I'm amazed all the time by how well engineered Mini's are...We bought our first Mini Cooper about 5 years ago with about 26K on it...it's a 2006 Mini Cooper base model. Right after I bought it I got the Bently manual because I try to do most of my own maintenance. When we were growing up my Dad would work on all our cars and he had me and my brother out in the garage with him...handing him wrenches mostly..but watching and learning...never afraid to get it a try for the most part.

Our 2006 Mini Cooper base now has 139K and I just changed the drive belt for the first time...I know...it should probably be changed every 50K but I kept checking it and it never showed any wear. I bought the tension release tool and changed it today. The tool is very cool...at first I couldn't figure out how it went on the tensioner but figured it out after a few minutes. Once I locked it into place and took the old belt off I was amazed to find no wear and no bad places on the belt but given the age/miles on the belt I changed it. It was very easy to do and I followed the steps in the Bently manual.

Anyway...now it's ready for some more miles.

Oh...my latest addition is also a 2006 Mini Cooper...this time an "S" model I found with amazingly low miles...it only had 18130 miles on it when we drove it off the lot. Extremely clean and well cared for...I'll be changing the drive belt on the Mini Cooper S in a month or two just to be on the safe side but I'll need to order another belt tensioner tool made just for the "S" model.

 

Amazing on the belt as well as the S with that low miles. How about some pictures of the S?

 

I've been meaning to take pictures up close...here are a few pictures but they don't really do it justice...

 

That car looks pretty good for 10 years old. Some nice low mile Gen1's are still out there.

Looks like head light washers so must have some nice options.

 

Thank you...I was very impressed when we test drove it...there was a small rub on the right front wheel but other than that very little sign of wear/use. The headlights are Xenon but no head light washers.

It's got the upgraded HK sound system with separate amp/sound processor but no CD Changer, six-speed manual, sunroof, digital AC etc...nothing really special but a very nice and very clean 1st Gen Mini.

 

Nice R53!