At least now you have us.

Wait, what?

For moral support.

Former 2010 JCW owner here. Was my wifes car, which we loved. Only had one major issue and that was the plastic throw out bearing gave out at 50k, cooking the clutch. Was a complicated enough job I refused to do it myself. We sold it shortly after getting it fixed, turned around and bought an CX-5 and imported a classic cooper from Japan after that.

Was a super fun car.


Our classic for reference:
https://imgur.com/5LyoPQC.jpg

R.I.P.

I might actually pay money to see Ultramaroon in that car.

Hey, I fit in our little homemade race car in college. That's where I figured out how much room I can gain by driving in socks.

Wow, not a lot of love for the Mini around here.

I love the old mini's

The new, not alot of anything feeling wise

From knowing people who had them they were not really reliable

Everyone I know who got one sold it pretty quick

Pretty poor bang for buck really, but it is a niche vehicle, I look at it like those new VW "beetles", which really should be killed by fire

That car was much bigger than a mini!

To each their own, I guess. We had a 2004 Cooper S from new, put about 120,000 miles on it over 12 years, and never had any major reliability issues. And it was a hoot to drive. It's the main reason I went for another Mini when the BRZ lease was up.

I love the Mini, I bought one as my first car. Alas, I didn't do my research and bought a 2007, and apparently the R56 generation prior to 2009-2010 was super unreliable. I felt like I got the worst one. It had 96K km on it when I bought it. Broke down first week, engine had 2L of oil in it. Fixed that leak, then the whole timing chain assembly had to be replaced, then a coil went, then handbrake cable (!), all of the brakes had to be replaced, then clutch and flywheel plus a leaking valve cover ($4000!!), and then at 136K km on the odometer, it finally died on the highway. Compression tests showed 0% in one cyl and 50% in another. Traded whatever was left of it for the 86 a few days later. I assume the innate poor reliability of the Renault (I believe) supplied engine coupled with the previous owner using regular gas and never checking oil led to the outcome. It was hilariously fun but not much above 4500 rpm, which is why I love the 86 cause that's where the fun begins. It was a horrible experience but I consider it a crash course in auto ownership. People go through a lot of cars to learn all the lessons I learned, the little Mini taught me all of them in one go.

But I know the later cars are pretty reliable. One guy I knew sold his with 250K km on it and it still ran strong and never had any problems.

Wow, that sucks! Sorry to hear that, man. Yeah, the early R56 cars did have some reliability issues. The one I bought had all the major maintenance work done in the last two years (timing chain, fuel pump, brakes, etc.), and I had a pre-purchase inspection done at a local Mini specialist, which came back clean. So fingers crossed that it will hold up... :iono:

Looks like my BRZ is on the market now - at least, based on mileage and the mark on the rear bumper, I think this was mine...

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...ckType=listing