If you had driven a JDM cooper everyday for five years in the UK including the winters it would be rotten as a pear.
It's been in the UK for 10 years and used as a daily car, always outside, still much less rot than my '75 850 had after 5 years. Yes it now needs new a-panels and there's plenty of other minor rusty bits that have had attention, but it's in a different league to my '75 car that after 5 years needed new a-panels, rear subframe, major work on the doors, major rust on the wing/front panel joins, rotten rear valence ... where does the list stop! 1970's Mini were basically rot-boxes, we had a '79 and it wasn't any better. Be careful not to tar all late Minis with the same brush.
I do have a (unsupported) theory that late cars in metallic colours seemed to have suffered really badly, certainly looking at some of the project cars the Mpi's in metallics appear seriously rotten compared to equivalent cars I've seen in solid colours, it could be an incorrect perception though but it'd be interesting to hear other thoughts on this?
Edited by Bobbins, 12 October 2019 - 07:41 AM.