After 35 years of a manual transmission and a steadily worsening knee, I had decided to trade my Mazda3 for an AT wagon/hatch to enhance my frequent camping trips. I test-drove a Jetta wagon (beautiful and boring), a VW GTI (fast, expensive, hesitatingly responsive) and was about to test a Volvo v50 when my girlfriend noticed the racing-green Mini S on the lot. It looked brand new; the salesman then informed me that it was a 2005/AT/one owner......with 9K miles! It turned out that the former owner was a rich car enthusiast who owns 20-30 cars at any given time. He is such a good customer that they take his castaways on consignment as a favor to him. I bought it for under 17K and by adding a 4yr warranty plan I have a virtually new car. It has nearly every option (and more after-market) save leather and nav.
It is an incredibly fun car to drive and solid as a rock. My knee feels better just looking at it in my driveway. Now all I have to do is figure out how I'll fit all my camping gear in it.

 

Congrats & welcome from a former bay area resident (Alameda). Boy do I ever miss it in the summer time. Hope you enjoy your MINI for a long time...

 

Congrats! Sounds like you were in the right place at the right time. What an incredible story! Enjoy!

 

Congrats let the fun begin

 

Congrats and welcome to the insanity!

I dont want to hear any of the hatchback owners complaining about fitting stuff in...until you have tried to fit stuff in the cabrio boot, you havent any right. (Not that I would trade Smurfette for anything!)

 

Great story!

Show us some pics if you get a chance!

 

Congrats on the new ride.

Going from a Cabrio to a Clubbie gave us all the room in the world. We can stuff a weeks worth of camping gear and a weeks worth of normal vacation gear in the boot of the Clubbie. We just remove the foam insert in the wheel well of the clubbie and stuff all the camping gear below the load floor. A couple of suitcases on the top and we are good to go for 2 weeks family of 4.

We will have to be event more MINImalist for hardtop but will make it work.

 

Woo hoo!! Sounds like a marvelously handsome purchase. And all the options to boot. Congrats Scotharr!

 

I think you will be pleasantly surprised at exactly how much you can fit into your Mini, especially if you have the luxury of folding down the rear seats. I know that I surprised myself a few weeks ago with the capacity.

 

No pic's = did not happen

 

Welcome to the forum, hope you and the '05 MINI have a long and happy relationship, ENJOY!

 

Thanks, everybody. I look forward to many fun adventures in this beautiful little car. My father, like the former owner, was a car junkie (2-3 new car purchases a year throughout my childhood), and I got the gene without the bank account. Had he lived long enough, I'm sure he would have owned a Mini at some point.
Attached is the dealer photo.......

 

That is a sweet MINI. I think you got a bargain since it really is a new car. If you need some extra space, you can always look to accessory companies like Mini-do-more http://www.minidomore.com/index.php There are many aftermarket companies making about anything you can imagine for this car. Happy motoring!

 

Very nice!