52/53/54 plate Mini one or Cooper buying advice

[benreza]

Piston Head peeps, hope you can offer some good buying advice.
Always liked the new Mini, and as the miles clock up on my dirty old 307 (and the mayor of London seeks to make diesels a criminal offense) I am drawn by some bargain Minis on AutoTrader.
Seems I can pick up a good looking Mini One, or Cooper 2002-2004 with <80k on the clock for a tidy £1400-ish, which is very tempting.

I would be interested in the following:
What sort of realworld MPG do you get from the 1.6 petrol engine?
What is the service schedule like (oil change, timing belt/chain)?
What are the common faults to look out for?

Any other tips you want to offer would be really appreciated as well! Cheers

[mon the fish]

I got early 40s out of mine when I had it. Service it every 10k or yearly IMO. Cam chain so no worries there - however chain tensioner can go but a cheap and easy fix.

Biggest thing with these is the gearbox and power steering pump. Facelift models (roughly Sep 2004 and on - so 54 plate) are better and more reliable, so go for one of those if you can.

On the pre-facelift ones, the gearbox will break. It's when, not if