Morning all.
We’re after a new car for the missus primarily to bezz about in and we’ve been to have a look at a Mini Cooper in a local garage. Seems very straight – a small graze on the bumper and a bit of a knock next to it which I guess would push out and get cleaned up easily by a dent removal guy. Its just gone through an MOT completely fine with no advisories. Test drive it and it was great – felt really tight, no weird noises and stuff.

But… theres no service history. Nothing. Looking at the dealer markings on the plate its come through BCA at Brighouse so guess it went through there cheap because of the lack of service history.

Given the price of the car (less than 2k) and the fact they’re offering us a reasonable amount on our 15 year old Polo, I’m wondering whether to take a punt. I’m not bothered about resale and the car comes with a 3 month RAC guarantee which covers belts, electricals etc.

On a more expensive car I’d run a mile but given that our Polo for example has FSH and is still basically a heap, I’m 50/50… Obviously its a bargaining tool which I’ve yet to use but what should I look out for? Check fluids all look ok etc? I’ve gone through all the other usual stuff from Mini buying guides etc.

Cheers
Dave

If the mileage stacks up with its age and wear Id take a punt for 2K.

See if the garage can measure the compression for you. Other than engine wear a FSH is only a sign that the oil was changed. It not like a certificate to say all likely problems / issues were sorted.

A dealer service is just fluids being changed.

A specialist would probably do more than that, mine does, but I pay for it.

Check the MOT history online , that will confirm the mileage . if you buy it just factor in the cost of a big service at a specialist garage .

Bought a car with partial service history last year.

I downloaded the DVLA MOT history and phoned all the places that had MOT’d it and checked if they serviced it too – and bingo, found that one of the places had serviced it in the “missing” period.

Mileage also stacked up and the car was obviously looked after (had been with the previous owner for 5years and drove well and looked in great order internally and externally).

I got a years warranty, and I took it straight to the local garage I use for services and they gave it a thorough once over too.

Good luck!

BY this time in a cars lifetime condition is more important than service history – if it makes you feel any better most Minis were sold with a thing called a TLC pack (I think) so almost all of them would have been dealer serviced for the first 3 years of it’s life.

If you choose to buy it, I’d personally give it an oil and filters service at home and research whether it’s belt or chain driven and act accordingly – if you speak to Mini/BMW they will likely be able to tell you what work it’s had done by then since it was new.

It may very well have an electronic service history sitting with BMW/Mini. Worth a call to a local dealer to see if they can look it up for you.

None of mine have had much history- carves a chunk off the value if it’s missing, which can be more useful than actually having it. Though if there’s big, age-specific jobs it can be good to know about that- like, at my mondeo’s age a receipt for a new clutch, dmf, turbo or injectors would be very nice to see. But not a dealbreaker for me.

So the local garage haven’t even changed the oil and filter before selling?
I’d walk. Plenty of minis on the market so go look for one with a full history.

Word of warning on BMW Mini’s in that they can consume a scary amount of premium oil and unless it is using a litre within 500 miles BMW aren’t interested. This was the problem with the wife’s Mini Cooper S R56 which was around 650 miles a litre. The Oil and an engine that would stutter when trying to accelerate from a steady throttle that they could fix ended up being the shortest period we owned a car.

Beaten to it by Craig but if you buy one keep an eye on the oil level. There is no low warning whatsoever and they chew the stuff.. Local BMW/Mini indie round our way says the amount he gets in with problems due to low oil is frightening – ours is the R56 1.6 petrol and as I understand the consumption is to do with the VVT. Also – the dip stick is an utter pig to read.

Only other issue with ours is the stop/start has an intermittent fault so it just gets switched off.. Other than that they are a cracking little motor – really enjoyable little cars to chuck about. 1600 petrol is quite torquey and pulls well and all of the controls have a nice mechanical weight/feel about them. I often taken the Mini over my 320bhp hot hatch as it’s just more “fun”

There are loads of cheap cars with histories, why take a punt on one without?

The comment about condition being more important than history is valid – but they should be in combination i.e. I’d want to see a car in good running order and backed up with the service history to support it.

Of course, this car most likely has been serviced. Just the book was lost during the trade-in process and subsequent auction. If it’s really cheap and the dealer is backing it with a warranty, then it could be worth some digging e.g. contact the last registered owner?

I pex’ed a Golf and later got a hand written letter (how quaint) from the new owner asking if the cambelt had been changed as he’d bought it from auction and the service book (which was with the car when I handed over the key) was missing.

I’m assuming that it’s an original BMW MINI (R50/3) if it’s that cheap, which use fairly basic, old tech engines which shouldn’t be too problematic. Issues you may have will be with the other bits – electrics on early cars were pretty squiffy and I doubt age will have improved that.

At this sort of age, I’d take a punt on it if it seems like an honest / straight car.

a few things flag for me.

1 its less than 2k from a garage for what is a popular car.

2. they are offering a good px on your car on a sub 2 k car …..

3. parts cost quite a bit for em – thus even at 2k it could be an expensive car to run.

4. the warrenty is not with the garage – so subject to a strict fair wear a tear on what sounds like an old car might actually be useless.

on the whole I’m pro cars without service history ive bought many in my time and had no issue , but I wouldn’t do it from a dealer and id be even more weary of a dealer who seemed too keen to get rid(ie offering a keen trade in price)

but as above it provides a great knocking down tool.

Cheers all.

Decided we’ll probably give it a miss. Going to have a look at a garage which has 4 of them under 2.5k later this aft which all look on the face of it, to be in better condition, all have mention of service history (whether thats full or not remains to be seen!). There were too many unknowns with this other car and too many questions to the dealer being met with shrugging of shoulders etc. I really hate buying a car from someone who has less knowledge about what they’re selling than I do following 15 minutes on the internet doing some basic research…