Has it had the TLC? is there any remaining?? this ALWAYS helps obviously.
As its a private sale and MINIs have quite low depreciation, Get an RAC/AA check done. or at least an HPI check to try and confirm its history.
Mate, what you have to remember is... There have been over 1 million minis role off the production line, and you have read a few posts on these problems. so in retrospect the problem may actually be quite small.if you were reading post about cars with NO problems you would be trailing through thousands of threads everyday!! but who wants to read... "My clutch and steering are still fine" lol!
and remember, theres LOTS of minis to choose from, is something doesnt "seem" right... walk away and spend your cash elsewhere!!