Hey guys,
I am the new owner of a 2007 Mini Cooper. I have some issues with the vehicle but first some background:

I am a car guy an have been since I was a kid. I am fortunate enough to have an income that allows me to have nicer than average cars but I do not have the income to support the dream supercar. I was on YouTube and ran across the TEDx talk about the guy who started with a paper clip and made several trades ending up with a home. I figured if someone could do that starting with a paperclip, why not do the same thing with a car and end up with my dream car(hence the name Mini2AMG).

My plan is to help both the buyer and myself. The buyer will get a straightforward deal with nothing hidden and a slightly below market price point while I will make a small profit off of each vehicle, rolling the profits into the next vehicle. Rinse and repeat until I am the proud owner of an SLS AMG.

Here is where the Mini comes in.

I purchased the vehicle sight unseen from a local online auction. Normally I go to these things to see the car but with COVID still circulating I decided to purchase online and avoid the crowd. The auction site is usually pretty good about answering questions real time as well so I wasn't super worried about getting something with major issues.

I wound up with the winning bid on a 2007 Mini Cooper Hatchback, red with stripes.

The good:
It has 98,800 miles and the exterior is a 8.5/10 and the interior is a 9.5/10. The car fires right up. Steering, brakes, and suspension seem fine as I had it up to 70 mph on the freeway and I didn't notice any vibration or odd noises.

The bad:
The car has 2 main issues:
1.) Once warmed up the throttle blips rapidly between 1000-2000 rpm. This is powerful enough that you need to hold the brakes down hard to keep the car from launching from a dead stop. The car shows code P0507 Idle Control System RPM - Higher Than Expected <--- this is an understatement to say the least.

2.) Something is up with the transmission. It doesn't want to shift (up or down) all the time and when it does shift, it's pretty hard (up or down). It seems much worse when cold as once I got it on the freeway it got much better. I can manually shift between gears when it doesn't want to select the gear.

I also have a code P0128 which shows as "Coolant Temperature Below Thermostat Regulating Temperature". I drove the car about 20 miles and didn't see any signs of overheating but once I parked it, I saw steam coming from under the hood. It appeared to be water that had pooled under the hood as it sat at the auction yard, and the steam disappeared after a minute or so of sitting, but it will be something I am going to monitor.

I've been researching and what I've found is the idle issue could be throttle body related and the transmission issue might be valve body and/or motor mount related (or transmission related...)??

These cars are going for around $5k-$6k in my neck of the woods and I was hoping to pay it forward and sell this one for $4k-$4,500 depending on how much it needed for repairs.

Hoping to start the journey to super car with this Mini, any help would be greatly appreciated