Hi guys, great to have such and awesome community!

I have been saving for a good 05-06 model for a while now, and finaly found one. Upon the first drive, the car seemed in a perfect shape, with only 42k miles on it. As we drove back, the check engine light came on. After handing the car over to the dealer, he agreed to investigate and fix it. Well a week, of being in contact with the dealer, it turns out the intake manifold had a crack, and was fixed at a local Mercedes shop.
My question is, would that be a consequence of a more serious problem, or this stuff happens by itself? I have not been able to find anything similar on these forums. Thanks in advance!

 

Accident maybe? Don't trust CarFax... I almost bought a MCS JCW from a Nissan dealership with a clean CarFax. I got a weird feeling after noticing a few little gaps in the panels. Dealer said its fine. I took it to a MINI dealership, and they said the car had been in a serious accident w/ frame damage.

My advice. Take it to MINI. They know their stuff. Im sure the Nissan dealership would have said anything to sell the car. When I asked about the gaps, they said, "yeah, we'll look into it". Turns out they're the ones who did the damn repairs... I hate used car dealerships. Save yourself the hassle and just buy from MINI.

 

is a very, very rare fault indeed. It's a cast part and it's possible that the problem went back to when it was made.

An accident that would take damage all the way back there would be quite the hit indeed! I'd guess it would have totalled the car.

Matt

 

Thanks for a quick reply, I will definitely take it to a local mini dealer to check out. Its a shame if its a lemon, such a good find : (.

 

Is it really a good find if it's a lemon?