I am looking at a 2008 Mini, base model, and have been looking around for any information about the known issues with the base model, but have turned up little to no info about these, only for the S and JCW, my usual source, Edmunds, has nothing available on this car.

The car currently has just under 65K, so I'm wondering what to expect as I add on the miles. I have seen plenty of issues that seem related to the turbo on the S models, but this wouldn't be relevant to what I'm looking at.

My main concern is, will this become a daily project to work on, or will is be good to go for a while? I don't mind doing some occasional work, but doing daily repairs has become a nightmare for my current car.

 

The non-S R56 cars seem to be more reliable than the S models. They are not immune to trouble, though--I have had at least two oil pump solenoid leaks repaired, and the thermostat housing replaced. But many of the more troublesome systems on the S are not present on the base Cooper, and some that are shared seem to have fewer failures.

 

We have a 2009 automatic and it's been pretty good. It has 157,000 kms on it so around 100k miles. It's due for the timing chain and tensioner to be done as it's starting to make some noises and the transmission is sluggish but it's an automatic so how much can one expect. I keep the oil changed and keep an eye on the brake wear so it doesn't hit the sensors (gee I sound cheap) and cost me more money but otherwise it gets the job done.

 

Thermostat and water pump went at 65k miles, not much else all the way to 80k so far. Very reliable and fun car.