I drove a 2002 Mini Cooper today (in Missouri) that had a tach that read 175/500 Launch Edition & had the temp in Celcius which the dealer had no idea about so I researched when I got home and apparently it is a Canadian launch edition. One major issue however is that it had a speedometer with MPH but Canadian ones only had KM/H. If this speedo was changed out would the miles on the odometer be accurate? Does this read from an engine computer? It showed 58000 miles. Also I looked under the hood and there were some spots of red filmy oil like automatic transmission fluid on the plastic surfaces under the hood, but this was a stick car. Do they use ATF in the sticks and do they have a tranny cooler on sticks? That would have been only place it could have come from when looking under the hood. One last thing, the antifreeze tank had blue fluid in it like washer fluid (so did the washer reservoir) and when I looked inside it it was a little filmy on top but didn't look like it was mixed up with antfreeze, it was not cloudy. If someone acidentally put washer fluid in the tank I would think it would look pretty messy. I think I drove it enough for the tstat to open but it is cold here. What color is the stock antifreeze? Car was Chili Red/White roof/seat heaters/black leather so it may be a legit Launch Edition from what I read online. Thanks for any and all help!

 

Mini can be changed from KMH/MPH with the dealers computer and the odometer is stored in the cars computer and changes over.

Sticks are sealed and use a heavy gear lube and I don't believe it's red.
Red might have been power steering leak. if they changed fluids

Antifreeze coolor depends on brand... I'm not used to blue I'd smell it and see if it smells like washer fluid. I've seen orange and green in stock vehicles

 

Thanks for the reply. I did look at the power steering fluid & it looked old, salesman thought the red stuff might be something they put on to shine up the plastic & didn't rub in. Engine didn't look steam cleaned & a leak didn't seem apparent. The blue in the radiator tank still bothers me, it was pretty transparent except for a skim of stuff on top like it wasn't mixed with something else. I think someone mistakenly put washer fluid in there. Car bodywork was modded (all blacked out plastic) if it was originally one of the Canadian launch ones but I still think it is one. I'll ask the dealer about the CarFax history.