58 replies to this topic

[1984mini25]

All old cars rust, not just minis

And a mates 6 year old focus, round the bottom of the windscreen

now how much do you think that will cost?
windscreen out / repair rust / new windscreen back, more than a few £100

and

My dad has just had to pay £800 for a new rad to be fitted in his car (only 6 years old)
thats the same amount i paid for my mini

[marc]

If you dont like it get rid, stop moaning, we all know what their like theres no point telling us!!

End of the day the technology of these cars is 40 odd years old and their made in britain, which in itself means they're gona be the most unreliable rust bucket you could buy. My rover is 10yrs old and thats rusting away just like a mini, all british cars are the same to be honest,i work at land rover and their no good either.

You have to be either mad or have a passion/love for these cars to put up with them!

[mini1976]

To try and be a bit more helpful than just telling you to get rid of it, if your living in halls are you at uni. Im currently at uni and they have a motor club which have a couple of garages and loads of tools etc along with a place off the road to fix things and like minded people to help you. Is this an option of you? Join a club get help fixing it and then go for a drink afterwards ( obiously without the car)

[mini dave]

cheers for the note about the car club unfutunatally im at collage and its a agricultural collage they do have all the equipment for working on cars + tractors but im not covered on the insurance to be working on my car in the garages. im gutted. cheers anyway

[Sprocket]

When the BMW Mini was launched, in the first two weeks we seen more of them on AA flatbeds and on the hard shoulder than there were on the road. It was quite funny realy :grin:

The wife had a mini for 5 years as a daily runner it broke down twice, one was a faulty starter and the other was faulty plug leads.

I have spent about £350 on my 95 SPI to get it running right, not including all the flashy unnescisary bits, these were faults with the injection system that I was unaware of. It still needs both sills, boot floor, valance and the front end replacing( which I was aware of) but has not broken down yet, even when I tried to run it dry of fuel it kept going.

It seems that you may have bought a lemon and now your blaming the car, but you bought it. Maybe you didnt know what you were looking at, but thats bad no matter what car you buy. My brother bought a 96 Vauxhall Omega without consulting me and two weeks later he destroyed the engine because the cam belt snapped( missed a cam belt change), never even knew he had the car untill I got the phone call when he was stranded on the motorway. If you don't know what your looking at, s$%t happens more often.

[pikey7]

So let me get this right, you're blaming the car for letting you down? This is the same car that you cannot service when it needs it 'because you have no facilities at uni?
Can you explain away the £3k aswell? I'm willing to guess that at least £800 of it was on bits that make it "go-faster" or "look bling"? :wink:

I defy you to spend £2k on a 7yo Corsa or similar, spend no time servicing it apart from to empty the McD's from it, and have less problems. I defy you too to get the repairs done as cheaply as you could get them done on the mini.

"modern" cars are simply percieved as more reliable because more people take them to garages to get them serviced. I would pretty much guarantee if all new cars were sold out of a supermarket, the only place you could go to get spares was a mega-halfords and then you had to service them yourself, then these ultra-reliable modern cars would suffer in the same ways as a semi-pampered/semi-neglected 10 year old mini.

My last "modern" car was a '97 jeep grand cherokee, and I had more problems with that than any of the previous cars i'd owned (and I've owned some real dogs!). It had a full dealer service history too.

I'll stick to my 10-or-more year old cars thanks, and i'll look after them as they need it, not when I get around to it. :fear:

[Gogobroom]

Ahhh the lovely Mini and its character, thats what its all about.

just a word of warning to you tho, New cars are not cheap to fix, and they do go wrong.

I few years back I bought a 3.5 year old Ford Probe, paid £7k for it, when its test was due It cost me £1,000 in parts to get just the suspension fixed. I then sold the car 6 months later for £4,000

In all I lost £4,000 plus service costs so probably nearer £4,500 in year. It also had immobileser problems that cost me time and petrol taking it back to the garage.

My current car costs £300 twice a year just for servicing and the parts cost a fortune, its a 10 year old Mazda with no rust.... but if anything goes wrong you have to take it to a dealer to get diagnosed - more money spent.

sorry I will stop waffling now, but in my experience and older car may break down more often but generally costs less to repair

[Modmobile]

I've got a mini as my second car, but for the last 3 weeks have driven it as my main car - and on the motorway on a daily basis for work.

Yes, they can be a pain, but what car isn't at times?? I see more newer cars broken down, than the older cars.

I've got my main car, a 205, back on the road today but still prefer my 20+ year old mini any day. They are fun, but do require attention.

No car is perfect - but even if I win the lottery, I can't imagine life without a proper mini and I would still try and do as much work on the car myself.

Stick with the mini - you would seriously regret getting rid of it in the long run.

If I won the lottery, I'd have a fleet of minis! One for each day of the week and a man to look after them for me :grin:

[Guess-Works.com]

If I won the lottery, I'd have a fleet of minis! One for each day of the week and a man to look after them for me :grin:

well I'm 50% of the way there, just need to win the lottery now so I can fix'em all :fear:

[Modmobile]

I'll do you a deal....If I win you can be my fixer upper man and I'll pay for yours to be done up too. If you win, you have to fix my one poorly little Chelsea. Deal?

[me RS]

It also had immobileser problems that cost me time and petrol taking it back to the garage.

i know what that was the brain box is on the tunnel and gets so hot that the solder melts

the thing with newer type cars is if you dont have a very good unerstanding or electrics you will sooner or later have to pay some one to fix it even if you are good with the spanners

also if you try to personalize it most modern carsn (not all) you will become a chav

[Guess-Works.com]

I'll do you a deal....If I win you can be my fixer upper man and I'll pay for yours to be done up too. If you win, you have to fix my one poorly little Chelsea. Deal?

An offer not to be refused :cheese:

[Modmobile]

That's sorted then. I'll hold you to it!

[Dog]

if it breaks... up rate it :cheese:

[m3ntalist]

My car run perfect till I took it round some race tracks, and it was 96. It depends on the milage and how it has been treated. Now it has been treated like a *Female doggy* it is not working