[Frost__2001]

The main thing about the mini is the Relyability did not improve until the 2008 model year. Yes you get more standard options in the mini but with the automatics you have to be very careful with them as if the tranny starts to go, you loose reverse first. Mini (BMW) dose not repair their transmissions or sell replacement parts for the Mini, they only replace them, and to do that is $7,000 - $12,000 depending on which version of mini you get, and the labour added involved in changing it out. Also the quality score are very poor for the early generation mini's I can tell you this as Mini & BMW are part of my accounts at my work, it's why the 2005's with over 100k are selling from $9,000 - $12,000.