Faults:

Driver's seat would not slide forward, so the rear seats were inaccessible. Looking online, this was a common problem with Mini Coopers.

Passenger window motor stopped working.

Gearbox made strange sounds when shifting.

Squeaky leather - very annoying on long drives.

General Comments:

Good handling - needs better tires than the run flats to get it to perform well.

Pretty fast once it gets going.

Good on gas - 9L/100kms.

Faults:

The only thing that went wrong with the car was the flywheel needed to be replaced at 15K as it was making a noise. Also, the steering seems to have made more noise then I liked.

General Comments:

I have to say that I absolutely loved this car. By far my favorite car ever. I have had everything to Mustang Cobras, Hondas, Mazda Miatas and the car I had before, A BMW Z3M Roadster. It was a great car too but not very practical in the Midwest Winters. It was parked most of the time in the garage.

So I traded it in for my black Mini with chrome package. This car gets excellent gas mileage and is pretty quick for a 1.6. It rode on rails. Very fun to drive. The seating position for me was great. It is comfortable, but long trips would show this cars limitation on that topic. I also had the sport suspension which was still. Long bumpy sections would really have my kidneys cursing me. I think the car was put together right.

I would caution that the service manual states oil changes every 10K which is absurd. I recommend 5k changes with full synthetic oil. Remember, this is a supercharged engine. Keep in mind that every oil change cost me around 110.00. Yes, that's right. BMW charged me this each time I had it serviced, although the oil changes during the warranty period were free. I still had it changed at 5K intervals.

The only issues I had were a noise in the tranny which turned out to be the flywheel which was replaced under warranty. Otherwise a perfect car. I would have never sold this but I got married and we both needed a car so I had to sell the Mini to get two Mazda 3s. :(

Another thing is that since it is supercharged, it requires the high cost/high octane gas so figure that into your buying decision.

Faults:

My clutch blew at 26000 miles.

General Comments:

After looking online, I can see that I am not alone with problems with a clutch in the mini. I will never buy another one, and it breaks my heart.

I drive this car with such care. It's my first real car after living in NYC and not needing a car for 20 years. I've driven manual all my life, and no one can tell me that my driving should cause a clutch to blow...