longer be trusted to travel more than 20miles from home. My parents did not feel that I would even need a car in college becaise they didn't so why should I. As it turns out, I live off campus and have put 22k miles on my MINI since Aug.

Any car will be expensive to maintain on a college student budget and it all comes down to the sacrifices you are willing to make and how motivated you are to work and how well you balance work and school. It is something I know I can handle and have managed to get by on savings last semester (wohoo for summer jobs) Now I require a job to support myself and as long as I keep good grades thats not an issue. My car will be out of soon and I have come to accept that, so having had a car that required 3hrs a week under the hood to keep running smoothly, look forward to doing all of the basic maintaince and mods on my own. It is an import car and there is a computer for just about everything so things a can get costly. And this is a realatively small car so there are some crampt quarters when working in or on the car.


I trust this car more than I trust my parents Camry, so I feel it is reliable.


I suggest you and your Dad do your research, get facts for reasins and opinions buying something as important as a car should not be done solely on reputaion. My insurance actually went down because the car is safer than my last ride and FAR less likely to be stolen. I nearly lost all chance of getting a MINI because my MA keep saying how much fun I was going to have in this car (he was right) which made my parents actually not want to let me get it for fear of me going out and crashing it, so I had to follow up with all the safety features, good gas, iron block engine (means I wont have three craked blocks like my father first 70s or 80s Celica) road side assit program and great warranty (which I won't have for much longer but gets you fixes for any issues within the period).

I know of several other MINIs on my campus driven by students and most never move, now I don't think that it is worth it to have such a wondrful car and work my butt off every week just for it to sit but if you're going to drive it, willing to work for and can keep education the main priority until you graduate then go for it. Otherwise wait til you graduate and pick one up used or even a new body stlye MINI.

I hear your cry, and it takes a lot of persuading to get help but make the most of your oppurtunity and with this car facts are your friend be educated about the and then talk with mechanics who have actually serviced the car on a regular basis, most are trouble free my biggest issues thus far have been getting keyed, and hitting a huge pot hole(which road hazard ins. covered) nethier was related to the preformance or reliablity of the car and the runflats kept me from being stranded alone in a shady neighborhood, any other car and thing would have been a lot worse. Well, I think I'm starting to repeat myself now, but if have any more questions about the car ask away and we can give you the owner prespective.

Sorry MINIclo no paragraphs not that well organized this was just supposed to be a quick reply
Edit: Made some paragraphs hope other will read it now.

 

No worries, motor on. My comments are meant as serving suggestions only.

Many people will not read a post that is a huge block of uncapitalized, unpunctuated words. Just offering a little guidance.....

 

Just after I got out of college I had an American made car that a mechanic I knew said was a good car.

Yep, it was - - - for him. I owned the car for 15 months and it had 5 ignition modules in that time.

I'm very "mechanically challenged", so I have to rely on someone else to do most of the work on my vehicles. My experience is that just about every new car out there is expensive to have worked on. Along the same lines, older cars may not be as expensive to work on, but have a tendency, over time, to cost quite a bit in a nickel-and-dime way. You may want to consider the long term cost of maintaining an older vehicle versus the less frequent maintenance of a newer car.

 

hi-- i am new to this site--but not new to the world..actually i am probably your dad's age..that said, i'd have to agree..at this point in your life, keep your old car, finish your education, get a job, then begin to reap what you sow...it is sound advice from your dad (not about the mini's) but about the timing...my husband was like you and we dreamed through those years..in his late 30's he got the car of his dreams because we could afford it...

 

I was just saying it wasn't under warranty so he'd understand it came out of my pocket. Doesnt' change the fact that there are a lot of cars out there that could hit the same pothole without throwing a skitfit. Those other cars don't handle like the MINI, though, so it's OK

 

Time to play hardball.

Announce you have decided what you really want is a motorcycle, and leave a bunch of motorbike magazines and brochures around. Argue that it would be far more economical to purchase and operate than an automobile, and that you know all the chicks will dig it. Suggest that you would have settled for a MINI but you were a few thousand dollars short... so this is the only type of fun vehicle you can reasonably afford. Besides that way you can afford those expensive biker tatoos you wanted.

The way to persuade someone is to present an even worse option first, so that the second does not appear so bad. That way the convincing isn't an uphill battle.

 

BFG9000, as an older parent, let me say that while your reasoning may sound logical, in reality it is not. What your scenario would do is cause me to think that you had gone completely 'round the bend and were no longer able to make rational decisions. No bike AND no car. Period. Aztec for you!
Now, if you want to try using your skillls of persuasion in a rational manner, I'm all ears.
Just a thought, all parents are different.

Oh...Paddle of Compassion my @$$ !!! That sucker's got HOOKS on it!
Owwwwowowowow.

 

I should point out the OP doesn't actually need permission from the parental units, but only wants their approval. It's not like asking mommy and daddy to buy the car, so it's not like they can really say no--only that they don't approve. Unless it's their Aztec that's being traded.

 

Perhaps another "young-pup" view point will help a little bit more. I just turned 23, so graduation from college wasn't that long ago. I wasn't able to purchase my MINI until I had an established career and was making decent money.

I'm not in your situation now, but I once was.

If you're thinking that you are going to be able to afford a MINI on your own, with your dad as the co-signer (under the assumption that most college students have little to no credit):

Back in '02 I wanted a MINI really bad. I was already working a pretty decent job pulling in about $1000 a month as a fine-dining server so in my head I had more then enough to pay the monthly payments, right? I figured 400-500 for the car, 300 for college payments, 100 for insurance, and 50 for gas, right?

Wrong. That would leave all of $50 a month for personal use. And while you may think you can do that, you can't. That means no booze, no girlfriends (or boyfriends), and Ramen noodles everyday. Not to mention with gas prices today, there is no way you can go a month on $50 for gas in a MINI, not because of bad MPG, but because you'll want to drive it a LOT! (Which also equates to you not focusing on the whole reason you're at college.)

It took some pretty heated discussions with my dad to figure out that there was no way I would be able to pull that off. So instead I got a 1985 Cadillac Seville, and drove that into the ground all during college. (some days I do miss my Caddy... big ol' boat of love..)

Now, if your dad is going to fork over his cash for the entire bill and monthly payments:

I think you are absolutely nuts to try and convince him to get you a MINI. You already have a car that runs and gets you from point A to point B. And if your dad is getting information from mechanics that are telling him that MINIs are unreliable I doubt there is anyway you are going to convince him otherwise.

Either way, it sounds like your dad has to co-sign with you, which puts you in a bind. Because there is no way he will co-sign on a car that he doesn't find reliable.

I would suggest just waiting until you can put the whole car in your name and pay for it with your money. I'm glad that I waited until then.

Just a few cents from someone who once was there.

((And I have to agree with MINIclo, first impressions mean a lot on a forum, and the only way to make an impression is by what you write and how you write it. If you're in college then you should be able to form decently punctuated and spelled sentences. I try not to judge but when I first read your post with your inability to hit the "shift" key and especially how you spelled "insite" (it's spelled insight), if I was your dad I wouldn't let you get a MINI either... but then I put my *****-ish-ness aside)

 

the ironic thing here is while you're railing against improper capitalization you're post is littered with incorrect grammar.

its = possessive case, e.g. in your sentence "not" belongs to "No"
hes = plural case e.g. referring to multiple male people

double spaces after periods are a outdated convention held over from the type writer days. they should not be be used in any modern typesetting application.

all caps a L33T speak is difficult to decipher, but if we were to spend our time criticizing the spelling, grammar and sentence structure of internet posts there would be no time left to talk about minis.

 

If spelling were required (correct, that is), I'm sure none of my posts would make it..... But I try....

Safety. Stress the 6 air bags. Point him here: http://www.bridger.us/2002/12/16/Cra...operVsFordF150
This one tends to work with parents.

Point out the retained value at Edmunds.com.

Also, Consumer reports, I think, has revised their views, and now reccomends the Mini.

Good luck. I too think the motorcycle trick might work. My folks wouldn't let me have a rag-top, so I bought a Honda 650 Nighthawk without telling them! My mom was willing to compramise on the ragtop in exchange for a "no motorcylce promise" but my Dad wouldn't go for it.

Interestingly, some dumb girl (not because she was a girl, but because she was dumb) put me in a wheelchair for 9 months, and I now have two ragtops, besides the Mini and an MDX!

But no more motorcycles.

Go figure.....

Matt

 

Hey, can't we just all get along? I'd be the last one to criticize someone else's grammar/spelling, you're just asking for it. But having said that, I do find particularly egregious examples annoying.

Back to topic, my very biased advice is, if you can't afford to buy the car yourself, don't insist on your choice. Back in my days, we bought cars with our own money (after school jobs at the supermarket, summer jobs, lunch money, etc), kids are spoiled nowadays.

 

I agree. I drove a 1989 Chevy S-10 with a LOT of rust all through college and for about two years after I got a "real" job. I was 27 years old when I bought my MINI, which was my first new car and the first car I ever had to make payments on. The more you can concentrate on college, the better off you'll be. Reward yourself for your hardwork after it's done. Graduate, get a steady income going, and then get what you want. Don't become a slave to car payments before you can afford it. You'll probably just accumulate more debt because of it.

As an aside, I'm a big proponent of young adults buying cars on their own, or at least with a large contribution of their own money. I've seen too many nice cars bought by well-meaning parents just get abused by someone who did not have anything invested in the car other than asking for it. I think this can potentially become a cycle in their life, where they expect their parents to bail them out of any financial predicament they may cause themselves. Not saying this about the original poster at all.

 

This is a very good one..... From the New Yorker, of all places...

http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html

Matt

 

Now thats what Im talkin about. I would rather not have to worry about those things on NAM. Speak ebonics for all I care. Its all good.