Sensible? Or daft as a brush? Your thoughts...
Discussion
We need to get a second car for the missus to bomb around in, needs to be cheap and cheerful as we'll only have it for station car/shopping duties.
My station commute however is looking like it may be twisty and rather rural.
So... with £3000 to go and grab something practical, quick and fun I'm considering an R53 Cooper S.
Good idea? Bad idea?
The examples I'm looking at seem to range around 2003/2004 and have 80-105k
Was considering buying from a dealer to use a credit card and gain the additional consumer protection that brings
Interested to hear from those in the know...
My station commute however is looking like it may be twisty and rather rural.
So... with £3000 to go and grab something practical, quick and fun I'm considering an R53 Cooper S.
Good idea? Bad idea?
The examples I'm looking at seem to range around 2003/2004 and have 80-105k
Was considering buying from a dealer to use a credit card and gain the additional consumer protection that brings
Interested to hear from those in the know...
Cheap and cheerful to buy.... running costs I'm not too worried about as long as I know what to look for when buying to miss out on the big bills.
Thanks for the comment @eatcustard - what kind of costs do you call "not cheap and cheerful" useful to judge alongside what I feel is palatable :-) Some cars are worth the extra and I do love a supercharger!
Thanks for the comment @eatcustard - what kind of costs do you call "not cheap and cheerful" useful to judge alongside what I feel is palatable :-) Some cars are worth the extra and I do love a supercharger!
Bought a private one today.
Has a few issues to fix but was a hoot.
I didn't get any symptoms of the clutch on the test drive but just typical I got home and found it had a kind of rattle when my foot was of the clutch and the car in neutral, pump the clutch and the noise goes away (completely even when foot off the clutch, just pump it once to make it go)
Then when flooring it up to the red line it hit 6000rpm and gave me an EML and limp mode.
Have looked up a couple of these and will get it sorted - rest of the car was great.... shame these things didn't bloody happen on the test drive!!
Has a few issues to fix but was a hoot.
I didn't get any symptoms of the clutch on the test drive but just typical I got home and found it had a kind of rattle when my foot was of the clutch and the car in neutral, pump the clutch and the noise goes away (completely even when foot off the clutch, just pump it once to make it go)
Then when flooring it up to the red line it hit 6000rpm and gave me an EML and limp mode.
Have looked up a couple of these and will get it sorted - rest of the car was great.... shame these things didn't bloody happen on the test drive!!
Thanks for the reply - I've booked the Mini in to 1320 as they seem to be very knowledgable even if it is a trek for me to get to.
They have advised it may be one of the map sensors but, needs diagnosis as could be a number of things.
I suspected the clutch noise to be a thrust bearing and they agree - we either live with it or get the clutch replaced.
I've booked the car in with them for an Inspection II, full engine test, fix oil leak and EMF issue, then a possible pulley swap for an almost free power hike.
They have advised it may be one of the map sensors but, needs diagnosis as could be a number of things.
I suspected the clutch noise to be a thrust bearing and they agree - we either live with it or get the clutch replaced.
I've booked the car in with them for an Inspection II, full engine test, fix oil leak and EMF issue, then a possible pulley swap for an almost free power hike.
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