That sounds like it could be a problem with the clutch's master or slave cylinder or the hydraulic line connecting them, which is not a terribly difficult repair. I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya....

C ya,
Dutch

 

Here's what I said in May of 2009:
Here it is June of 2011 and I've still got her. She's up to about 152k now and still going. We've been to 3 MOTDs and 3 Mickey and MINIs and 3 MTTS' (Miami AND Chi town in 2010) since I got her back in March 2008.

I'm eyeing the new Coupe. If I end up with one of those, INDI will become a garage queen.

 

Plans are set for me to be buried in the 02S, leave me sitting in the seat, put some dirt in the hole and walk away. It is absolutely one of the best cars I have ever owned, and at 59 1/2 I have owned many. He only comes out in the summer and only when I leave the Triumph Tiger in the garage. 69k on the clock and still goes like stink! The plans are firm, no sale....unless my grandson can talk me out of it in 15 years or so.
Mike

 

If I were him I'd hold out for the Tiger...

 

well, if things go as planned i'll be holding on to every mini i ever buy.

 

Keeping this one

 

I am lucky in that my '04 JCW is not a daily driver, so it doesn't see winters or other bad weather. I have been able to keep the miles down and treat each occasion behind the wheel as a special event. All leading to my plan to actually keep it forever.

 

I'm keeping my 2005 MC forever. I am pretty confident that I'll never own another car that I like as much, so I'm going to make this one last. The mileage is currently at 72k, and I don't plan on driving it more than a couple thousand miles a year from here on out. I bought a $1400 daily driver in November, so the MC is officially a garage queen.

 

My wife will park hers before too long. We want to keep the R53 forever, that is why every time we go on a long trip, we put the miles on the R56! I think it will be a cool car to have some day.

 

great idea

Too bad I couldn't afford to keep both

 

I'm going to keep my 2006 Hyper Blue MCS for as long as I can. It seems this car is the best of the current Mini's as even R56+ owners are selling and buying/trading "down" for the R53's. This speaks volumes! It really is more of a "Pure Drivers Car" and I really love it.

 

I dont know how many more sunrises and sunsets I get, although I hope to be one of those fellas who says "If I had known I was going to live this long, i'd have taken better care of myself."... so, forever is a relative term. I feel really young, so I'm going to take that as a good sign.

I have loved these cars since I was in gradeschool. My first matchbox EVER was the original MINI-COOPER, orange one.

I knew going in that these cars cost more to maintain when things go wrong than most other cars... But my wife has come to note that I dont tend to do anything "in plain vanilla".... That is, anything I do, I do with flair, go-the-extra-mile, exciting, etc. When I decided I wanted to get a car that got better mileage than my 2002 Silverado pickup for my three hour drives each month to do my National guard drills... I almost bought a rebuilt 76 Datsun 280Z... But, for not much more money I got what I think is a better car, better mileage and this one is really originally immaculate.

Now, life is not perfect: This car ALREADY has 130k miles on it, and its only an '05 MC. I can't say how many of this or that have been replaced on it as I just got it. It has real tires though as I'm SURE the DF ones are long-gone. I have a plug-fixxer kit in the boot, and an AAA card in my wallet. And, i just replaced the boot struts, just to make it easier to open up the tailgate. And added the AUX JACK so I can listen to tunes for many miles to come.

I want to have my wife have to decide for me (at the end) whether I am buried in Mini or on my Harley. So, i'm in this for the long-haul. i tend to be loyal to-a-fault. So, if this car tries to be as good a car as I think it will, then I'm not going to let it go...

p.s. ~ my favorite commercial ever is the Tootsie-Roll commercial where the kid asks the wise old owl "How many licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop...?" The owl then counts one(lick), two(licks).. three(licks)... CHOMP. "Three".

So, we'll see if I can lick it to death, or if it has to get chomped. who knows, it may last longer than me.

 

pretty funny pilotguy - good luck with it.

at 8 years and 175k miles i seem to have gone chomp too...

but at 57 i do still hope to outlast it...

cheers,

Charlie

 

I hope to keep mine for a very long time.

The only cars I would replace it with would be a Lotus Elise or a "rust-Free" 914-6 for under $20K.

Probably will not happen in my lifetime...

 

If I was asked this question 10 years ago the answer would have been NO WAY, but as I've aged I've changed. When I was younger I used to chance vehicles with the seasons. I never kept anything longer than 6 or 7 months it seemed, but lately I've lost the urge to wrench "all the time". I never would have guessed that the time would come that my two main drivers are both late models (2007 Jeep Wrangler and a 2008 MCSc). Granted I still have my old iron sitting in wait for when I retire (1954 VW conv, and a 1970 Cutlass S/W with 455 c.i. monster) but for now it's just easier to have the newer vehicles.

 

Mini, has about 99k on her right now shes a cvt so well see but im planing on keeping it forever haha.

 

Will be keeping mine

 

Have had my 02 MCS for about six years now, and enjoyed every day. My son will begin driving soon and I will be handing over the keys to him. In turn he will pass the car onto my daughter when she turns 16. Fortunately, I work from home so I have no need for a car during the day. By the time she graduates high school (6.5 years) I'm guessing the wheels may indeed be falling off.

 

I'll be keeping my 05 & 06 MCS's forever and later pass it on to my grand kids.

 

Yep, I'm planning on keeping my 05 MCS forever - I contemplated replacing it with an 06 MCSa so that the wife could drive it . . but who was I kidding, I'd never let her drive my Mini!!

 

My 04 MCS has 97K and it is in better shape than most 1 yr olds. I got a telecommute job now so I 'm not putting much mileage I used to. I plan to will it to my daughter. It is the best car I've owned hands down. No problems at all except for new tires and brakes.

 

Posted in January 2010:

March 2012 update:

We're days away from our 4 year warranty running out, still less than 36,000 miles.

Toddlers and twelve year olds do indeed love convertibles. So does this 40 year old Old man.

 

We too plan to keep our 06 MCS as long as parts and service are available. With that in mind we started collecting information about the first gen MINIS just before taking delivery and have ever since. We are sharing that information with MINI community in the web site below as our contribution to those owners who share our passion.

 

Thank you very kindly for that great resource.

Sincerely,

Charlie

 

I will keep my mc40 monte carlo as long as i can i love it