Mini Coopers. Those cars are BMW's worst management endeavor. BMW claims that these cars last a lifetime........What BMW fails to tell you though is that the "lifetime" is 100,000 miles.
Beware when buying one of these cars. Do your research. Don't "impulse buy". I mean, they're great cars and drive reliably but the thing is when they break down, the repair isn't going to be simple nor is it going to make financial sense to have the repairs made. When they stop operating, it's because something becomes majorly damaged, possibly beyond repair. Things like: Broken timing chain, broken transmission, broken head gasket, overheating, etc......major stuff. The last Mini Cooper I serviced came in with an oil leak. No big deal. Oil leaks happen. I removed some items from within the engine compartment to get a better look at the source of the leak. As it turned out the source of the oil leak was between the two halves of the engine block assembly. This required the engine to be removed from the car and the engine block halves to be separated, resealed then reassembled then reinstalled into the car. $4,600 later, the car was running again. 9 months down the road, the car came back with transmission issues. $3,900 later the car was good to go. I still see this car from time to time......blue smoke puffing out the exhaust pipe. The car isn't even 10 years old.
Want some advise? One word: Lease.
