The car is a 2012 S Roadster with 7k on the clock.

I have always been a visual fan of the mini's but have never been in a position to look into them. I am a long time Nissan fan but lack of an affordable sporty convertible had place my interest on the Mini.

Test driving the car was great, the price is right and it carries over the warranty and maintenance from the previous owner so I feel that the car will be taken care of should I have issues.

There in lies the problem. I am usually a turn the key and forget about it driver. Oil changes, scheduled maintenance, and those are all fine but reading what I have seen online scares me a little about reliability issues I have never dealt with before. Maybe I am just lucky.

That being said. It appears that owning a Mini is more for the auto enthusiast who does not mind the occasional break down. I have been reading about Temp Sensor issues that have left cars stranded and not starting only to be towed to the garage for a repair on numerous occasions.

While I can agree that you usually only find problems/complaints on the internet, but I also know no one who owns a model year close to mine for comparison. The closest is an 04 which the owner does love.

I am sure being a Mini forum that everyone here loves there cars. However, do you also put up with or expect/experience a degree of inconvenience for the love of your Mini's??

Thanks,

 

The other 99.8% Mini Owners don't post on NAM.

 

I wasn't a car enthusiast until I bought a MINI. You'd be surprised what a MINI can bring out of you

Edit: In 9 years of driving 4 MINIs, I've been stuck a total of 3 times. Two to a dead battery (2003 Cooper), and once because of a temperature sensor (2012 Countryman). It wasn't the end of the world.

 

Hey Homchz,

We were kind of in the same position in that I was a bit scared about MINI reliability I kept hearing here and there from people who felt they wanted to get out of the problems and complexity owning a MINI.
We kept looking around for a few models. Nothing really was fitting the picture. After many month of torture trying to decide what to get I told myself: You know what life is way too short to worry all the time about reliability when modern cars are all a lot more reliable than what they use to be! Remember stories of your childhood or from your parents... Go for it! Getting the Roadster has been more of a life change experience than my wife and I could have imagine. I'm a believer that if you take care of your car it rewards you in return

 

Completely agree with last post. On our 2nd mini, first roadster and never had an issue. Go for it.

 

+1

I had the same concerns, and here was my choice:

• buy a reliable honda or toyota and be bored driving it, plus see myself coming and going all of the time
• buy a car that I'll have a blast in, is easy to customize, and maybe have more maint issues.

I chose the latter.

 

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I realized I was being a little silly when I got worries about 7 known maintenance bulletins on the Mini. Then looked up my car currently and found 109...

 

It's all relative isn't it?

 

I would go for it!! really the enjoyment of owning a MINI is unreal.. This is my third MINI.. I had a 2002 MCS.. I had 100k on it... never had one thing changed on it.. That year was known for all sorts of issues..while I would call them minor..none of them ever surfaced...cheers!!

 

I'm a genuine fool. I never researched MINI reliability before my purchase, other than reading a few random NAM posts. I ordered a 2014 Roadster S yesterday without further research.

The way I see it, I managed to survive one MGB and two MG Midgets during the 1970's. Hopefully, I can survive whatever the MINI Roadster throws my way.

Dave

 

You will find that you made a great decision.

 

Sometimes it's best to follow your heart.

FWIW, my '13 R59 is the third (and favorite) MINI I've owned since '05. I think if you're using your MGs for your reliability comparison, you're going to be a very happy camper.

 

I never even took mine for a test ride...

I didn't even know what it had for options till after I bought it.

Good thing the dealer got all of the MA's together and built a car they would all die for.........

As I've said many times before, once a roadster person always a roadster person...........

This was the second out of three MINI's so far.........

Andy

 

Appreciate the comments, guys. I'm excited to get "John Bull" on the road. Time to exercise patience while I await production and shipping.

With my production number issued, I was able to log on to the MINI Owner's Lounge Site. Does anyone frequent the site much? They have message boards, blog, etc., but I wasn't sure if anyone visits the site much. NAM seems to be pretty active.

 

I tracked production of my car at the lounge. I now consult it for information on my loan, and refer people there for on-line manuals. There wasn't much discussion there back in 2010 and I haven't looked since.