Mini Cooper S

[RickRob]

Mrs R made the surprise announcement at the weekend that we should get another car, in addition to the Discovery 4 and the Zed. We cannot manage without 2 cars and we're both concerned that the Zed shouldn't be relied upon in the event that we get a hard winter.

I'm thinking of getting a Cooper S. Probably looking to spend no more than £6k.

Any tips for things to look out for or views that this is a good/bad idea?

Thanks!

 

[Angelus666]

Get the manual, don't get the auto....they're truly awful.

 

[Smartbear]

I would get the cooper as opposed to the cooper s, it’s a more reliable car & still fun to drive.
The forced induction cars can be troublesome :?
Rob

 

[99ron]

My daugher has the r56 cooper and agree it is fun. That inspired me to buy the JCW which is absolutely halarious. Google death rattle for timing chains and make sure its been done. Engines need a walnut blast after a while, not expensive I hear. Both issues had already been done on my JCW before i bought it. They burn a bit of oil so keep an eye on that. I have just done an interim oil change on mine as 2 year intervals are too long and I think with the Millers I put in it seems to not be burning so much oil. Prices can vary I found based on spec. I found a nice car with great history and spec. Chilli pack seems essential then the rest is up to your needs. Heated seats and front screen were desirable winter must haves for me. Plenty of choice around so take your time and find a good one.
Oh and there are some suspension bushes at the front that are a common issue and require a dropped subframe to replace. Costs about 300 quid. Mine were done at 45k and polybushed.

 

[RickRob]

Get the manual, don't get the auto....they're truly awful.

Thanks - it will be a manual.

I would get the cooper as opposed to the cooper s, it’s a more reliable car & still fun to drive.
The forced induction cars can be troublesome :?
Rob

Thanks Rob. I get the "less things to go wrong" point, but am concerned that a Cooper may feel a bit unexciting compared with the S. I proabably should test drive one of each.

My daugher has the r56 cooper and agree it is fun. That inspired me to buy the JCW which is absolutely halarious. Google death rattle for timing chains and make sure its been done. Engines need a walnut blast after a while, not expensive I hear. Both issues had already been done on my JCW before i bought it. They burn a bit of oil so keep an eye on that. I have just done an interim oil change on mine as 2 year intervals are too long and I think with the Millers I put in it seems to not be burning so much oil. Prices can vary I found based on spec. I found a nice car with great history and spec. Chilli pack seems essential then the rest is up to your needs. Heated seats and front screen were desirable winter must haves for me. Plenty of choice around so take your time and find a good one.
Oh and there are some suspension bushes at the front that are a common issue and require a dropped subframe to replace. Costs about 300 quid. Mine were done at 45k and polybushed.

Many thanks for all of this. I am very tempted by a JCW, but they seem to be beyond my ( very provisional) budget. I will check the points you raise. Chilli pack does seem like a good place to start.

 

[Ewazix]

I'm on my 3rd iteration of BMW including the first generation Cooper and an R56 Turbo Cooper S. I'll sum up the S in three words fast, fun and fragile! Fuel pump at 23k miles (warranty). Timing chain gear at 26k miles (Warranty). Oil leak gearbox/engine 26k (warranty). Coked head requiring blasting (warranty). Interior rattles...... everywhere and change depending on the weather! I outed it days before the warranty passed as my nerves couldn't take it, great drivers car but suffice to say I'd have another R56 but definitely not the S.

 

[ocrx8]

My R56 S was also on the fragile side - thankfully mine was an AUC. I racked up circa £5k repairs in 18 months alone. Although the car was fun, never again!

 

[Nictrix]

Had an R56 Cooper for around 4 years.
Be prepared for a big bill if you get any oil leaks from the crank seal as it wrecks the clutch and the whole engine/gearbox needs taken out of the car to split and fix. had this twice.
The thermostat housing are plastic and glued together, these split apart at the seam and dump all your coolant. This also happened twice.
Rear calipers seize and need replaced. Changed these.
Door lock actuators can stop working. Changed this.
Not exactly great on fuel for such a small car, struggling to get 40mpg.
And as said already they burn oil, up to 1 litre per thousand miles is deemed acceptable by Mini/BMW. Ours used 1/2 litre per thousand miles so was lucky that way.
Wouldn't have another one even if they are quite nice to drive.

 

[Buckz]

I looked at them but was put off by the reliability. You'd expect them to be good but they're terrible and many don't want to work on them due to how tight packed they're. I'm now looking at Suzuki swift sport.

 

[Anonymous]

I got the R56 Cooper S new in 2007 and kept it for four years. It was fun to drive but consumed oil at the rate of a litre every 2000 miles which I thought was excessive but BMW disagreed. Cabin rattles absolutely drove me crazy, worse than the 2004 R52 Cooper I had before it and I thought that was bad. It proved quite reliable over the 60k miles I racked up and 40 plus mpg was regularly achieved. I also found it comfortable on long journeys. Despite that I'm not surprised by others on this forum who have described it as fragile - I got the feeling that it would prove an expensive car to maintain longer term.

 

[Steve84N]

I don't get it, you live in West Sussex so the most you need for a hard winter is a set of winter tyres which will cost you next to nothing in comparison...

 

[hopz121]

My misses maybe looking to sell her 07 MCS if you are interested,

Full Mini history and many big jobs already done.

Also had all disc's and pads done not so long ago and 4 new Goodyear eagle F1 tyres (non runflat) fitted under 2000 miles ago.

Its done around 50000 Miles from memory and is Chilli Red with Chilli Pack and a few other bits.

 

[Nick_in_Suffolk]

2009 R56 Cooper D, 2011 Cooper SD and finally a 2013 JCW. A total of just over 90k miles covered. Oil consumption, zero. Only fault was a radiator in the SD, which might have been a stone on the M25, but replaced under warranty. The 2 diesels managed over 55 mpg and the JCW 42mpg (over its 34k miles).

Were it not for the lack of practicality, the other 3 cars we have fall well short of that requirement, I might have kept the JCW until the government prised it out of my hands.

 

[raymond.harper]

My wife has an R56 with the world's worst dip stick. Combined with a thirst for oil and inaccurate dip stick reading a bit of a problem child. Dip stick conversion that you can read costs £80 but in the end I just filed down one side of the stick and now get accurate readings. But a very solid car unlike a Suzuki Swift. However our Swift has needed nothing in 5 years other than tyres. Mini has needed radiator, thermostat housing and water pump and run flat tyres.

 

[Nictrix]

On the R56 non S model you could fit a space saver spare wheel under the rear of the car.
There is a kit available and it can only be fitted to the non S model as the S models exhaust exits in the centre.
Runflats were ditched straight away in favour of this. Never needed it though.

 

[tomscott]

Ive had 3 loved them. 2x R56 one cooper one cooper S and a new one I think the R62.

Had the oil seal issues on both R56 and thankfully was fixed under warranty.

Unfortunately the last one I bought, latest model 2.0l has an engine issue. It had 2 new engines/gearbox/clutches/flywheels in 12k. Crankshaft sheared twice. All warranties thank god. It was an absolute ordeal as it needed to be picked up by recovery every time. So embarrassing.

Dont buy a 64-65 car they were updated once we got the 3rd engine it seemed ok but all confidence was lost wont be buying one again. Didnt ever drive it hard it was a commuter.

 

[Monkeydonkeyratmagic]

The Turbo R53's are good (these are the proper JCW's and quite rare) the JCW tuning pack is a different thing outright. The rest are unreliable crap tbh.

But for £6k if you want a decent motor for hooning about it, You could get a 13 plate Fiesta ST at a push, I've had mine since March 2013 straight out of the factory, now on over 70K very hard abusive miles and it's never ever ever had any warranty work or anything go wrong or break, no lights on at all. Cannot fault it. All it's cost me is brakes, oil, plugs and tyres. Cambelt life is 12 years or 125k (Ford quote Long life cambelt bathed in oil) Over the past 1100miles I've averaged 42.3MPG and all time best of 44.7MPG over a full tank to panic mode when it read 0 and racked up 457 miles on the tank. Now she runs Pumaspeed 265pack and performs admirably. Far superior to any Mini S model.

Or seeing as we love BMW here.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/bmw/2006-bmw-130i-m-sport-5-door-manual-grey-leather/1271989890

£6k, solid engine 30+MPG what's not to like. Plus they are pretty rare and don't seem to want to drop below the £5k mark for a decent example.

 

[99ron]

On engines, the Turbo R56 models (S and JCW) had two 1.6 variants. N14 and then upgraded to N18. Standard Cooper was N12.
N18 available from 2010 onwards on Cooper S but 2012 onwards on JCW.
If you have a MINI logo between the Spark plugs and air box, that's an N14. The N18 has a cover over the engine with a MINI logo on it, that surrounds the oil cap.
These were apparently more reliable but likely over your planned budget. Certainly prefer them over the later F56 2.0.

A really nice R53 with the supercharged engine might be worth a look also. Probably done all it's depreciation. There wasn't a factory R53 JCW but there was a Cooper S with JCW pack. These are certainly worth a look, maybe a late 2006 model with low mileage, great history and spec.

 

[dans6490]

We’ve just sold my wife’s 2002 cooper S (supercharged) with JCW pack. 70k miles. Really didn’t want to sell but was
no longer practical for her job. Absolutely mint for a 15 year old car:

 

[elevensies]

my wife has the diesel cooper,
i hate it with a passion
its tighter inside than my 4 coupe, its bloody awful in most aspects apart from 60mpg and cheap road tax, but
it blew a turbo at 100 tho :thumbsdown:
its had rear calipers :thumbsdown:
front discs :thumbsdown:
front drop links :thumbsdown:
rear bushes :thumbsdown:
drinks oil :headbang:
and has stop start technology that once just stopped!!!! and diddnt start. :!:

once shes found a car she likes the mini is gone