Considering one of these to replace my tintop
Anyone had one?what are they like for everyday use? Anything to watch out for?
Cheers
Ray
My best friend has one. It's excellent fun to be in and really nice to drive. Although he had a problem with the wiring loom and cost him just over a grand to be fixed!!! I have no idea if this is a common problem or not but worth looking into.
Depends on how old, the build quality generally isn' a good as you would expect. The run flat tyre option is awfull, the gearboxes are a little soft and the power steering is very prone to failure. This is only from my own experience of one. That said, it's great to drive, handles like a go cart and is pretty quick for a little car. Early ones had super chargers and latter ones turbos. I love the sound from the super charger.
Yes I currently own a 2003 one.
If you are doing alot of miles then its a no no.
Mine does 28ish to the gallon around town taking it easy. £50 to fill = 260 miles ish.
I have 205/45R17 run flats which makes the ride very hard, and they are £105 each to replace. The door cards and other bits of the interior
ocasionally rattle because of this.
I have had no major problems. Window motor stopped working but covered under warrenty.
The service cost for OEM bits from GSF was reasonable.
They go like foobar of a shovel for a little car, great in the bends (not quite 7 style) and good fun.
They are only a 4 seater, boot is small (4 shopping bags).
Power steering is a common problem. Make sure it came with the MINI TLC pack. That way its been serviced by MINI.
HTH
Supercharged ones do make a great noise.
Had one as the 'office' runabout.
Great fun at first.. Novelty wore fairly quickly though. Brakes are mediocre as is gear shifting, actually shifting is less than mediocre. The
engine has bugger all torque, goes much better if you stomp on it's tail.. hard.. nice 'hit' when boost .. finally' kicks'
in.
Overall it's been OK but in retrospect it wasn't a brilliant choice.. unless of course one is a middle aged divorced woman ?
[Edited on 29/3/11 by Bare]
It depends on the age of car that you want to buy.
The older shape (R53) is a 1.6 supercharged engine, has a fair amount of torque and the charger sounds awsome. Its quite the addictive noise.
The newer shape (R56 - from around 2006 onwards) is a 1.6 Turbo engine. It has more power and more torque, feels much nicer to drive and is a much
better ride. The turbo engines are prone to burning a little oil and some rattle from the timing chain which normally requires a new tensioner to
fix.
Both cars handle very well and are great fun, have very predictable lift off over steer (if that sort of thing excites you) and go very well for a
small car. If driven sensibly the R56 will return 35mpg.
i had a 53 plate Works Cooper S before downsizing to the Indy. Had it for 5 years and loved every minute of it - 600 track day miles and it never
missed a beat. Put lots of upgrades on, had it up to around 240 bhp, but kept the original parts and put it back to standard before selling her. God I
miss that car...
However, not a cheap car to run by any means! Wouldnt buy the latest gen ones they look horrible IMHO and don't like the turbo'd version.
Cough....
mini
Ray I have px'd it so it is going this week but you are welcome to come and have a look. I have had 2 now, photos in my archive, and I love them
BUT they fecking love petrol. I get 25mpg if i'm gunning it and the best I've had is 35mpg when I did a constant 65mph from Hull to
Liverpool!
9.2 after a day at Goodwood got the OBD down to 7.2 on the runway at RAF Marham charity trackday 
Just bought one for my wife,Ahem. Pick it up Thursday.
Steve
Power steering and gearbox bearing issues as said above
also the very early ones had issues with water leaks behind the dash area causing water to run into the footwell
(know this cos the press tooling needed modifying)
There ain't much room in the back
Mate had Cooper S and loved it, until a woman pulled out in front of him and the front end of his Mini caved in like a good'un
He was pretty shocked at the damage considering the speed of the accident 
ISTR the later ones have the French built 6sp Getrag box rather than the Midland box (Peugeot box built on a licence a hangover from Rover ) which
was never going to be up to the job.
More generally any friends who have had a MINI have never kept them long and didn't buy another............
I was sick to death of being called to BMW to listen to non existent steering noises..
Glad I'm driving trucks now and can give anyone who annoys me the middle finger
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
ISTR the later ones have the French built 6sp Getrag box rather than the Midland box (Peugeot box built on a licence a hangover from Rover ) which was never going to be up to the job.
More generally any friends who have had a MINI have never kept them long and didn't buy another............
Yep they all have the Getrag boxes. And I would say its anything but 'soft', mine was tight and shifted beautifully. The clutch is very
heavy in comparison to the standard cooper.
I had a 2002 one for around 12 months, the running costs were just a little too much to bear for me. I got low 30's mpg on my normal run to
work.
Mine had a few mods, including JCW front brake upgrade, sports ++ suspension, 18" rims and a few other bits.
They spoilt them by making them turbo. The supercharged one is the one to have, they make the best noise both one acceleration with the supercharger
whine and on overrun with pops and bangs from the standard exhaust system.
The build quality isnt great, most of the trim rattled on mine due to the very hard suspension and run flats. Other than that, couldnt really fault
it.
Awesome fun to drive, probably the best handling tintop I have ever driven.