Mini auto around £2000

[JumboBeef]

I know nothing of the new Minis but my other half fancies one. About £2,000 to spend and has to be auto.

Can you buy a decent car for this amount? What things to look for?

Thanks!

[wobert]

Yes,

I've recently helped my son buy his first car, a 2006 R50 MINI One.

Good overall condition, FSH, good tyres all for £1600.

Oh and it's yellow!

Common first gen faults are:

Coolant expansion bottle splits and loses coolant

Electric power steering is prone to issues esp if you hold it on full lock.

Water in the boot caused by water getting in via the high level brake light seal going.

The early manual Rover gearboxes are made from chocolate,the later (04 onwards) Getrag units are better.

IIRC the first gen autos were pretty unreliable even when new, not sure time will have been kind ten later.

Other than that, the Tritec engine is pretty robust and the running gear is reliable.

Make sure you factor in a full service after purchase to ensure all the fluids are changed, cost is about £100 for a full set of parts together with some decent oil.

[JumboBeef]

Thanks. Nice photo and one happy driver!

At what date did the auto boxes get better?

[wobert]

2nd gen I think, so 56/07 plate onwards

[mike9009]

wobert said:

2nd gen I think, so 56/07 plate onwards

The Cooper and One gearbox was only poor on the manual boxes from 2000-2004. From about'54' reg the gearbox was changed at a model revision. (You can tell the difference by checking the position of the reverse light/ fog light which were switched at the revision change)

From the auto box perspective, I am not aware of a problem so you could go for any year MINI.

HTH

Mike

[wobert]

mike9009 said:

wobert said:

2nd gen I think, so 56/07 plate onwards

The Cooper and One gearbox was only poor on the manual boxes from 2000-2004. From about'54' reg the gearbox was changed at a model revision. (You can tell the difference by checking the position of the reverse light/ fog light which were switched at the revision change)

From the auto box perspective, I am not aware of a problem so you could go for any year MINI.

HTH

Mike

The autobox fitted to the first gen One and Cooper was a CVT.

It wasn't reliable from day one and is prone to issues as mileage increases.

The MCS used a six-speed autobox.

The R56 model released from late 2006 onwards uses a six-speed auto in place of the CVT

[mike9009]

wobert said:

mike9009 said:

wobert said:

2nd gen I think, so 56/07 plate onwards

The Cooper and One gearbox was only poor on the manual boxes from 2000-2004. From about'54' reg the gearbox was changed at a model revision. (You can tell the difference by checking the position of the reverse light/ fog light which were switched at the revision change)

From the auto box perspective, I am not aware of a problem so you could go for any year MINI.

HTH

Mike

The autobox fitted to the first gen One and Cooper was a CVT.

It wasn't reliable from day one and is prone to issues as mileage increases.

The MCS used a six-speed autobox.

The R56 model released from late 2006 onwards uses a six-speed auto in place of the CVT

Thanks, I had not heard of any issues about the Auto in any generation, but I have never owned an Auto having owned various MINIs for 13 years.

Mike

[sad61t]

The autobox problem was so bad there was a class action in the US:
http://www.motoringfile.com/2013/08/22/mini-settle...

From what I can recall, it failed pretty much without warning and at no particular mileage; the solution was to buy a new gearbox at $5K. One of the commenters on that article recommends keeping on top of the transmission fluid/filter (change every 25K) as 'lifetime' is rather optimistic.

[JumboBeef]

Thanks, now bought something else.