'NEW' MINI

[CHRIS1980]

Does anyone have experiance of new minis? I'm a card carrying classic mini fan myself but the Mrs likes them and must admit they are looking good to me too. She will only drive cars with 2 pedals so an auto looks like it on the cards. What should I look out for?

[purplebargeken]

There should be a thread about them somewhere, not sure if auto is mentioned in any depth though. 

[UltraWomble]

I believe they can and do, suffer with rust in unusual places.

[Skizzer]

What should I look out for?

 

People telling you that BMW Minis aren't Autoshite.

 

Just sayin

[Ghosty]

Did someone say automatic Bini?

 

Don't buy one on an 06 plate or earlier - the mk1/R50/R53, call it what you like. The early ones are a badly regarded CVT  (except the Cooper S which is extremely rare in auto), they changed to a more conventional box in 2007.

I appreciate this rules out the entire bottom end of the Bini price spectrum, but it's the truth.

[Vince70]

A friend of mine has just bought a 2004 cooper and it feels a very well built car the only real weak points are the old rover midland gearboxs and powersteering pumps on the earlier 2001/2006 R50/53 models..

 

The earlier Titan engines seem to be trouble free and better than the later Peugeot engined 2006 onwards Mini from what I hear.

 

BMW seemed to improve the Mini on a yearly basis and the best one to get would be a late r50/53 2005/6 run out model such as a park lane edition with the earlier engine and the later getrag gearbox.

 

I can't comment really though on the Automatic CVT box but I think it can be troublesome going by the amount of broken ones for sale on eBay so I would be very wary..

 

Also if you do decide to get a Bini the first thing to do is ditch the runflats as it transforms the ride.

[New POD]

Now if you were interested in a manual generation 1 car I'd say buy a post 2004 MINI one with the 5 speed gettrag box, or any S with the six speed box, and budget for a new pas pump unit which are now quite reasonably priced.

 

I say the ONE and not the cooper, because they have the same basic engine and you can chip the 90 bhp One to 125 BHP (10 above the standard cooper). 

 

I know NOTHING about the auto boxes, but my mate has a ONE diesel (manual)  which is erm reasonable as a city car.

 

Personally, I'm planning to GIVE our 51 reg cooper to our daughter when she graduates and buy the wife a Gen 1 Cooper S because "Supercharger"

 

BINI Forums are generally shite, in that the general advise is "take it to a main dealer" FFS.

[captain_70s]

Mum and Dad both have Minis, first Mum had an '06 CVT Cooper, seemed decent enough although it didn't really do mega miles and suffered slow coolant loss. Now she has a 2012 (I think) Roadster automatic which has a better gearbox. Dad has a 2013 Mini Cooper S, but that's a manual. Never had any issues with either car to be honest...

[dugong]

I bought my ex a MINI One.

 

Now you know why I'm skint. Still paying it off now. The car payments, not her (she can shit herself off a short pier in lengthy fashion).

[Lacquer Peel]

Bleak.

[brickwall]

Aye.