Well, a new used Mini Cooper S owner, an '07 BRG hatchback/black roof, mirrors, with 62k on the odometer. Neat car which I've put about 4k on it since last October when I bought it. They tell me I'm the 4th owner but the car is in terrific shape. It had 3 outstanding recalls on it, timing chain?, heat shield, turbo water pump which the Mini dealer in Charleston, SC performed free of charge. Other than that, just an oil change. Oh, the front sun roof shade is droopy, but the stick on screen takes care of that. It's a 6 speed with leather, xenons (headlight washers), climate control, standard radio I think. No BT, but it does have dual rear fog lights and the space that's blank of toggle on most dashes if filled! 17" Mini wheels with new Pirelli P-Zero Neros. This makes car #38 I've owned, but the first Mini.
Others, e.g., Cayman S, Z4, Miatae, RX-8, SLK, et al, have been tracked, autos'd, etc. Without going into gory details, I'll leave this as an intro to this forum

 

I am very happy to hear that the dealer fixed the problems that you mentioned. These are fun cars to drive; however, being the 4th owner of a MINI Cooper S made between 2007 and 2010 is not a good thing to advertise. A positive thing is that your car still has good value on KBB. A word of advice for you: if you feel the problems are about to start -- do an "offload" before you dump a ton of money into your car. (the only exception is if you can do your own maintenance)

 

Not dealing with a newbie to cars here. I was changing out disc brakes on the driveway with my 2 yr. old 68 Volvo 245S when you were...
I was well aware of the issues plaguing Minis before making the purchase. While I'll have to live with some cheap plastics, I did get the dealer to throw in a 3 year extended warranty on all the pricey stuff. The worst I'll have to deal with are window motors (had those fail on my 2000 Mercedes 430CLK). Nonetheless, the dealer I went to, Hendrick BMW-Mini, races Minis and wins. I drive mine pretty much "like I stole it" and the mech said I "should be OK for 150-200k. Only those who putter around at 1500 rpm have major mech issues." In fact, I have one friend here who has an '02 with over 200k on it and runs fine. The interior looks like crap though. And yes, I know mine is a turbo vs his sc. Maybe you missed the part where I've tracked and autox'd against Minis since they returned to production. Also spent the better part of 10 years working for SCCA at Roebling Road. 'nuf said. I'm forewarned.