Hello All,
First time poster. I ordered up my 2003 MCS (pure silver, black top, space cloth interior) brand new from a dealer in the Chicagoland area. My car has 90k miles on it now, and still looks almost as good as it did the day I drove it off the lot. I love it... but recently - in the past two plus years, I've sunk almost $9k into it for repairs - Clutch, oil cooler lines, water pump, knock sensor)....

Needless to say, when I got the dealer, they take my wallet. The last three bills for the above work (plus some minor other items) - $5,400, $1500, and $1900.

I like the car and the dealers I have used (two in IL, and one in IA) are friendly, but it seems I'm approaching some other repairs (brake lines, muffler, oil pan gasket, struts & strut mounts) that are (according to the dealer) going to set me back nearly $5k. Yes, it's cheaper than a new car payment... but crap... the car is now not worth much more than the next batch of repairs.

Can someone offer me up a good alternative in the Chicagoland area (I'm in the far west suburbs) for service? My MINI has no rust, and the interior is in awesome shape... I agree with the maintenance (it's always been serviced at a dealer), but at 90k, the services required are killing me - my fun-o-meter is fast approaching zero. Repair costs are now far beyond what I would have imagined when I purchased it. Thanks for your help.