bscringean

Good Morning All, I am hoping someone on here can help me with an issue I have. My wife has a Mini Cooper 05 reg which was registered in July 2005. It was in at the garage on Saturday for some work in relation to the brakes and the mechanic mentioned that it had the "midland" gearbox fitted (he was not working on the gearbox just happened to say in passing that they generally need replacing during the lifetime of the car and our's was a little noisy although nothing to worry about at this time). I questioned this as I was under the impression all cars from 2004 onwards had the new getrag box, but he seemed to think it was the midland box. This garage say they are Mini specialists (although not main dealers) so I would assume they know there stuff. I have therefore called both a Mini dealership and Mini UK today to get it confirmed and neither can confirm what gearbox is fitted because it is not on any of their technical specs. Can someone please confirm to me how you tell what box is fitted to the car. Also could a mechanic tell from just having the car in the air for 10 mins doing something else want box was fitted? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Bobby

Hi Mike Thanks very much for the reply, It would likely be the cooper that my wife would be buying instead of the cooper S. Are there any things in particular that we should look out for? I have read some comments about oil leaks around gaskets etc. Is this very common or just a few cars? The car will really be my wife for the school run and trips around town, so boot space is not an issue. Also if we need to go on long run we will take our Lexus IS so we are thinking that the MINI is a very good second car. I do agree that a lot of cars are souless, but the MINI does appear to have a fun element to it and it is a good looking car. I just don't want to be sucked in by it looks when what is under the bonnet may not be very good. Although from reading the reviews and comments so far, there is nothing which is causing me huge concerns because every car has issues and as long as I am well prepared and know what to look for I should be ok.

Good Afternoon All, I have joined this forum because my wife is looking to purchase a MINI Cooper in the next 6 months and I wanted to know if there is any common faults or issues which we should look out for. It is likely that the model she will be looking to purchase would be between 2004 and 2007. Therefore if anyone could provide me with any information it would be greatly appreciated. In particuar common faults, what mileage is generally considered to be too high, what to check when buying the car, any recalls, what models/specs to avoid. Thanks in advance for your assistance. Bobby