[Scudder]

I am not being a troll, but an R53 is not superior to an R56 or R57 IMHO, you either look after your car and realise that at this age parts will fail. I have had some excellent classic cars that would never have survived without constant maintenance. I am sick fed up with the attitude that any car that has a fault is a pup, they are all pups if they are not maintained. The R53 collapsed as much as the R56 and 57 and avoiding engine failure is the owners fault unless they have no car history and then each is a gamble. Every second hand car is a gamble IMHO and it is always sad to read these stories but please do not disregard a generation 2 car down to the internets constant pleasure in only ever reporting faults, nobody ever comes on a website to say my car is fab and has never broken down... the major faults are due to MINI/BMW being in denial that thermostat housings, timing chains, water pumps, vacuum pumps are NOT for life!!! these have always been maintenance items on ANY car so why do folks think that a MINI is any different? To believe the nonsense printed on the gearbox that it is for life oil is another example of tosh. When they say for life the mean 'when it destroys your engine' because of naivety... follow old and necessary regimes for all car parts, this is not rocket science.

 

[Scudder]

you have just taken all that totally the wrong way, for a start r53 compared to a 1.4 r56 is a no brainer r53 all day long,,, as a super charged performance car is a totally different thing, the question was not is a old car like r53 better than all r56 etc,, it was compared to a 1.4 automatic mini and someones budget,, budget being the bit that defines it,,, ie r56 cooper s for a good one around £3500 where a early r53 can be found for under £1500 with miles on it,
i would always tell people to go buy old evo's and supra turbo and nissan skylines etc as all these do is keep running and go up in price, but that wont fit some people

yip, totally wrong, can't argue with that. Sticking with my advice though but I should read the whole post before jumping in.