Used Mini Cooper S - Should I get it?
 

Hi everyone!

So I am finally venturing into purchasing my first car, and I've always wanted something peppy and fun to drive, that's on the smaller side. I'm used to driving my sister's VW Rabbit (2007), and I absolutely love it.

I've been browsing AutoTrader to find a decent deal, and I came across the Mini Cooper S (2007, manual transmission) for only $8000!!! It's low on mileage too!

Sooooo my question is... is it worth it? I'm hearing the Minis are unreliable and quite expensive to maintain so I'm worried that it'll end up costing me an arm and a leg on the long run.

I'd love to hear some personal experiences!

If you're looking at a gen 2 MINI I'd highly recommend looking for a 2011-2013 with the N18 engine. The 2007-2010 have the N14, which is probably one of the most unreliable made. They have timing chain issues, HPFP issues, carbon cleaning that will need to be done every 50k miles, valve cover leak, oil turbo line leak, oil leaks, etc. The N18 is not perfect, but they remedied a lot of these issues with it. Let me know if you have any questions.