R53 Mini Cooper S - Page 2

onewhippedpuppy · 10-22-2018, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colingreene

but the full rennshift is about the price of a cheap mini cooper.

Relative to the price of a nice 911 they are a cheap investment.

Geronimo · Geronimo's Garage

Yea, I have the rennshift kit, it's going in this spring. I hope it will help the 915 a ton, but it has to be one of if not the worst transmission in automotive history.

I'm not to worried about the reliability, there are tons of people with 150K plus miles will very little reliability issues.

Geronimo · Geronimo's Garage

What a fun little car, pretty sure it would trounce my 911 in any performance measurement I could imagine.

bcgreen · bcgreen's Garage

I love my 2004 MC40 and nothing out of the normal for wear'n tear. Just hitting 100k

jwasbury · 11-02-2018, 04:55 PM

Had an ‘06 MCS bought new. Traded in at 80k miles or so...for another Mini (‘13 JCW). This was wife’s car and her choice, I didn’t want another one.

I liked driving the car but didn’t like the quality. The car didn’t hold up well in my opinion, upper strut mount failure, water pump problem, and control arm bushings. Absolutely diabolical to work on and I cursed the designers everytime I tried DIY on it.

Geronimo · Geronimo's Garage

Could be worst, you could have $15K engine rebuilds :O

jwasbury · 11-03-2018, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geronimo

Could be worst, you could have $15K engine rebuilds :O

^and yet, having done 3 Porsche engine rebuilds (2 of them on my 911 race car), I still prefer the quality of an aircooled Porsche over the Mini. I also prefer my 20 year old Mercedes over the Mini. I like cars that are engineered to last, and engineered to be serviced. A Mini is engineered to be fun to drive and cheap to manufacture. Longevity and serviceability were not engineering priorities for these cars. For 8k, your risk is certainly minimal and they are indeed fun to drive. If I were shopping for a fun/cheap/reliable DD, I'd put the 8k towards a Miata.

onewhippedpuppy · 11-03-2018, 04:26 AM

$8k will buy you a nice clean Miata that only needs oil and gas.

jwasbury · 11-03-2018, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

$8k will buy you a nice clean Miata that only needs oil and gas.

^my point exactly. I've owned my '99 Spec Miata racer now for 3 seasons and have come to love and respect the little Mazdas. Unbelievably tough cars that take incredible amounts of abuse on the track and just keep running.

Geronimo · Geronimo's Garage

I have begun to think that a K swapped Miata might be the most fun under 20K one could find. A Porsche engine rebuild isn't an issue if one has pockets as deep as yours perhaps.

jwasbury · 11-03-2018, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geronimo

A Porsche engine rebuild isn't an issue if one has pockets as deep as yours perhaps.

You seem to carry a lot of angst about the cost of a Porsche engine rebuild. Porsche cars have never been inexpensive to own. They are expensive to buy new, and while used examples have entered the realm of being relatively inexpensive to buy, owning and operating them is is different story. If you were led to believe otherwise, I am sorry.

The nice thing about them is that when you spend the $$ to fix them properly, they stay fixed. They are also worth fixing. Go ahead and buy an 8k Mini. If the engine blows up, its going to the crusher. There is no value to fixing it. Every $ I put into my 1979 930 (including a very expensive engine build), I got back when I sold it. I also got to drive the wheels off it for 8 years and over 20k miles.

Geronimo · Geronimo's Garage

Yea, I do find the engine costs to be ridiculous considering what you get. 15k into my SC would just mean I loose even more considering the prices seem to be dropping.

I have wanted a 911 since childhood. I love the car, and more so I love what it could be.

Also performance in a Porsche is prohibitively expensive for what you get. I cannot wrap my head around the engine rebuild costs. It just makes no sense.

Sadly I bought at the peek of the 911 bubble. So I will make the best of it, enjoy putting around in my 911 and pray the engine doesn’t let go. LOL.

onewhippedpuppy · 11-03-2018, 11:33 AM

It’s disposable mentality vs built to last. While you to some extent are paying the Porsche tax you are also in a lot of ways paying for quality as well. Not to mention that parts for ANY car that has been out of production for close to 40 years will be expensive. Go price parts for an old Ferrari, Jaguar, Alfa, etc. Minis are cheaply made and poorly assembled, sometimes you get what you pay for.

colingreene · 11-03-2018, 02:42 PM

You guys are funny I never found the mini super hard to work on.

Jims5543 · 11-03-2018, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colingreene

You guys are funny I never found the mini super hard to work on.

+1 Putting them in service position is not hard.

I have been all over my Mini and my sons and did not find them that bad to work on. I have done coil over installs, brake jobs, general maintenance etc..

Now, when it came time to do a clutch on my sons R53, he chose to let a shop do it. He had them install a lightened flywheel while in there. $1200 shop charge (not including flywheel) well worth the charge.

When I owned my 1982 Targa with a 3.6 swap, it needed a rear brake caliper, it seized on the way to get a PPI for the buyer of it. I just had the shop doing the PPI repair it. The bill was over $600. Or half what a clutch job for an R53 cost.

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