Hi all. I am a Mini Newbie. My GF has always wanted one. I always thought they were cute, but not for me.

I found myself in the position of needing a commuter car, having to drive 90 miles a day to get to work now, as opposed to taking the subway. My regular car is not one you want to pile miles on, so I went looking for a car.

It is amazing how little car you can buy for $5K. Everything in that range is crap, or at least everything I looked at.

So then I thought about buying a new, small car (Scion B, Corolla, Nissan Cube, Kia Soul), but I didn't want a payment.

So I woke up Saturday and saw an ad for an 03 MCS with 83000 miles for $7500. A quick check on edmunds showed that the car trade in value was over $8K and retail was closer to $10K. Some looking on ebay, autotrader and others confirmed this.

Went and took a look at her, drove her for 15 minutes and an hour later was out the dealer's door with my new toy.

I have not bought a used car in some time, so I went through what I used to go through, give it an oil change, do any required maintenance for the mileage, etc. She did need two tires, which I knew about prior to purchase. Imagine my chagrin finding out what a goofy size tire is on the car. Pep Boys, R&S, no luck. Firestone had 2, and in just one model. w/e, went and bought them and had them put on.

I then took her to a detail shop and had them clean her up, as she was very dirty. (I actually bought her from a wholesaler, who does no prep to the used cars he has, but I saved a tone of $, so yay me.)

After all the cleaning and oil change and tires, I am very happy. Car drives quickly, has decent acceleration, and like a lot of people say, handles like a go cart. For commuting, I bought a windshield mount for my Droid, which I am using as GPS and cop spotting via Trapster.

The only problems I have right now, as far as I can tell, are the fuel sending unit is probably bad, as the gas gauge does nto read correctly, even after a reset and there are two idiot lights out. Not sure which ones, I just know when I went into the computer setup and ran the 2 program which shows all the lights, and tests all the outputs, two are out.

So, I read up on how to change the sending unit and will do the fuel filter while I am in there. I will fix the two idiot lights this weekend, then I have a fun commuter car, which doubles as the spare car on weekends if the GF and I have separate plans.

I am a carbon fiber addict, so the first fun thing I am doing is to install some 3M DI-CON on the interior, as there are some scratches, etc. Watched a lot of videos and looks pretty straight forward.

Looking forward to being an active member.

 

Welcome, enjoy your new 2 you MINI..

 

Well I hope your MINI puchase turns out to be a good one, you seem to be aware to keep a lookout for problems. Take care of it and it will take care of you.

 

You're gonna love your new (to you) MINI.
I also purchase a used "04 MCS and have had very few problems.

 

Congrats, great deal, have fun, and motor on.

 

Thanks guys.

I just ran ran the fuel check, option 6.1, from the computer this morning, and my guess was right. The right side sensor was sending zero, and the left side was sending 14.8 (liters), so it is the sending unit. Ordering one today.

Since one of the senders is working, I actually do have a functioning gauge, to an extent. The gauge is at 1/4 now, but I actually have 1/2, so I guess I have twice the gas the gauge shows. Fun.

I ordered some DI NOC and will be doing the interior bits when I get it. Will post pics.

 

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