I'm looking for the perfect MINI R53. Unfortunately I found one about a week ago and missed it by one day . I'm not too picky about aftermarket upgrades, but any JCW kits would be great (especially the aero kit). I'm looking after 3 color options: gray/dark silver w/ black roof, hyper/lightning blue w/ white roof, or laser/electric blue w/ white roof. I'm not too picky about gauge packages, pretty much anything goes as long as the rest of the car is right. In terms of the other packages, the Sport and Premium packages are a must (sunroof, HK sound, spoiler, DSC, sport seats, etc). I'd really like to find the LSD and cold weather options, front/rear fog lights, xenons, as well as the rally lights, but again, if the rest of the car is right then I can skip that. The absolute must-haves are under 80,000 miles and a manual transmission. I know this is a lot of stuff I want, so I don't expect to find one soon. I've been looking everywhere but if anyone else has seen one or has one they might be wanting to sell I'd love to get in touch. Price is not really that big of a deal as long as it's reasonable.
Do you have to have a 2006? If not, and though the one I've got a line on is ChiliRed, I may be able to help you out in your quest. Where are you located? Send me a PM if you've got an interest.
Thanks guys! Unfortunately I've never been a big fan of red I would prefer to have a 2006, but I'd take a 2005 if it has most of what I'm looking for. I'm a college student, so right now it's not a huge necessity to find one immediately but I've been keeping an eye out using searchtempest and autotempest. I'm currently in the NorthEast US. Are there any other places I should be looking?
I found my wife's '06 S on Auto Trader in '12, with only 26,500 miles on it [it just turned 56k yesterday].
Still looking! By now I've lowered my expectations to a low mileage gray 2006, extras greatly desired but depending on the condition of the car not a necessity.
I found a number of cars that match your requirements when looking for the car we just bought. I just looked back at my spreadsheet, but the blue JCW I saw at a dealer in Boston is now sold. Was a sweet car, appeared clean, but a bit high in miles. It had the full 06 JCW with brakes and LSD, Mini finis rack and a roof rack, etc. Over the last few weeks, digging through all the major national craigslist locations about once a day with "2006 Mini Cooper S" or "2006 Cooper Works" searches, I found about 10 different JCW cars. But caution - what looks good in ads sometimes turns out to be a total turd. There's this one for example (we were looking for red/white, because it is faster) Cars for Sale: 2006 MINI Cooper John Cooper Works in Albuquerque, NM 87111: Hatchback Details - 412823479 - Autotrader that turned out to be a total oil burner - the carchex.com fee was well worth it before driving 2000 miles and coming home without a car. We missed a much more desirable car in Portland by a few weeks ago - 30k miles, same red/white JCW package. Sold for well over $12k though and being a JCW, I guess you can get that for a clean low mile car. We ended up going with a regular S, saving about 5K over a similar JCW. $5k buys a lot of mods that go well beyond your normal JCW spec, and your insurance won't know either
http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/minis-sale/26495-2005-mcs-low-mge-stock-excellent.html HMMM -- right here on MA--the right color-the black roof could be wrapped white or whatever you can imagine...no sunroof, but low low, garage kept, cared for mileage! check us out and make an offer, all my cars are consignment so I can pass your offer to the owner-all he can say is yes or no or maybe.....
Every time I look at that car it gets more and more enticing. What are the potential problems with buying a car with that low miles? Are there even any? I imagine I could have that for a very long time...