I bought my 2011 manual base Cooper with 35,000 miles on it....now, at 54,000 miles, it has had a failure of two coils. This turns out to be VERY common with Minis when you go to the various forums. The car will sputter on acceleration, take up to 10 seconds to turn over in the morning, etc. and the problem only worsens unless tended to. Cost at an independent mechanic to fix? $650. Another common problem is dirty injectors at this point. Oh, and it needs a full synthetic oil....so, when you were hoping to get the $19.99 oil change at Car-X, it quickly triples that cost. :/ And the brakes are about gone now, too, despite mostly highway driving. And the worst part? Don't get a flat tire. There is NO SPARE. NONE. The only good part of this car is the gas mileage, but even then, it's not as good as other manuals out there. I get about 33 mpg with, as I said, mostly highway driving.
