Any thoughts..

[miichaelsmith]

On a mini cooper? lets here your opinions and suggestions
Just bought her

[SpeicherBimmer]

um...I know 3 girls that drive them...and one gay guy. That's just my experiecne though. I hate the center mount gauges.

[glnr13]

i'm not gay nor a girl and i had one for 6 years.

fun car, r53's (02-06) are better than r56's (06-current) IMO
i prefer the supercharged over the turbo and if you do go r53 hunt down an 05, updated transmission, facelift lights and tails. better dash and a few other goodies. 06's had weird changes but some had the bigger brakes.

a GP r53 is nice but a little overpriced to me.
the handling of the MINI's are great even for a FWD. a little torque steer but not too bad.

check out motoringunderground.com for a slew of modified MINI's.
run away from northamericanmotoring.com as fast as you can.

[325Projectz]

i had an r53 with jcw goodies. the car was a ton of fun to drive and it was pretty quick. it ate front tires like it was its job... i'm sure i had nothing to do with that :). so i ditched the run flats in a hurry. torque steer was present, but easy to deal with.

only thing i disliked about it was the vents in the dash. they are mounted behind the steering wheel, so your hands will freeze while blasting the ac.

i actually kind of miss that car.

[slammin.e28]

We replace blown up manual transmissions in them all the time. Hell, dealer keeps a couple in stock, updated of course, so you can't use a used one.

[Nick_S]

We replace blown up manual transmissions in them all the time. Hell, dealer keeps a couple in stock, updated of course, so you can't use a used one.

SVT Focus's use the transmission and they abit notorious for blowing up. Mine did and if Mini is like Ford, they won't service them. Only replace them. Dealership quoted me $6500...more than the car was worth Found one in a salvage yard for $1100 though.

They're fun cars, couple friends have had them. Not for me, barely enough room for a bike and the brakes were insanely touchy on the few I've driven.

[SpeicherBimmer]

Never said anyone was gay for having one, just stating my experience with them. Not my cup of tea...