Early Auto's - anything to look for?

[mattman]

Currently looking to pickup a cheap to run station car with a self imposed budget of £2500-£2750. Looking at the early mini's - has to be auto - with approx 90-100k miles. Seen a couple that fit the bill, but just thought i'd check with the PH beards whether there are any specific items i should be aware of/check? how much bork can be expected at this sort of mileage?
TIA

[0llie]

The 1st Gen One/Cooper CVT Auto is not the nicest of gearboxes, they also have a habit of going bang whenever they like, and it's a minimum of £1k to replace (unless you can do it yourself, quite tricky in these). There was a large investigation over in the USA regarding these gearboxes, see here - http://www.motoringfile.com/2011/12/15/bmwmini-sue...

The 1st Gen Cooper S got a proper torque converter automatic at some point during it's life cycle (I think it was 2005), and these seem much better, but they won't fall under your budget.