Mini Cooper
 

Looking to get a Mini Cooper for the other half. Got up to 8k to spend, is there any models I should look for and what problems should I look for also.


Cheers

hi there, mrs has had 3 of these and no probs for us !! currently she runs a mini cooper "d" 1.6 hdi !!!! £20 a year road tax and had nearly 70 mpg going down to cornwall !!!! ta maz

Liking the 70mpg

have a 19 yr old mini Cooper I would be more than happy to sell to you for 8k :D

Is it diesel??

We've got the cooper d as well. Brilliant little car and the engine isnt at all as sluggish as other diesels i've driven (ford)

Handling is superb as well, although its not the most comfortable ride ever, especially for back seat passengers.

Boot space is ridicilous, but then its a mini after all.

Have a drive in one, you'll love them :) apparently the power steering pump can be noisy and temperemental on them, but i havent noticed that myself.


Edit: oh, and its possible to remap the turbo diesel too :)

Bought a Mini Cooper for my wife last October.

Best colour is Red with white roof, Mirror caps, Bonnet stripes with John Cooper decals. Chrome pack.
Full Chilli Pack and 17" Cooper S Alloys. Uprated sound system (Option)

Lovely car, 04 reg, full history 40k and TLC pack for 6.5K

I love it. Great to drive and much prefer it over my BMW :luxhello:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...s/P1080020.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...s/IMG_1116.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...s/IMG_1118.jpg

The wife had a 1.6 petrol cooper MY07 facelift with a chili pack.
No problems at all, returned 42mpg, nice solid car all in all.
Nik.

Whats a full chili pack?

I've just bought a facelift 07 plate with full aero kit, looks quite snazy and great mpg - not very quick but go-cart handling :)

What engine did you go for and what mpg do you get?

MINI COOPER CHILI

Floor mats

Passenger seat height adjustment

Map pockets

Fog lamps

Interior lamp package

Chrome bumper inserts

16" 5-Star Light Alloy Wheels

Roof Spoiler

Sports Suspension PLUS

Brilliant silver interior trim

Sports seats

Cloth/leather upholstery

Leather steering wheel & gearknob

Why i asked is you said a 'full' chili pack, i thought a chili pack was a chili pack, no half measures, well not when we bought ours anyway.

Can the Mini diesel be chipped at all? See its only got 88hp so not the quickest I guess.

Mine's the 1.6 petrol, not exactly quick but upto 42mpg on an 8 mile commute :)

pic when i bought it

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...rs/noplate.jpg

since fitted Cooer S side scuttles (indicator surrounds), detangoed headlights, fitted JCW rear spoiler, bought cooper S fuel cap (not yet fitted) and deciding which wheels to buy (probably 17" JCW reps)

Looks good. Would be tempted to get a cooper s myself. Got to be better mpg then the scoob.

My brothers '06 Cooper S had a new gearbox fitted @ 30k

A girl at work has an '03 Cooper 1.6i, she's had it 5 years and had lot's of niggly issues including exhaust rotting off, and rad gave up the ghost and some other failure which required at tow truck - it also hammers bushes and wishbones, but South-Yorkshire road's aren't the best. only 70k too.

I would get a warranty direct warranty, it will be only £20 odd quid a month and will give you piece of mind.

Other than that I can only echo what has been said about the driving experience.

Well i was looking for a S but after reading about all the problems (death rattle - timing chain the main one) i decided to play safe and get the slow version and improve the looks :)

The old versions upto 2006 did seem to have a lot more probs (gearbox, aircon,airbag lights, water leaks, etc) but these seem to have been sorted out on the lateer models.
I did have a 2003 Cooper a few years ago (for approx 4 weeks) and that had lots of small problems with trim, etc

Tis car seems to be ok at the moment though except for creaking hard plastics :(

I replace the rear anti roll bar bushes (£7.02 the pair) when i got mine as it was knocking a bit, this i'm told is down to the runflats fitted which have no give so the bushes take the brunt of the crap roads - runflats to be replaced with normal tyres soon :)

I'm looking at 2002/2003 coopers and cooper s for about 4-4.5k. Anything to look out for that can be nasty on these? Cooper s are about 80k miles or can get cooper with about 50k miles for the age and price.

Being BMW do they cost a bomb to run/service?

servicing isn't too bad, pads and discs are cheap (and plenty of makes to choose from)
From my Cooper (2007my facelift) i'm getting 40.2mpg around town, economical and nippy but no hot hatch :(
The early Cooper S models with the supercharger are supposed to be a better driving experience than the facelift turbo models but they did have more problems which were looked at on the facelift.
The S models are supposed to be thirsty even with a light foot, ditch the runflats if it still has them as they're expensive, noisey and give a harsh ride

Gearboxes are poor.
Timing chains jump off due to tensioner issues..(On the Cooper,its a french Peugeot engine :()
Exhausts rot prematurly.
Discs and pads every 30-40k.
Wiper motors fail often
Gear linkage fails.

Don't get the new 4x4 one, it looks absolutely silly.

A Peugeot engine puts me right off, i've never had a French car and never intend to.

We've had 2 Cooper S (one soft-top, one hard top). Cracking little cars - ours have both been the supercharged rather than turbo charged S's and fuel economy is not great... 24 around town and 28ish in mixed driving (albeit pretty hard driving - difficult not to). If you take it easy you can get 32+ though especially on the motorway.

Drove a few standard Coopers and whilst the performance is obviously not as good, they still nippy and handle as well through the twisties.

Definitely ditch the run flats though - especially if they are the Pirelli Eufori@ jobbies.

Just bought one for the missus, about 2 weeks ago. Looked at a couple and ended up buying a red cooper s convertible. Which she loves. Fuel consumption is much better than the scooby and it's the cheap stuff :)

159bhp supercharged is great in that little car. It's a great run around.

40k miles
2005 model
Supercharged
Convertible
8k

163bhp for hardtop and 170bhp for the soft-top IIRC.