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I have 2003 MINI with 168k
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Posted by dmz789qqq [Email] (more from dmz789qqq) on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:57:04 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: MINI Cooper S ... anyone ?, STICKMAN, Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:36:14
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But it is a regular Cooper (albeit with sport supension). Owned it for the last 50k miles and did the following repairs:

* wheel bearing
* starter
* alternator
* catback exhaust
* control arm snapped in two

I was getting about 35mpg in the summer (mostly hwy) but then put Bosal exhaust on it and the mpg dropped to about 30 mpg (lesson learned - buy the OEM exhaust whenever possible).

The sport suspension is terrific (it comes standard on S). The biggest difference to other cars is how little body roll it has.

The interior quality is very low - I hope they fixed it in the 2nd gen. I
am not a fan of the interior design either.

Under the hood it seems to be much better planned. Replacing the starter requires removal of exhaust manifold. Removal of alternator requires removal of the front bumper. What suprising is that these two procedure are very easy nevertheless - all the manifold bolts are accessible and come off easyly and the removal of front bumper can be done in ~5 minutes (just a few bolts/connectors).

Stupid BMW design oil filter - beats me why do they still keep this design.

After 168k in NH/MA there is still very little rust.

Been rear-ended heavily last week - both me and my wife got neck pain afterwards but the rear bumper is intact except for a few minor scratches.

I like the small trunk as you can put the groceries in and they do not slide all ober the place. One can always fold the seats for more storage.

MINI internet community is useless - none there knows how to work on cars and they just discuss their trips to mechanics. The only service manual is paper Bentley book.

posted by 67.90.20...

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