Shed of the Week: Mini Cooper
A Shed debut for the 21st century Mini, though it is one with 185,000 miles...
Sadly, it's not a Mini but a MINI, so it's a brand rather than an icon. It's not a first-year 2001 car, which is a pity as there's some value starting to accrue on those. But if you just want a car to trundle around in rather than keep under wraps, avoiding the '01 cars is no bad thing as Shed remembers them having some odd foibles, like headlights that switched themselves on and off depending on the angle of the steering. Plus, you do get a little faux-history in the early red and white colour scheme, complete with pepperpot wheels.
The classic Mini spec!
Up until 2006 or so the engines for these cars were made in Brazil, the result of a joint venture between Chrysler and BMW. In normally aspirated 115hp form the 1.6 motor was dependable rather than inspiring, but at least it wasn't the disastrously wobbly K-Series. You didn't get the Getrag 5-speed of the slightly later S, either, but a Rover-designed six-speed 'Midlands' 'box. Essentially, Brazilian engines apart, Mini owners were buying into a British car that had been built to German standards.
All Minis, Coopers included, came with a nice selling point of fundamentally good handling. In light of our Shed's mileage, you might wonder about that, but the service history is claimed to be full so with any luck the original suspension will have had at least some of its components replaced by now.
When it's in good order, the chassis - a sweet (and at the time expensive) setup of MacPherson struts and anti-roll bar at the front and multi-link Z-axle at the rear - is definitely one of the Mini's strong points. The interior design, a fairly successful pastiche of the original Mini's big central speedo look, was also groundbreaking.
We've no pics of this car's interior, unfortunately, so we don't know which of the various options packs the one and only owner signed up for, but we do know it has half-leather seats. That's good, but Mini front seats do tend to take a beating, mainly because there's so little room in the back. The tip-up mechanisms wear out too.
Vibration over time will give rise to many of the Mini's other problems. Dedicated Shedmen are taught from birth to ignore the often mendacious bleatings of sensors, but in the Mini's case any warnings - either electronic or audible - need to be heeded. Rattly dashes, flaky electrics, airbag warnings, dicky speedos and lying fuel gauges can all be precursors to deeper troubles.
Get a good look, because that's your last pic
Noises from the Rover gearbox and from the power steering are very common. Steering column bearings wear out too, and you can also be tripped up by the central locking system or by shorting-out wiring on the ABS pump. None of these are cheap to mend.
The value of keeping this car within the Mini service network is debatable, given the high labour charges that were (and still are) a convenient by-product of something launched as a 'premium' vehicle. You may be lucky with this car and benefit from the solitary owner's maintenance work, in which case you'll be able to mooch around town with all the Tarquins and Henriettas having spent a fraction of the money they'll have splashed out on their Minis. The fact that the non-functioning window and air-con haven't been sorted is a bit of a chin-stroker, but if things get sticky a quick mop and some back-to-black on the plastic bits should have you out of there without too much financial angst.
This is a one owner full service history car that has been driven mainly on motorways hence little wear (185k Miles) red with white roof and wheels this really clean car drives well. Lots of options like half leather air con elec Windows remote locking and much more. Electric window on drivers side not working (motor works as you can hear but may have come off rail) air con will need re gassing and that's it's. Otherwise it goes well. A very cheap car so no offers or timewasters please. Long mot.
Don't know about the air-con, but the electric window could be fixed by a good bang on the door above the speaker - a common fault and well known solution!
She's been on about changing 'Bob' for YEARS now, and we've test-driven many a replacement. But she only needs the car for weekends and she absolutely loves him, so after 13 years (and a new clutch!), he's staying put for another while! Oh, and she has the Chili Pack with the sports suspension: it may have bugger all power, but handles like a loon!
5 speed gearbox though - don't know where the 6 speed comes from? :/
Good shed - different to a lot of the rubbish we've had recently.
I really like these, we had one in 2003. Good fun to drive and went along OK. Ours was 12 months old so still fairly rattle free. Would be interested to see how they fair after 10 years, rattles would drive me mad. Have seriously considered a Cooper S on many occasions.
We paid £12.5k, ran it for 12 months, then sold it for £12.3k to a BMW dealer (not as a trade in). They did hold their money back then.
t themselves, they in turn blamed us, and following an almost complete diss-assembly of the interior, it would seem that the electrics on these were simply a load of crap.I've never liked them, and it has nothing to do with any of the above. A car I simply don't get. Still, BMW must make a ton of money from keeping them on the road.
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