When did Minis suddenly get so expensive? I was looking at one a few years ago for 2 grand and I decided against it because I thought it was too expensive. Now the cheapest is £5500?!!UK Gov forcing us into EVs is sending the second hand market for desirable petrol cars to the moon. Should I consider a BMW 'Mini'? Anyone got any experience of them? I hear they're unreliable, but so was the original, but the original Mini's engine could be taken out without a lift. I doubt the BMW 4 pot could.
>>28737970>When did Minis suddenly get so expensive?Just before the ol' wuhan wheezer showed up. I myself was shocked to see some going for more than 10 grand at auction.>Should I consider a BMW 'Mini'?Depends on what you want out of it. If you want a substitute for a classic mini, then no, the BMW mini is a completely different vehicle with virtually nothing, mechnical, vibe, or otherwise, in common with it's namesake. Also, classic Minis are perfectly reliable, assuming you keep up on maintenence and don't buy a haggard sack of shit, so I'm not sure where you've heard that. I know a young lad who dailied one for a number of years, before some cunt plowed into the side of him on his way to work.
>>28737998>I'm not sure where you've heard that.I owned an austin mini 10 years ago. It wasn't 'that' unreliable, it just didn't like to start. Once it started it was fine. I think the carbs were fucked. It was rusted out anyway and failed the next MOT so I scrapped it. Didn't matter so much back then as it only cost me £600 to buy and I got 10 months use out of it. If I'd known they'd go to the moon, I would have parked it at the end of my garden with some tarp over it and played the long game.
>>28738016>If I'd known they'd go to the moon, I would have parked it at the end of my garden with some tarp over it and played the long game.Tbf if you left it under a tarp at the bottom of your garden for that long, I doubt there'd be much left to sell...
>>28738016you just answered your own questionyou actually did it to yourself kek
>>28737970>£7,490I'd happily pay 15k AUD for a mini in that condition, sight unseen. >cries in australian
>>28738404Try to avoid MPi Minis, build quality took a nosedive and they're not as much fun to drive
>>28738404well, at least they're coopers for that price
>>28738406"Cooper" just means it has stripes and a white roof for those years
>>28738408don't the coopers have better suspension? pretty sure they have anti-roll bars (the normal mini didn't) and actual springs vs cones
>>28738411No, none of this is trueCoopers from the 90s were just an appearance packageSome Minis from the 60s had hydrolastic suspension. No springs. Perhaps some 60s Coopers had ARBs but I never heard of factory anti roll bars before
>>287379702 grand would have got you a totally fucked rot box. I sold mine 6 years a go for more then that and it wasn't in great condition either. >>28738419Wrong coopers make another 10bhp in the 90s
>>28738428>Wrong coopers make another 10bhp in the 90sWhat about right coopers?
>>28738411Minis always had the same suspension regardless of model (rubber cones until 1963 and after about 1970, hydrolastic for much of the 60s) what set a Cooper (and Cooper S) apart was the tuned up and bored out engine. in the 60s, the Cooper S made upwards of double the power of the plain jane Mini. By the 90s, the smaller and more sedate engines had been discontinued so all Minis were running the Cooper 1275 engine, just with different carb setups/ECU tunes. the 90s revival Coopers also came with arch extensions and wider wheels, and the stripes+foglamps.
>>28738447Again, a lot of this just not true.The difference between the 53/63hp engine was cam+compression, the ECU was the same. For the short run of the 1275 carb engine in the 90s there was just one version. Arch extensions were standard on all Minis since 85 (ish)
I mean, for this price, how bad are the BMW Minis?OK, this one is crash repaired, but it's got 6 months MOT, and it's only £800. There are plenty others for around this price.
Like 5-10 years ago. I thought it would be fun to find a mini with a K20 or Vauxhall C20 but all these shits are knocking on £20k or more. A Turbo Hayabusa mid-engined mini would be beast but there's nothing going.
>>28739151the B16 is the most common engine Honda engine swap into the classic. I haven't seen anyone do a K20 swap yet? I imagine it might be possible, but god it'll be cramped in a classic mini engine bay.
>>28739129They're less reliable than a Fiesta of the same age, but for 800 quid I don't think beggars can be choosers. The MOT and what litte fuel is in the tank works out to roughly half of what the car is, so even if it lasts you a year I'd say its worth it.
>>28739129check if you can shift into reverse
>>28739282wouldn't have MOT if you couldn't
>>28739302Nta, but it passed 6 months ago, and a lot of shit can go wrong in 6 months. An MOT is good start, but as someone who has had his fair share of bent MOTs, you should never take an MOT at face value.
>>28739383are BMW minis known for dodgy gearboxes?
>>28739885First few years have a bri'ish 5-speed trans that eats itself after a while, starting with reverseThe small facelift introduced a Getrag 5 speed that works fine
k
