He guys thanks for your help

So here is the story. My gf is a first time car buyer and has her heart set on a Mini. I've spent a couple hours tonight looking around just because i have a general unsteady feeling about her purchasing a mini. I tried to talk her out of it and look for something else in the class (maybe a miata) but it didnt work









now the more i research the less confident i feel about letting her go with her heart. I see a lot of little issues that seem to pop up with belts and windows (the passenger window is screeching) and all this makes me uncomfortable. I might be a little bias because ive owned a toyota for 4 years with not one problem. I do get that nothing toyota/honda make right now is exciting for a girl so i have nothing to pull her away from this car.

so guys help me not worry about this purchase. We did get a great deal at 18,600 with 18,000 miles

 

Try to ask the most you can about previous maintenance, being a cooper it shouldnt give you any major headaches, and as long as it has warranty it should be fine for years to come, I had mine for over a year now and even though is a cooper s, i havent had any issues, the only problem i had with it was my thermostat going bad after the recall was done, other than that, the car starts every time

 

Nothing Toyota or Honda make right now is exciting for anyone, male or female!!

 

Toyota, yes nothing exciting there, Honda? Eh.... The CRz looks good.

 

Does she understand the importance of preventative and up-keep maintenance?
Can she handle the small quirks and design issues that come with a German / English / French engineered vehicle?
Because to love the ownership of the MINI, you may find yourself invested bending over backwards... sometimes with regards to time or money.
If you enjoy the car, you'll have little trouble placing funds into part failures and other known TSBs / recalls.

- Erik

 

I recall seeing in another thread that CR has the MINI Cooper (Justa) as a recommended buy. She should be fine with an 11 Justa. There are no doubt some MINI's "Justa" and "S" that are not good, but many, many more that are great. Honda's and Toyota's aren't immune from the occasional "lemon" either. As someone else mentioned, proper maintenance is key, maybe more so with MINI's than with Honda's or Toyota's.

Oh, and from someone married to the same person for 27 yrs +, let her make her own decisions and her own mistakes, and just be there to support her when she needs it, and your relationship will last a lot longer.

 

yea its tough because this is her big decision in our relationship so im just trying to protect her. She knows she knows to keep up on maintenance and doesnt drive like a maniac so im not afraid of her running the car into the ground.

thank you for your help

 

tell me about it though i did want her to wait for this



but it was out of her price range

yea i had them look up the service and it was clean other than the oil change the lady got at 15k (and she brought it back to the dealership she bought it from) she was Dr. so im sure she decided to upgrade to something else after the year

should i have them look at the timing chain tensioner?

 

That, if I am not mistaken, is a Cooper S problem that seems to have been fixed.

 

"taking Delivery of a 2011 mini...what do i look out for"

Dead bodies in the boot...

 

Most of the engine related problems on this forum are from the 07-10 MCS. The 2011 has an updated engine, and I would expect the non-turbo version to be very reliable. You may want to convince her not to wait for the car to tell when the next oil change is. 15k miles is too much for any car and any oil.

Just remember, she has a 4 year and 50k mile warranty. I would expect that any issues that this car has (like the window you mentioned) will be adjusted/fixed at no cost to you because of the warranty. MINIs seem to be very well engineered vehicles, but the build quality may allow issues here and there. Once the problems are corrected, they should not come back (I am sure that there are exceptions).

Get the stuff that isn't right fixed under warranty, change the oil every 6 months or 5000 miles, and you will really enjoy the car. Have fun, that is what these cars are best for.

Mike

 

thanks so much you guys. I'll be on this forum regularly getting ideas for her. Since i am in grad school and have no income yet i will be living vicariously through her mini

as you can tell she is loving it so far

 

congrats!

there are very few mini with auto for 2011 due to the disasters in japans.

 

her mini was bought in October and i believe the quake anniversary was a couple days ago

interesting though i remember it said tranny was from Japan. How are the autos on the new engines. It seems to downshift a bit funny sometimes i noticed while driving it yesterday

 

I'd look out for these...



...locate as many as you can, and enjoy watching how much more fun she has.