[Patchoulian]

Hi - I've got it in to my head that I want, no make that need, a Cooper S. Thing is, I'm limited to £10k.

I'm going to look at one tomorrow, 32k miles, 54 plate, Chili pack, sunroof. Couple of questions if I may:

1. When did the minor facelift (163-170bhp IIRC) happen? I think this car is Sept 04.

2. I know this is a bit daft, but is there anything in particular I should look out for? I'm a bit worried about clocking - my Seat Leon Cupra had done 110000 and looked/felt new. Nothing I could see to distinguish it from a 20k, bonnet stone chips aside maybe.

I've been tootling about in my Mum's Mini One and the temptation's got too much!!

Thanks muchly.

Rob

[J u s t]

It's definitely late 04 that the MY05 came out as I have a facelifted Nov 04. You will be able to tell instantly as soon as you see the steering wheel! The newer ones have the three point steering wheel, and the older has only the two.



Hope the inspection works out well. Don't let yourself fall in love with the car before checking it out properly. You will most definitely enjoy a Cooper S.

[James]

some older minis with sunroofs can start to rattle a bit apparently so have a listen on the test drive, im not 100% sure when the facelift happened but it was around the date your car was made, im sure a mini nerd will step in to tell you the exact date soon. for 10k you can get a very nice cooper s no problems

[MINIAC]

The facelift was effective with July 2004 builds.

[J u s t]

Quote: Originally Posted by MINIAC (original)

The facelift was effective with July 2004 builds.

You're the Mini Nerd.

It's a good thing. Fountain of Mini knowledge.

[mini5lover]

Borrow an extra £2000 from your mom and you can have my 05 works! 210bhp, 11,500 miles and immaculate! See my gallery pics, pm me if you are interested. My dealer has offered me £11,000 and said he will sell it for £14,000!

[Paul]

Facelift etc timings and differences overview: http://www.mini2.com/forum/faq.php?f...ni_generations

[OJM]

As with all cars, it's worth doing a HPI check on them - before buying mine, I found that the owner still had finance outstanding on it. He didn't tell me this, but didn't realise it would make a difference etc - I made sure he settled the outstanding balance with MINI Finance before I parted with my cash.

[Pamelab21]

Hi

I have an 04 plate Mini Cooper S in Black, reg May 04 and it has the 3 spoke steering wheel so I guess its the minor facelift model..... I am currently selling and I am looking for 9500.00.
PM me for more details if you are interested?

[Paul]

May 04 is NOT a facelift car, check the FAQ linked above for other telling factors, such as three or five piece dash, "bumpy" or smooth grille surrounds, light styles etc,

[Patchoulian]

Thanks everyone! It is definitely a minor facelift version (Oct 04 first registered).

On the sunroof - no rattles but had some difficulty closing at (ahem) high speed. Overwise works perfectly.

I had a few issues:

- no receipt for some MOT advisories (leaking engine mount and split exhaust mount), and I couldn't tell from looking whether they had been done. The MOT was done before the warranty expiry - maybe they were fixed.

- it seems to have been used as a pool company car for the last two years.

- two minor marks on the paintwork, and repaired crash damge with a Mini certificate saying it'd been fixed properly, but again no receipt. The front wing inner has some typexed writing that doesn't mean much to me.

- oil dipstick had split, so it was cut off at the split while I was there to stop the whole thing disappearing into the engine.

- only the main key and the plastic spare.

- curious mileage history. 6000 miles in the first two years. 15000 in the third. 7000 in the fourth. It all looks OK, except the exhaust is rustier than I'd have expected.

- new brakes, F&R disks and pads at 25k - are they made of cheese?! New tyres, which is fine.

An incredible amount of mucking about and over an hour on the road later I bought it - took a chance at £8100 (54 reg, 28k, chili pack and sunroof). Did the online check and he signed the finance disclaimer.

Just driven 60 odd miles fairly hard and no problems. Feels a fair bit quicker than a Seat Leon Cupra, and I love the supercharger noise :-)

Thanks for all your help!

[TimG]

Sounds like a great price. About 3 months ago I paid £8700 for my 53 reg with 24k miles, similar spec and that was pretty good at the time, even looking on Autotrader today it still seems like a good price really..

I reckon you got yours for at least £500-1000 less than it could have been!