To Mini or not to Mini?

Hey Folks.

About four years back I bought the Mrs a Fiat Palio 1.6El.
Other than being really raw and basic motoring it has served us well but im thinking that its time to part ways.

My wife has always wanted a Mini Cooper and last night she said to me that because we are going to look at having kids in the next two years she will probably never get to have one because it would be am impractical car with children.

I was thinking of possibly getting a 2002 - 2004 model Cooper around R90k for a year or two so that she can actually get to experience one.

So now I have the following questions.
Is a cooper with about 140k - 160k on the clocks still fairly fresh?

How are these things with parts compared to my E46 320d / E36 328i ?

Do these things have a Stoooopid freaken cambelt? How often must it be changed? average cost? can you get grey market parts?

Any other suggestions warning etc?

Cooper or Cooper S etc?

I would prefer to get her into an E46 Ti be she is determined that she want a mini.

the Palio is paid for and I can probably get about R25k for it. I dont really want to spend more than R1500 a month on an installment so R90k is about the top.

Thanks folks!

Damn, almost had the perfect car for you.

Well I have driven my 2004 Cooper S now for more than 3 years, and all I can say is that it was probably the best 3 car years of my life. They are fun, real put a smile on your face motoring.

They all have timing chains so no problem there, services at a BMW spesialist was never more than R1500 and that includes micro filter.

They are good on feul obviously depending on how you drive it. Mine is an S and I regularly get 8.7l/100km on chilled out drives.

Mine now has almost 150k km on the clock and I would say still as good as the day it was new.

Things to look out for is the powersteering pump, but even then, it is a relative okay R2500 odd fix and your off again.

The normal Cooper I would say is a good car for a girl, not to fast but that is sometimes a frustration, the S is obviously another animal.

And lastly, for use with kids. I don't know if you saw my add but there is accually a baby seat in the back. it does works cause kids don't tend to have long legs for the first few years. Entry into the back is relatively easy as the front seats do fold forward quite far and the doors are long. Our pram fits in the boot with a nappy bag and we have done a few trips like that.

I would say, for a everyday car, there is probably no better option.

Just make sure you don't by an abused one to start off with. Maybe consider spending a bit more for a good one, Like mine. hheheh

Cheers

Thank you for the response.

Does the S cost more to repair than the aspirated version?

Are there any super charger reliability issues like on my 320d`s turbo?

I think I must go and drive both and see from there.

Well, the normal Cooper has less stuff that can go wrong obviously. And has space for a spare wheel.

But there is very little to suggest that the S goes wrong. Myne is as I said on 150k km and it is still to give a hickup. Think they changed the lobe coating on the 2004 facelift which is in anycase the ones you should look at. anything after 11/2004 is a facelift with a few under the skin improvements.

And service cost between the two is the same, they use the same air filter, same oil filter, same plugs.

Best is to drive both, the S has a harder clutch operation, more difficult but more direct gearing and is generally just a more focused car than the stock Cooper.