Hey kts thanks for your reply.
I totally understand. My only issue is it's 14hr drive from here to go visit it, so I'm kinda hoping people say yay or nay. But the point you gave are good. The owner is very chatty and has no issues send me Fotos. I'll send him a list of "id like to see the Xxxxx" and see how it looks.
Just by the looks of it, what is your opinion?
that's a long way to go and look at a car !!
from the photo's it's not a bad looking car - no obvious rust showing along the bottoms of the doors, round the headlights or scuttle corners. paintwork and brightwork looks good. childseat in the back, so you'd hope it's been driven responsibly (..or could just be 'dressing' for the sale..)
on the negative side; rust around the rear window, rust staining around the sill as dyshipfakta has pointed out. both suggest corrosion has taken hold. both are areas that are prone to rusting, and if there's corrosion there you can be certain it's in other places
ride height looks very odd - much too high. could be that it's been raised to prevent the larger wheels from fouling on the front wheel arches, or just that they like it that way. i'd want to know why it's like that though.
no mention of what condition the car is in terms of mechanicals - were you able to take it on a test drive when you saw it ?
most important things to remember if you're looking to buy a mini:
1. corrosion is like an iceberg - what you can see is probably only 10% of what there is.
2. the most expensive part of the car to repair is the bodywork - fixing engines, suspension etc is relatively cheap compared to fixing corrosion damage
you might be lucky and have found a car that genuinely has been well looked after and is in good condition, or you may be looking at a far more common example of a mini that looks like it's in good condition but actually has a lot of rust lurking beneath the surface
do the dutch use salt grit on their roads in the winter ? that's what's destroyed most of the british mini's over the years...