Thinking of buying a Mini One.

[TVRleigh]

I thinking of buying a Mini one, Most people I have spoke to have said they are great. but heard some storyies about them having problems with there gear boxes, Is this true, or only on certain models.

Any other advice or problems to look for whould also be handy.

Thanks in advance
Leigh.

[PH5121]

Leigh

My wife has had her MINI One since new (nearly four years now), she has enjoyed it and driving still makes her smile.
Hers did have an issue with the wiring being badly routed and chaffing, but this was repaired under warranty, and then there was a recall to address the issue.
There have been no other mechanical issues in all the time she has had it.

Paul

[900T-R]

I've got a Mini One from just before the facelift (Apr 04) that saw a new gearbox (Getrag instead of a UK supplier of which the name escapes me now). The odo reads 105,500 or so km (65+ K miles) now and I drive the car rather harder than most Mini One customers would probably do. Still, up until now exactly nothing has gone wrong and so far, only two front tyres, brake pads, two light bulbs and one tie rod end needed to be replaced. The car feels as solid as on the first day, and is every bit as much fun.

Edited by 900T-R on Wednesday 16th August 13:15

[bez_uk]

I have a mini one... march 2004 (04 reg). Only ever had one problem, that was last week when the rear windscreen washer got blocked... after waiting about 5 mins at BMW garage was fixed. Magic.

Handling is great (for its speed), the car feels solid round scary bends at 80+. Solid over 100+ on a straight (that allows for lane changes... never tried a bend at that speed)

Performance is ok, as long as air con is turned off, either that or you'll be reving lots for a quick pullaway.

It doesnt drink too much either I get 34.4mpg but I'm sure most would get more. With the school run mine once hit 32mpg.

Good car.

edit: The mini one sometimes makes a grinding noise putting it in reverse but my gearbox still works and once you've driven it a few times you'll just forget it happens.
It used to have a thing with first too. Wouldn't go in properly, that may have just been me though, it's not done that for months.

Edited by bez_uk on Wednesday 16th August 13:20

[v15ben]

My dad's car suffers the same grinding when trying to put it into reverse, but apparently "They all do that sir!"

There are plenty of One owners and a stack of technical information on www.mini2.com

Highly recommended cars

[aspender]

Another One owner here. It is primarily used by my girlfriend, but I find I nick it whenever I can at weekends!

Agree with the reverse grinding thing, but not that much of an issue.

Only problem we've had since we got it in March is a faulty O2 sensor which caused the engine emissions light to come on. All in all it's a great little car. Mine is a company motor so I can't do anything to it, but bear in mind that the only real difference between the One and Cooper is a crippling of the ECU to reduce the power of the One apparantly. There are various options for sorting that out!

[Ballistic Banana]

My Gf has a One, its an 02 and havent had any of them probs at all. Th eonly thing that hs benn a proble was aircon which ws fixe under warrenty ( the condensor) it has the power sterring nose though which i have know is a TADTS prob.

BB

[2good]

Interested to read about crunching gearboxes, my other half has a facelift One, I thought that they were supposed to have a different g/box to the earlier cars. Anyway she mentioned that it's hard work to get it into reverse, when booking the car in for it's 1st brake fluid change. Today they've told us that they are going to fit a new modified clutch under warranty!

Anyway car is great, she loves it & I'm tempted to change my all weather car for a Cooper S

[martin17]

They are awesome little cars. Great fun to drive and puts a smile on your face.

the gearbox problem is just with some minis, not all

if you want to know more visit www.eastcoastminiclub.co.uk there's loads of mini one owners on there.

[mini_ralf]

I had one of the early Mini 1's (51 plate). Yep the gearbox was appalling from new and the car ended up having a new gearbox installed in late 2004 after constant moaning at my local Beamer garage. After that I never had a problem. It seems as though the very early gearboxes where bad but they have made some modifications which have improved things significantly.

[Ollie Tebbutt]

The earlier Minis did have a few problems with g/boxes. These were fully rectified with the facelift in mid 04. We had a 52 Cooper, and we had no probs. Reverse was a bit of a problem, but hey its an awesome car. Or wait for the R56...

[Ollie Tebbutt]

Oops forgot the link, im a member, its a great place for advice www.mini2.com

[mini_angel]

I bought my brand new mini in July 04 and have never had any problems, it still runs as smoothly as it did when I bought it.
My gearbox doesn't crunch but it can be a swine to get into reverse in freezing weather.
But I love it to bits and would definitely recommend one - worth every penny!

Edited by mini_angel on Friday 6th October 01:00

Edited by mini_angel on Friday 6th October 01:01

[jamiebae]

The gearbox problem (them failing...) is mainly the pre-facelift models and affects the One and Cooper. They use a Rover gearbox which is not particularly strong, this was fixed by the facelift in 2004 when the Rover box was replaced with a Getrag unit.

I have a 2005 One 7 which I bought new last November and has now done 20k miles without a single problem, I'd highly reccomend one to anybody

The other thing with the One is that it uses an identical engine to the Cooper so a remap or Superchips Bluefin (£300 or so) will boost it from the standard 90bhp to 120-130, take 2 seconds off the 0-60 time and boost the top speed, as well as making it rev more freely.

[miller6684]

Hi,

Relating to the gear box problem.........

I bought an 02 mini one from my mum last year and yesterday went to put the car into gear and nothing was happening.

I thought it was the clutch but have just found out that the gear box has broken. Not happy to say the least. The warrenty has run out aswell but surely a car that is only 5 years old and made by a decent company can't break within that time period?

I have only done 4,000 miles in 15 months as I work in London and only have to drive to the station! Anyone got any ideas of what I can do i.e contact mini etc?

[jamiebae]

Unless it has low miels and FSH Mini are unlikely to help, I guess your best option is to get a good independant garage to fit a recon box. Unfortunately the Rover gearboxes are rubbish and it's not unusual for this to happen.

[900T-R]

In fairness, I'm now up to over 80,000 minly hard driven miles in my '04 (pre-facelift) One and the gearbox hasn't given any grief (just like the rest of the car - still nowt has gone wrong between services but two headlamp bulbs...).

[miller6684]

Cheers for the reply guys.

I think it has done 44,000 miles. I'm not a mechanic but why charge top dollar for the cars when all they do is make them with dodgy parts?

Any ideas on costs?

[900T-R]

miller6684 said:

I'm not a mechanic but why charge top dollar for the cars when all they do is make them with dodgy parts?

Because the cheaper alternatives in the supermini class are even dodgier? As for quality, reliability and general slickness of both the drving and ownership experience, mine has been every inch the micro-Beemer it pretends to be - but as with most new cars, the longer they build them the better they get so a late model with high mileage might be preferable over an early low miler.

Cost cutting by specifying lower quality parts sadly is an industry-wide phenomenon - but in this case the culprit is more likely a hangover from the Rover days that BMW couldn't/weren't willing to change right away.

[jolly]

Sorry to hear about your woes If you have no luck getting a goodwill gesture from MINI then it may be worth getting intouch with 1320autos many members of MINI2 seem to have used them in the past, and they certainly seem to have a good rep on there. Potentially you could probably get the later Getrag unit fitted, which as stated replaced the previous weaker Rover unit.

Just a thought,

James.