I have only owned BMWs. Yesterday fell in love with an 09 Mini Cooper S 6 speed. Extremely interested in buying. Has great carfax and drive really nice and I like how sporty it is. I decided to do reseatch. The only common thing according to Edmunds reviewers is the carbon build up. Apparently this can be prevented by driving it like a sports car every once in awhile? I would put 91 fuel in it and injector and oil cleaner maybe once every 2 weeks? Would this do well to prevent carbon build up? Anything else I can expect that's common? It does have 91k which is high for year, but they want 10,500 for it and I think that's good. I wouldn't be putting a whole lot of miles on it. Average of 5 a day. Advice?

 

Hey there, I'm on the same boat as you, buying a MINI soon but only ever owned BMWs. Doesn't look like these forums are as alive as the BMW forums, but I can tell you this: 10g for that car seems a bit steep. I'm looking at 25k mile 2012 minis for 14g. And found many in between for lower than 12g in my area.
As for carbon, I have the same questions as you but honestly, how much could really build up? At most, like extremely at most, put some marvel mystery oil in your oil 100 miles before every oil change. Or go the ghetto route and put ATF fluid in your oil.(the ATF fluid has detergents that clean carbon right up but could eat away at gaskets of it's in older car or you put too much, or you leave it in for too long)

 

We are talking about combustion chamber carbon build up...not in the oil/ lubrication system....Walnut (disassembly required) blasting or Seafoam (applying thru the intake while running) is the common cleaning methods...