hi all, my interest in the mini has recently peaked. i plan on either leasing or buying soon and im looking for some input.

new vs used - differences between older models vs newer ones, what to avoid? what to look for?

base vsS - main differences,

how do they drive in the winter? highway? city driving?

maintence costs? known problems, things to keep an eye on to ensure the car continues to run properly.

and any other info that might be useful for someone about to purchase a mini.


cheers,

 

My wife and I just purchased our mini 2 weeks ago. Still waiting for it to come in. So keep in mind that I have no ownership experience, just a couple of test drives and lots of questions at the dealer.

The S model has lots more horsepower than the standard. The S comes with 16" tires and can be upgraded to 17". The standard comes with 15" tires, can upgrade to 16" or 17". This supposedly makes a big difference for handling. I test drove an S with 16s and an S with 17s. I couldn't tell a difference. Both handled wonderfully.

As of 07, the engine type is new. I believe it's now supercharged instead of turbo. The convertible, however, still has the same engine as the older models. Perhaps someone that knows better than I do can verify or deny these details.

We didn't like the convertible. We only sat in it for a couple minutes, but that was enough to see the blindspots. We currently have a chrysler sebring convertible, the blindspots are huge. It was the same with the mini. It would be awesome with the top down, but in the winter time I wouldn't be able to see anything behind or beside me.

We initially planned on going used. After we went to the dealership and checked it out though, we decided to go with a new car. There were just way too many options that we wanted, and many that we didn't want. It would have been very difficult for us to find one for sale that had the setup we were looking for. Beyond that, it was onlya few thousand dollars cheaper to get an 05 or 06 with 20k miles on it.

As far as prices on the new ones. Nothing could be haggled at our dealership. Everything that made up the final price was listed. That was the price, they weren't budging. I have read that some dealers can mark up the price as high as 2500 over MSRP. Check this out if you go new. Use the mini website and use the kelly blue book website to build your car. The prices should be pretty close to what the dealer tells you. If it's not, they might be sneaking something in.

 

hey if your in So Cal my Girls Dad is selling his for a little of 20 k, its in top condition. https://minicooperforums.com/m_1977/tm.htm

 

Here are some good datapoints on Mini prices - these are actual prices from people, not KBB, Edmunds or NADA estimates:

http://www.pricehub.com/price/MINI/Cooper

Hope this helps!