I have a friend looking to purchase a Cooper S, and she needs my help to do some research on whether to buy new/used, if used, what year to buy.

It looks like the Cooper S had an upgrade starting MY07, so right now i'm suggesting buying a CPO 07 Cooper S for around $20k.

Thoughts? Any other cars she should be looking at? In my opinion I think it's an awesome choice for her, it's fun, cool, and ideal for parking in SF.

 

I think she's pretty much set on which car to buy, correct?
Mini Cooper is one nice, cool car.
Pretty fast, handles nicely(except for the horrendous torque steer), cute looking, good gas mileage, very nice resale value, etc.
Reliability, however, isn't the strongest point of this car FYI.

Dan

 

the 07+ models have a renault engine, i've heard nothing but good things about them,just make sure she gets the cooper s

 

A buddy of mine has one, and I have to say that the car really impressed me every time I get in it. At first glance it appears to be kind of a cutesy kid's car, but it really does feel quite grown up. It has a nice interior (albeit a bit over stylized) and it handles very well.

 

Don't know much about The R56 (07+). I had an 05 and never had one issue with the exeption of a blow motor mount that was a defect from the factory. Even then it was covered under warranty. I know I saw one in the gallery section of someone that owned one. The gas milage was awesome. I hear its even better on the newer ones.

 

I thought it was peugeot engine.

 

I don't have one but I've been researching them for a while since I'm thinking of getting one as a dd. I test drove one and it was fun but the torque steer was awful. Reliability is ok at best. The main forum is northamericanmotoring.com, so start your research there. The 07+ MCS are known to have a cold start issue that BMW says doesn't harm the engine but it makes a horrible noise (search cold start chatter on the forum and you'll find a ton of info about this). The regular Mini Cooper doesn't seem to suffer from this problem though. Having said that, a MCS will probably be my dd within a year or so. The fun factor outweighs the negatives.

 

^ It is a pretty fun car.

 

I personally would just get a new one. The resale value is so high that you only get like 2-3k off of MSRP and start out with at least 20k miles usually. If she does buy new, the best discount you can expect is usually about $500 off MSRP for a car off the lot and you will pay MSRP if you order one.

 

you're right, i always thought it was a renault, but i looked it up again, it's the same engine in the 207 gti