Mini Cooper Clubman petrol or diesel

[JurassicF]

The Cooper Clubman petrol I have been discussing with the seller has just been sold, before I could view. Not sure how with the Covid travel restrictions😡
I have seen a couple of other nice cars 2009/2012 but they are diesel, which I have not considered.
How does the diesel engine suit the car? Are there more issues with the diesel engine over the petrol.
Presume you just need to give it a good run to burn of the particulates every so often?

[E-bmw]

Diesels are only viable if you are doing high mileage.

If you are just doing average mileage or less stick with petrol.

[Elliot2000]

A 2012 diesel mini will be fine unless your doing absolute minimal mileage

[Majorslow]

I have a 2012 diesel Mini, when not in lockdown do between 25-30k a year in it. They are great on fuel economy, but need to do big miles to get your monies worth

Like already stated if your doing less than 12k-15k miles a year you would be better off with petrol

Mine gets driven hard, and in 175k never had DPF problems, the people who do are probably not driving the right engine, hence the problems....diesels like to work

[JurassicF]

Okay thanks, what I thought. It would be a local run around for the wife, dog and golf clubs.
Will keep looking for a petrol. Shame an absolute cracker just turned up on A***t****r, not too far away, low miles, sunroof and lovely seat colour. But diesel.

[stevemcs]

Short trips shouldn't be much of an issue if you give it a run once a month, however it will be the N47 and that brings its own world of pain.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

We were in a similar position just over a year ago - fair few nicely specced diesels but we were going to be using it for running kids to school, shopping etc so very rare would it be going on a longer +15 mile run. Held out for a petrol and picked up a mega low mileage, mega high spec 1.6 Cooper and its been faultless.

[Majorslow]

JurassicF said:

Okay thanks, what I thought. It would be a local run around for the wife, dog and golf clubs.
Will keep looking for a petrol. Shame an absolute cracker just turned up on A***t****r, not too far away, low miles, sunroof and lovely seat colour. But diesel.

You will have to have the rear seat down for golf clubs, so if security is an issue maybe look for a car with a bigger boot. The Mini's boot is tiny

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Majorslow said:

You will have to have the rear seat down for golf clubs, so if security is an issue maybe look for a car with a bigger boot. The Mini's boot is tiny

Agreed - I take my fishing gear in the back of mine but its just a case of putting one of the back seats down and pushing the rod holdall through.

[chrisch77]

We have had an early model 2007 R55 Clubman Cooper D from new with the Peugeot 1.6 HDI engine. It sounds quite agricultural but has served us well for 13 years and has regularly done only short trips without any sign of the typical DPF issues that plague modern diesels - it has less than 80k on the clock and most trips have been short commutes to work or school.

The benefit of the diesel is loads of torque compared with the rather gutless Cooper petrol engine, so it’s not bad to drive.

It’s about to be offered for sale to make way for a MINI electric so please let me know if you would like any more info OP.

[JurassicF]

Majorslow said:

You will have to have the rear seat down for golf clubs, so if security is an issue maybe look for a car with a bigger boot. The Mini's boot is tiny

Yes I think the rear seats will always be down. Security is not a concern as things like golf clubs will only be there to and from the club.

Given that motoring forums tend to highlight problems rather than non issues, is there really any real world difference in reliability between the N14 and N18 engines?

[JurassicF]

chrisch77 said:

We have had an early model 2007 R55 Clubman Cooper D from new with the Peugeot 1.6 HDI engine. It sounds quite agricultural but has served us well for 13 years and has regularly done only short trips without any sign of the typical DPF issues that plague modern diesels - it has less than 80k on the clock and most trips have been short commutes to work or school.

The benefit of the diesel is loads of torque compared with the rather gutless Cooper petrol engine, so it’s not bad to drive.

It’s about to be offered for sale to make way for a MINI electric so please let me know if you would like any more info OP.

Thanks, could you PM me the details?

[E-bmw]

Personally, I would not be interested in buying a diesel engined car with a DPF that had only ever done short journeys.

[Majorslow]

E-bmw said:

Personally, I would not be interested in buying a diesel engined car with a DPF that had only ever done short journeys.

Why not? a decent drive using the red line to "clean it out" and it will be fine. They like high miles and being used properly, noit for short journeys where the engine does not heat up properly.

My Mini had 7k on the clock when I bought it 14 months old, now on 176k and no problems at all. However on the couple of times I have used it since xmas it sounds like it really could do with a blast

[JurassicF]

Majorslow said:

Why not? a decent drive using the red line to "clean it out" and it will be fine. They like high miles and being used properly, noit for short journeys where the engine does not heat up properly.

My Mini had 7k on the clock when I bought it 14 months old, now on 176k and no problems at all. However on the couple of times I have used it since xmas it sounds like it really could do with a blast

Ours really would be short journeys as I have a Macan for anything of distance, just wanted to keep it dog and mucky golf stuff free

[chrisch77]

JurassicF said:

chrisch77 said:

We have had an early model 2007 R55 Clubman Cooper D from new with the Peugeot 1.6 HDI engine. It sounds quite agricultural but has served us well for 13 years and has regularly done only short trips without any sign of the typical DPF issues that plague modern diesels - it has less than 80k on the clock and most trips have been short commutes to work or school.

The benefit of the diesel is loads of torque compared with the rather gutless Cooper petrol engine, so it’s not bad to drive.

It’s about to be offered for sale to make way for a MINI electric so please let me know if you would like any more info OP.

Thanks, could you PM me the details?

I’ve sent you an email via PH thanks.

[stevemcs]

An italian tune up isn't going to help, they need a long run once a month to clean them out - a steady run for at least 30 miles.

I would still be looking for a nice 1.6 Cooper. Whats your budget ?

[E-bmw]

Majorslow said:

E-bmw said:

Personally, I would not be interested in buying a diesel engined car with a DPF that had only ever done short journeys.

Why not? a decent drive using the red line to "clean it out" and it will be fine. They like high miles and being used properly, noit for short journeys where the engine does not heat up properly.

My Mini had 7k on the clock when I bought it 14 months old, now on 176k and no problems at all. However on the couple of times I have used it since xmas it sounds like it really could do with a blast

You have just 100% confirmed what I said.

[JurassicF]

stevemcs said:

An italian tune up isn't going to help, they need a long run once a month to clean them out - a steady run for at least 30 miles.

I would still be looking for a nice 1.6 Cooper. Whats your budget ?

Between £4-5k?

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Thats the ballpark I paid for mine. Was older than what we were initially looking for but we had to have an auto which immediately ruled out 90% of Clubmans on sale. In the end we went for a 2008 (like I said, we were ideally looking for an LCI 2010+ car) because of the spec: low mileage (bought on 32k miles just over a year ago and its only just hit 40k), rare colour (kinda a dark metallic red), optional R99 17s, auto, xenons, sat nav, panoramic sunroof, heated windscreen, heated seats, Harmon Kardon - I think the lounge leather is the only thing missing from it.