Should you buy a used Mini?

Should you buy a used Mini? They are great little runabouts that are surprisingly versatile, reasonably quick and an amazing value on the used market – so maybe! Lets take a look at this one and see.

It’s definitely a quirky car. The Cooper I have here has a naturally aspirated 1.6 litre petrol engine mated to a 5 speed manual gearbox. Making a little over 110hp, it’s certainly fast enough especially considering it only weighs 1125kg. The manual is pretty easy to drive, although the gearstick in this one is a little on the stiff side and the clutch pedal has next to no travel distance. It’s pretty easy to heel-toe downshift though, if you did want to drive it in a more ‘sporty’ manor.

Despite being a 3 door, it’s got full size rear seats which even I, a 6 foot adult, can fit in admittedly with the front seats a little forward. The boot isn’t massive, but you can fold the rear seats down from the boot making for a lot more luggage space than you’d expect. This Park Lane model comes with leather seats, with the fronts even being heated which is incredibly rare to see in a car this small. The switch gear still feels cheap, but it’s not horrible. Road and wind noise is pretty prevalent especially at motorway speeds, but it’s not unbearable so longer journeys are possible even if it’s not quite made for it.

Even buying from a dealer, pricing is pretty good. This park lane model was around £4,000 but standard models can be had for a lot less especially if you are willing to buy privately. When you combine that with the remarkably small amount of common faults, only the front radiator mount, non-regular oil changes and timing chain guides after 80-100k miles, it seems like a used mini is a great option.