A Cooper S for less than £3K.

[Lakeland997]

Don’t shoot me guys but I’ve just been to buy this with my son Ben who some of you have met at Blyton.
Two owners, 73000 miles, supercharged 170hp, £2600
A fully-functioning pocket rocket for less than the cost of an A series billet crank.

[irlmin]

That will turn out to be a really clever buy in a few years . there were very few R53 models produced in comparison to the R56 which was a very unreliable and disappointing successor . Its a very capable car and a 'hoot' to drive . really good ones are making very decent money now and have increased in value in the last few years , a few small mods will improve it further , R56 S front brake discs and callipers / carriers will look standard but will improve the 'marginal' brakes by a big margin .anyway a really good choice and enjoy the car . G

[Exminiman]

Had one a few years ago, just love the sound of the super charger....it has a good chance of being future classic......later versions are watered down, I think.....
I only sold mine because made my back ache......which is a bit sad,,,,

[johnv]

If only they'd stopped there...

[roger mcnab]

hi a friends wife bought one of those new minis and they found it to be a very big dog it cost a fortune to get it running right to no avail so they had to resell at a bi loss not sure which model but was an expensive mistake there are a lot of cheap bmw minis here in oz cheaper than an early rusty old mini
that lived on the beach
cheers roger

[mk1]

I agree, there are some fantastic bargains to be had. The BMW Cooper S certainly seems to becoming the go to model for young guys who want a fast cheap motor.

Remind you of anything?

[Lakeland997]

You’re right Mark.
He’s already looking through the catalogues of modifications and upgrades and making lists...
Exactly like me 35 years ago except the catalogues aren’t made of paper any more.
I hadn’t realised how many mods there are for these modern MINIs.

That said, he did buy a Haynes Manual. So some things don’t change.

Andy

[DB1380]

Nice car for the money.

Its quite mad what you can buy secondhand, if you got 5k burning a hole in ya back pocket....Big BMs, Mercs even a Roller or Bentley if you fancy.

[Costafortune]

The original supercharged version was best. Heavy on fuel and with issues, but not the steaming pile the later R56 based car is. That engine - the BMW PSA 'Prince' is an absolute pig. The timing chain is shagged at 50'000 miles and the plastic guides break up, vacuum pumps can seize solid causing the chain to rip the pressed steel sprocket off the end of the cam, they leak oil, injector and high pressure fuel pump failure, inlet ports needing cleaning out etc. Oh, and the bores wear leading to comedy oil consumption. And they can chuck a conrod. Absolute shit.

'S' aside, a really clean late model R50 Cooper with the Getrag gearbox is worth buying.

[251 ENG]

Had my 2002 R53 from new .

Now got 216,000 on the clock

Still goes really well , but worth nothing

[LuisM]

Nice buy Andy
had quite some fun with a "twin" of yours
Fun car to drive, although brakes are crap... stock brakes fade after a couple of laps on hard driving.
Mine has a kind of torque bias Diff from stock , helps a bit on hard driving.

Make sure you check the compressor oil fluids, as far as i know this is not part of the Mini factory maintenance checks, but they can go low on oil level with time.

Here these cars worth 3 times what you paid

Have Fun.
Luis

[Lakeland997]

Thanks Luis, nice picture.
Ben’s going to fit upgraded maybe R56 brakes.
Looks like we’re going to have plenty of time on our hands this year to work on projects

[andy1071]

I'm on my 4th BMW.
2 Cooper S' -the 2nd one was a John Cooper Works -Lots of fun..!
I had a Clubman diesel (the first version), which felt like they'd done a lot of cost-cutting when they did the face-lift post '07...
But it was good on fuel...

I have just bought a friend's R50 Cooper. He was going to scrap it because it's got an ABS fault!
So I got it for approx £500!
It's MOT'd till the end of July, and in near perfect condition.
I'm pleasantly surprised!
It's not as fast as an 'S', of course, but it is fairly nippy -it has 115hp, and weights 1000kg, so similar to Mk2 Golf GTI in character.

I have found that the quality of the "Mk1" BMWs -R50, R53 does seem to be good.
They survive here in Sweden very well.
-A friend bought an S new in 2003 along with a Saab 9-5 for the wife/family car. They spent much more on the Saab than the Mini until 2018 when they got rid of the Saab (rusty to the point of failing the MOT here).
Another friend bought the Mini, and I've just done a pulley upgrade, exhaust and chipping for him. The car has lived outside for the whole of its life here and though there are a few localized surface rust issues, it's very sound and will go on for years...
they're very easy to work on, and everything is pretty easy to do (though changing the oil in the compressor is a little involved -but not difficult, there are good guides online -remember to change the water-pump at the same time).