Hello forum,

My daughter will be a freshman in college this fall semester and I'm looking to purchase her a Mini Cooper. She loves them! Since its her first car, I'm buying used and dont want to spend a ton of money. Also, I want to get something as reliable as possible. What year and model would you guys recommend? Also, what should I avoid. Any input will be highly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Personally I don't have too much Mini experience, but BMW owns Mini now so I'd assume it's the same for Mini as for BMW (which I've got plenty of experience with- 250k+ miles combined), buy the newest, lowest mileage one you can afford and only buy one that has a maintenance record that follows or exceeds Mini expectations, and avoid first model year cars (like the first year of a certain generation or the first year for the model itself) especially if the engine/transmission has not been used in previous vehicles.

If it's her first car, I'd definitely recommend a manual transmission regardless of the make/model, it will stop her from developing bad/illegal habits such as texting and driving, talking on the phone while driving, eating while driving, etc. plus studies show that people who learn to drive with a manual transmission pay more attention to the road and are involved in less accidents than people that learned on an automatic and never owned a manual transmission vehicle long term. A manual trans will keep her safer, be more efficient (usually better on gas), and teach her good habits.

I found the Mini Cooper to be gutless compared to the Cooper S or JCW model, and would steer towards the Cooper S if buying it for myself. I'd look for an 09' or newer (08' was a new generation if I remember correctly) Cooper S convertible (I hate having a solid roof, but the coupe would be safer and more efficient and probably a better fit for your needs) with a 6 speed manual and under 55k miles if I were looking for a used one for myself.