Just Joined - ;-)
#1
11-17-2008, 11:25 AM
Just Joined - ;-)
Hello all, I just signed up in hopes of gaining some knowledge (mechanical, mostly) of this used (though, new to me) 2005 Mini Cooper S I picked up for my fiance. Having been a fan of Japanese cars, I was a little reluctant to pick this car up - but let me say, I absolutely love it. It's one of the most entertaining vehicles I have ever driven; handles excellent, pickup is great, small yet quite spacious, gas mileage I can CERTAINLY not complain about....
But, it has it's drawbacks (unfortunately). First off, parts - hooooly expensive. Availability and accessibility? Well, lets just say if it wasn't for the web, I'd be driving over an hour away just to get to a location that carries the parts I need. And what's with this dealership policy of not handing out part numbers? Since when is something like this not considered public domain?
Basically, my fiance just had the power steering go out on her while she was driving (not a great feeling). From my reading, this causes a great deal of contention among mini owners and the manufacturer as clearly there should be some kind of warning or indication (some argue a recall) before this should happen (but being electrical, I suppose there's only so much warning that can happen).
At any rate, this little pump is quite expensive (I've replaced one power steering pump on one the 8 japanese cars I have owned, tweaked, modified, etc, etc - and I think it cost me 80 bucks). I can't get the BMW dealership to give me the actual P/N (is this typical?) so I may actually try and find other sources. Not to mention I dread dealing with "Mr Personality" at the parts department over there - lol. Ah well, I'll get it figured out.
Nonetheless, the car has upwards of 90k miles on it, so I expect things like this to happen. I still stand by the fact that I love this car and will likely own another (prob a Clubman for the fiance/wifey and I'll keep the S for some special tweaking of my own). So I'll probably be in and out of the forums picking peoples' brains as I continue to learn the inner workings of this cool little car.
-Chris
05 Mini Cooper S
94 MR2 Turbo
93 Celica Alltrac Turbo
05 G35 6MT
But, it has it's drawbacks (unfortunately). First off, parts - hooooly expensive. Availability and accessibility? Well, lets just say if it wasn't for the web, I'd be driving over an hour away just to get to a location that carries the parts I need. And what's with this dealership policy of not handing out part numbers? Since when is something like this not considered public domain?
Basically, my fiance just had the power steering go out on her while she was driving (not a great feeling). From my reading, this causes a great deal of contention among mini owners and the manufacturer as clearly there should be some kind of warning or indication (some argue a recall) before this should happen (but being electrical, I suppose there's only so much warning that can happen).
At any rate, this little pump is quite expensive (I've replaced one power steering pump on one the 8 japanese cars I have owned, tweaked, modified, etc, etc - and I think it cost me 80 bucks). I can't get the BMW dealership to give me the actual P/N (is this typical?) so I may actually try and find other sources. Not to mention I dread dealing with "Mr Personality" at the parts department over there - lol. Ah well, I'll get it figured out.
Nonetheless, the car has upwards of 90k miles on it, so I expect things like this to happen. I still stand by the fact that I love this car and will likely own another (prob a Clubman for the fiance/wifey and I'll keep the S for some special tweaking of my own). So I'll probably be in and out of the forums picking peoples' brains as I continue to learn the inner workings of this cool little car.
-Chris
05 Mini Cooper S
94 MR2 Turbo
93 Celica Alltrac Turbo
05 G35 6MT
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