I need and everyday driver for travelling to and from work (15 mile round trip daily) don;t want to drive a modern small car,so have been considering
a mini ( not the BMW one) anyone used one,got one, or have any opinion?
will it be suitable?
what are they like on fuel?
are they fun to drive?
appreciate there's the rust factor to look out for
cheers
Ray
I've had loads of Minis as everyday transport , in fact many years ago I did 32,000 miles in six months in one. Normally reliable and not too bad on fuel but as standard are a little slow but that is easily sorted. Biggest problem was wet weather driving so make sure you have decent leads , cap etc and also a cover fir the distributor/coil etc. Wasn't too impressed with the later Coopers etc when I had my last Mini which was a pick up with MG Metro lump with big valve head etc . Don' go too wide on the wheels as the ride and handling suffers.
yeah I always marvelled at the ludicrous location of the distributor, of all the places to put it…
I found most of the dizzy problems can be removed by using an electronic one, like the Aldon ignitor. Personally, I'd try to avoid the later Rover minis as they are the rather heavy are as such feel quite a bit slower than the earlier ones. If going for an earlier one, Cooper S brakes are a very worth while upgrade and easy enough to fit. Otherwise, just make sure you get a 1275 and you'll be fine power wise, as they are a piece of wee to upgrade should you feel the need. Oh, try and stick to 10" wheels too, they handle much better and yokohama do a very nice tyre designed for the mini that is only available in 10" sizes.
Metro 4 pot calipers fit without too much bother if you want to uprate the brakes provided the car already has discs . My pick up had a set of 12"Cooper Minilites which were plenty wide enough . 10" wheels and tyres are getting to be like rocking horse poo
thousands of people used them as everyday cars for many many years 
Are 10" wheels really that hard to find? Admittedly it's been a while since I needed any as I was lucky enough to get 12 matching wheels a few years ago! A quick search on Ebay finds these
It's a myth that Mini's are cheap to run because you have so much fun you always take the long route home round the twisty's.....best
car ever made
Of course the other problem with minis is that you'll want to upgrade it constantly! Suddenly it's not the practical or cheap motoring it
was meant to be. But it'd be worth it
dizzy was never supposed to be where it is.
They had the engine going the other way round but found problems with carb icing so had to swap it round. This had two issues, one was the dizzy
getting wet and the second was a 2 to 4 (???) percent loss in performance as the whole transmission had to go via a gear to correct the direction of
rotation.
If this is true (read it lots of times) it does raise the question of how the hell where you supposed to do the points on the original design.
Im in the same siruation. Looking for a cheap car to get to college and am thinking seriously about a mini. The only problem as already said is the
constant need to upgrade it
After my thread the other day i realised that there is a way to fit almost any engine into one so the slowness can be pretty easily sorted
I had thought about a mini too as a daily driver...
But now im swaying towards an MG midget with IRS and some form of "interesting" engine...
At a guess the insurance would be less than a regular modern sporthatch, and the road tax is free? isnt it?
[Edited on 26/5/08 by tegwin]
I had a 94 mini 1275. excellent car great fun. Used to drink the fuel though. First car so throttle pedal was welded to the floor. Dont to what
i did and take the dizzy cover off and take it out in the rain. Misfired like hell. Put the cover back on perfect.
If you get one a 5spd conversion is worth it i think for any distance. or get on e and do a k series or vtec conversion
Several people on the megajolt forum have put that ignition system onto minis... sounds like a good idea!
The only downer on minis is the crash protection - i.e. none. I have a neighbour who used to be the fire protection officer on a local american
airbase (Bentwaters) and he told me a few tales about having to get people (sorry, bodies) out of crashed minis. Rather put me off a bit (a lot).
Go for it you will love it
Just did a quick google search and found this Hull Mini Owners Club
Where is Hull anyway?
[Edited on 26/5/08 by TGR-ECOSSE]
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
The only downer on minis is the crash protection - i.e. none. I have a neighbour who used to be the fire protection officer on a local american airbase (Bentwaters) and he told me a few tales about having to get people (sorry, bodies) out of crashed minis. Rather put me off a bit (a lot).
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
Several people on the megajolt forum have put that ignition system onto minis... sounds like a good idea!
The only downer on minis is the crash protection - i.e. none. I have a neighbour who used to be the fire protection officer on a local american airbase (Bentwaters) and he told me a few tales about having to get people (sorry, bodies) out of crashed minis. Rather put me off a bit (a lot).
Mini's with rotten sills and bulkhead fold up like a paper bag. Been using a mini for everyday vehicle for past year now....
1997 cooper with 1.3mpi engine, leather seats, 4 spots, new 13inch minilites, yokahamas, new carpets. up for sale cause my kit car will be on road in
less than 2 weeks.
I had minis for year when in my 20's. Great fun but they have an inside to underneath ratio of about 4:1
That is for every 4 hours driving you have to spend 1 hours under it making it go