Year: 2009
Make: MINI
Model: Hardtop
Price: $3600
Mileage: 86000
Color: Blue/white
Private or Dealer Listing: Private Listing
Location (Region): NorCal

It started out as hobby and now its more like a disease. I have so many Mini Coopers on my driveway, my neighbors think im going to pull an Itialian Job.

I usually drive a Chevy Volt but about two years ago i wanted to get a car for my daughter so i ended up buying the red MK-1 cooper you see here. I found it on Craigslist and they were asking for only $1200 for it, but with a known jerky automatically transmission. I towed it home and then after another $3800 in parts and two trips to the dealer to get the tranny ECU programmed, i got a car for my little girl for what ends up like a little less than double what im asking for it now.

Well that's how most story starts, but now as you can see by the photo's, it has entirely consumed my living space and i'm over run by mini coopers to my left, and to my right.

My kids are now old enough to go to college, and their out of the house,and so Daddy wants, no make that NEEDS, to get himself a Hog. Not the ones that you make bacon out of, but a real deal, 2017 Harley Davidson Ultra Limited with the 107cc water cooled motor and heated grips and all that.. I figure i can sell most of my mini collection and have enough for the some upgrades.

Ive always been pretty handy with the wrench, and so i searched on the internet (isn't that how most sickness starts?) and i found out the newer MK-2 R56's have timing chain issue's. Hmm who would guess good ole BMW would put out such a poor product huh... (<---- sarcasm fully intended... lol )

Long story short, i find the blue one you see with a bad timing chain, got the red mk-2 MCS supposedly as a parts car for the blue one, i rebuild the head on both, get them both running but something was urging me to buy more mini coopers like an uncontrollable itch i couldn't scratch, so i find another cherry, low mileage, fully loaded 07 MCS with comfort package that supposedly had a bad "chain" as well. I tow it home and that chain wasn't the timing chain, but more like the oil pump chain, motor was ran until the bearings fused to the crank and so out goes the motor and back in fully rebuilt motor and that one runs like a champ.

i was having surging issues idle with the blue one but that has since been resolved. Since the blue one was low miles and automatic, i was going to upgrade my daughters mk-1 but instead i had her learn how to drive a six speed with the silver MCS and now, she loves the 3 pedal and wont give the car back.

That's the story on all my cars, ive been told im a ok, not so bad father, and these cars were all at one time or another, destined to be my daughters car, so you know the mechanical and maintenance upkeep had been above and beyond what a father would be comfortable with their daughters driving.



Ill list each car separately below with details to the best of my knowledge. I'll be as transparent as possible. My asking price is somewhat negotiable, but i think its way below market value. All these cars im asking less than what i actually paid the original owner plus the cost of parts. Consider my time working on it as a bonus. Every car has a recent smog within a month and half, so it doesn't need to be done again for new owner unless you wait past the smog expiration date.

Red 2005 MK-1 mini cooper normally aspirated. auto tranny, 108k miles. Clean Title $2800

The good: great gas mileage 29+, new Bridgestone tires with Costco warranty less 1k miles ago, fully loaded with sunroof,nicer stereo package, leather,upgraded climate controls, steering wheel controls for audio, cruise, phone ect... New(ish) tranny with 50k miles installed and dealer programed at 98k miles, recent synthetic oil change, recent smog, i have two oem keys for this car

The bad: ding in the rear lid, driver side lock needs to use key, squeaky front right strut, cloudy headlight, paint is ok for 14 y/o car. Its pretty slow and extremely small. Its not smaller or slower than an new 2005 cooper, its just im use to the turbo's and the size of the MK-2's i guess.








Red 2007 MK-2 Mini Cooper S turbo 6 speed R56 104k miles 6 speed Salvaged title $2800

The Good: Super fast, 3 pedal 6 speed, recent passed smog flying colors, rebuilt and bench tested head, new valves and seats,timing chain, belts, head gasket, head bolts + cam bolts, new vanos valve, new pre+post cat o2 sensors, recent synthetic oil change, leather premium package, upgraded climate control, sunroof (in-op) and glass roof, custom 17 in sparco wheels with new ish tires, i was told the prev owner paid 1k + for the wheels, has brand new brake pads and sensors, rotors were within sped so they were turned, kenwood dvd double din nav which doesn't have a constant power so memory dies, i installed my jl audio sub and amp but will be keeping those if i sell the car. paint is in pretty decent condition except for the hood where some clear is pealing.

The Bad: Salvaged title , i originally got this car for $2k thinking i would use it as parts for the blue one, but the repair were so minor i didn't even need to take the head off to fix so i just fixed it to drive. Since i had to take off the head to inspect it, it was decided to do the head job anyways. Previous owner was "younger" and so the car drives like that. was told it was salvaged due to front bumper replacement. there is a annoying squeak that always is present. i think i didn't put the center plastic grill back correctly or it could be something else. Its nice when your driving alone and its like the car is always communicating with you. car drives wonderfully and is faster than hell, but it could use a new set of polyurethane bushing at all the joints plus probably wheel bearings in the rear to make it drive like a new car. i only have one key for this car. The brake indicator is always on, im thinking the sensor wire was pinched and was not repaired correctly. Changed the pads and sensor and light still stays on. I also spent about 4 hours sanding and buffing the headlights and the results were so-so. I also have not cracked the tranny connection but i estimate the clutch is about 60% or so.








2009 Mini Cooper S Turbo MK-2 R56 86k miles Automatic Clean title. Recent smog done. $3600

The Good: Cooper S auto with lots of power, recent synthetic oil change, new OEM coils, new(ish) injectors with new(ish) HPFP, Head job just done with completely rebuilt and bench tested/leak down tested head. new valves with valve seals, new head gasket, head bolts, cam bolts, new vanos valve, new timing chain complete with guides and chain cog thingy. new thermostat/thermostat housing with full coolant flush with oem (blue) coolant, tires are matching and decent at 60-65%, paint is in excellent condition.
This car was originally destined to be an upgrade for my daughter from her MK-1 since it drove so nice and had so much more power and was an automatic. She has since learned how to drive a stick ( over one weekend no less) and has fallen in love with the 3 pedal setup and decided to keep my other R56 instead. (im so proud of her, i think she might have Mobile-1 in her veins like her old man)

The BAD: Its really not bad since the issue had been fixed but in the interest of transparency, it had a funky rough idle for a while which had me stumped and also some really smart guys on these forums stumped. i started a thread asking for help and got some really good advice. i haven't updated the thread yet , but if you do a search, you see a video of me driving the car with the rough idle. Long story short, we went though everything at least twice under the hood, and it actually need an almost dealer level diagnostic machine to get into the specific mini cooper menus to reset all the codes. i was using a decent Launch branded scanner, but it wouldn't get me into the battery registration menu, or all the other specific codes that got thrown when the original owner had the timing chain fail. Car drives like a champ, and has no rattles or squeaks usually associated with higher mileage cars. The engine bay was super clean and you could tell it was taken care of, hence why i wanted my little girl to take this one. The other negatives i could mention is that the tpms is in-op. From what the scanners tell me, one of the wheel sensors are not registering with the ECU and since these cars use tire rotation differential (as opposed radio transmitted pressure sensors) to notify you one tire is low on air, the tpms does not reset.
Rear trunk lid has a ding, driver side door sill missing metal "mini cooper s" trim piece, car is pretty base model, fabric seats, basic climate controls ect...







2013 Mini Cooper Countryman S Turbo N18 motor R60 73k miles Clean title, Automatic $8000 (maybe)

The Good: Drives like new, fast as hell for an SUV (Sav mini calls it) I just got this a week ago. The poor owner got it new in 13 for like 35-40k i think and one day he was driving and the freeze plug / machining plug just falls out and floods the engine with coolant. The dealer tells him that he ran the car overheated and blew the plug and being dealers, they wont repair but need to replace which cost more than the value of the car.
Anyone with an R60 or with an N18 motor should just periodically take off the valve cover and knock that plug in or at least make sure its tight. Ive seen his happen many times before and it should really be a recall item.
I did the right thing and told the owner about the plug and how dealers are programmed to do/say certain things yada yada yada. But i guess he wasnt the mechanical type and was fed up with issues on this car so i got a decent deal on the car and towed it home and was driving it within a couple hours. Fully flush out the old chocolate milk and used a detergent flush on the cooling so its like new now. The dealer somehow talked the owner into having new coils, plugs, and updated thermostat installed so those are also new. It has leather seats, nice climate control, Bluetooth for the phone but for some reason it does not stream audio through that connection, so there's an aftermarket Bluetooth adapter to play music. Also new Bosch wiper blades (more on that in the "bad" section below)

The Bad: Tires are in decent shape with about 45% left but three are continental and one is Pirelli branded. big scratch on the hood, see pix, minor scuffing on rear bumper, light curb rash on gun metal powder coated wheels, owner had a infant so the car was FILTHY when i got it, ive detailed it pretty good, but there's some random cheerios and fruit chewy hidden in secrete spots. was missing drivers side rear tow hook cover so i ordered one used that is a different color and vinyl wrapped it gloss black. drivers side mirror is missing cover and was damaged when it lost that cover i think so a new one has been ordered and installed. and now for my bone head contribution to this bad list, i ordered new bosch oem wiper blades and took off the original ones to install. left the wiper in the up position when my brother walks by and im excited to show him how i fixed this car in a couple hours and how i cleaned up the engine bay so i run over to open the hood and that hood slams the now all metal wiper arm down and cracks the window. For some reason only known to the windshield gods, this window cant be repaired and has to be replaced. The crack is on the inside. Yeah, hard as it is to believe, i smashed the window with the wiper arm and it cracked inside. Dont ask me how that happened.

A final note on this car is that i put "Maybe" on the asking price since im on the fence about selling it. Its really nice and i think if i dont keep one mini cooper i may relapse and keep buying more to work on. I think its well below market value so im gonna test the waters and see what offers if get i guess.

Thanks for looking and here's the pictures of the countryman. feel free to text me or pm me with questions about any of these cars, or even if you have a mini and have questions regarding your own car. I actually enjoy car talk with other enthusiast, and I think iv'e worked on these cars enough to be able to offer some decent advice on technical items, or just advice if your looking to purchase you first mini, even if your not buying from me. God knows i've used this forum for countless questions answered so its only fair to return the favor if anyone needs it.

408-360-7416 text please for inquiries related to cars im selling. pm/email for everything else
im in the bay area, evergreen of san jose to be exact. i also work in fremont so i could drive a car to work if needed to test drives during work hours.