Mini Cooper S

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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Joined
20 Oct 2002
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What is the sweet spot interns of cost, mileage and age for one of these?

Ive done a search and saw Gustov's old thread there he was looking to buy one for a simiar budget to me, I.e. Around £5k, under £6k absolutely for me. I know buying high mileage in any car is a bad idea, but I can see a few urn 60k on the clock, 03/04 (54 reg) on auto trader. Like this one

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../postcode/hr11hb/page/1/radius/1500?logcode=p

Too good to be true again?

It just that it's hard to fine a nice fun car for this sort of money, a Golf mk4 will be a similar age and miles and cost...and most of the nice ones are Diesel, so I will get people telling me not to get a Diesel because I don't do enough mileage to warrant it. I am getting rather lost in the world of secondhand cars!
 
My 2p on your situation:

Buy the Yaris for your first car. Its may not set the world on fire, but it is a decent, reliable car and you are not stretching yourself to buy it and run it. As and when you get more experience as a driver you will no doubt get bored of it, but by that point you will (hopefully) have a much clearer idea of what care you want as its replacement. Rather than picking something now that may be a bag of nails or you may decide is unnecessary, too expensive to run, too fast, too slow, too big, too small etc..
 
imo its abit much for the age, for 5-6k then I'd probably buy 55 - 07 focus as a first car.
keeping it similar to what you posted, 5-6k is mint 182 money, but first car? ummm.
 
Don't forget guys Raymond isn't 18/19 looking for his first car, he's a bit older than that ;), which may change some of the views on here.

Even if Raymond decides against it, I'd be quite interested to know if you can get a decent cooper s for £5-6k. I need to change my car at some point in the next 6 months and am starting to look at options.
 
I'm at an age where my parents are bugging me to get married!

Anyway, I drove a 1.2l Puegeot 208 last month, it was ok but too slow, I had no "ceiling" when wanting to overtake, even on the motorway at times.

I learned my driving in a yaris, mini one diesel and fiesta, and recently had some refresher lesson in a cooper so I'm familiar with the mini and the Yaris and I can live with both.

Insurance wise, it'll cost me £800 to insure the Yaris or £1100 for the cooper s...so it'a hardly a bug jump either.
 
Fusion said:
Don't forget that tax is £260/year, they aren't great on fuel and run flat tyres aren't cheap either.
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RFT are expensive, something like £150 each!! But you can change to normal tyres can't you?

Also is there fuel consumption that bad for a car that can do 0-60 in 7.2-7.4 secs? Don't forget Raymond would only be doing ~5K miles a year so a few mpg here and won't make a massive difference.

Also what are the running/servicing costs like? I imagine a little on the expensive side considering they are basically a small BMW.
 
hurfdurf said:
How old are you?

If you can afford it then a cooper S may be the ticket.
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Let's I'm not 20 anymore lol

I can afford the copper s and it's running cost, provided it's not in the thousands and thousands, hundreds I can live with. Ie £300 for some run flats that last 15k miles sounds fine to me.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Let's I'm not 20 anymore lol

I can afford the copper s and it's running cost, provided it's not in the thousands and thousands, hundreds I can live with. Ie £300 for some run flats that last 15k miles sounds fine to me.
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why not up the budget and buy a better cooper s? have you driven one?
 
When I got my mini, I used this forum mini2 a lot and still do. Anything mini, this is the place to look and yes you can change from run crap tryes to normal.
 
I know you've said the miles you travel isn't really an issue, but just a little pointer. A typical full tank, which i believe is around £60-£70 depending on whether you use SUL or not will get you around 220-260 miles :)

Great noise, great handling and in the right colour, look the part too :)

EDIT: Something to read through if you're considering buying one: http://www.evo.co.uk/buying/buyingguide/233669/mini_cooper_checkpoints.html
 
I think TomO has hit the nail on the head here. It's your first car get a Yaris have that for a year and then move on as you'll have a better idea of what you are after in a car. Also you might not be young and wreckless but you will still have loads to learn so there chances are you you are going to bump it or have a knock so why not do get your bearings in something that doesn't really matter what happens to it and then move on.
 
Get the Mini
It will hold its value over any other car you are looking at.
The only bad thing is £260 car tax on it, and if you drive it like you should, you will get low 20s MPG.
And insurance is not bad on them.
 
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