[smimich]

Any 2002 and 2003 owners out there? I have been looking at a 2003 mini and have been disappointed by the way the interiors have suffered from wear. The horn boss silver finish seems to come off and the grab handles on the door mouldings seem to wear very poorly. In addition the whilte sport wheels have rough edges to the spokes and have started rust discolouration.
Does this resonate with anyone else or is this exceptional.

[umbongo]

I have 04 MCS with leather interior. 18K miles and the drivers seat bolster is creasing/wearing badly. I'm a big guy but never suffered from this with any other cars I've had. Also dash is rattling, coating on the wheels chipped and cracked when new tyres wre fitted, parcel shelf doesn't lock in properly etc etc....

It still makes me smile every day. One of the many joys of Mini ownership.

[Squire]

I have an 02 cooper with full leather and has done 23700 miles....

....and all is still in perfect condition inside, outside is looking smart as well, apart from the obligatory stone chips on bonnet

[Adrian_T]

As far as it goes, the interior looks to be hard wearing but be warned I HAVE EXPERIENCED BETTER!

Standard brown cardboard boxes stratch the seat backs as if they were made from wet and dry paper. This is high quality stuff indeed!

The dull metal finish on the door grab handles comes away to leave a lovely gray/white base - lovely! Same with the centre uprights where my leg rubs against it!.

I can only compare this to the high quality interiors of my previous executive luxury cars.

E reg Renault 5 - Worst experience was the drivers seat collapsing during a tight bit of parking. Other than that at least the plastic didnt scratch or lose its painted finish (Inside anyhow

F Reg Polo - good quality german stuff shame the car was so agricultural

1960 Land rover - Had Manual Windscreen wipers - 'nuff said

1979 Renault Fuego good interior shame about the mechanicals

Golf MkII GTI - Good apart from the golfball gearknob falling off!

Ford Focus - Good other than the egine used to cut out at approx 90 mph on lane 3 for no reason other than it thought that as I had kept a steady throttle position for so long the car must be reading a fault and needed to reset itself - another great safety feature.

Other than that I cannot rate the Mini highly enough and have just ordered my new
Cooper S in Dark Silver / Black with Black Blue interior - Just hope its not too garish.
I hear that quality has improved and have taked recommendation off this site to order the anthracite interior as its more hard wearing and does not look as silly as that new scratchy looking stuff with the odd name.

Lets see if my old baby lasts till september. Not much else to go wrong as I have had a new gearbox, left drive shaft, drivers seat base, stearing column, radiator, 4 looms for the airbags (apparently they really did replace them every time and not clipped them back together again as if that is likely on having the car back in a fifth time!) Thank god it is a company car is all I say!!!

If anyone is thinking of buying a early 52 black Cooper end september early october I will reply to anyone who asks with details of the car to avoid

Happy motoring!

Oh and I can highly recommend Esso Super unleaded (no idea of brand name) it works much better than 95 octane IMHO and strangely i do not get the same effect from Optimax - perhaps I did not try hard enough!