I have had my Mini for about 4 months now and was wondering how to tell if it is special or not. It has leather interior and sunroof and some other stuff. Was wondering if its a plain Jane or is there anyway to tell from vin if it is regular or anything else. Thanks.
Well first off, all Minis are special. Of course R53's are a little more special than others. (Except classics) :biggrin5: :devil: You can take your key to the dealer and they can print all the options by reading the key.
They should also be able to scan that key and tell what work has been performed at a MINI dealership as well. In any event, the cars repair history should be available by punching in the VIN.
Not only can you get how the car was built they can also tell you what dealer sold the car and the in service date. You'll need just the last characters from the VIN when you call. Calling MINI US will also give you the opportunity to provide MINI with your information to be tied to the VIN in the event of recall notices. I'm not sure if they can provide service history, they can let you know if there are outstanding recalls, if there were any. The dealer on the other hand may give you the full service history after reading the fob. Some dealers will not disclose this info for some odd reason. Most will provide the history, so it is on a case by case basis.
Enter your VIN here for a list of the factory build options on your car: http://www.bmwarchive.org/vin/bmw-vin-decoder.html There are some blank areas when it displays the results. Make sure to keep scrolling down. There are other online VIN decoders that give only basic information about model and build date. This one seems to actually pull info from a BMW database. It is spot on with all the factory options on my '06 R52.
Wow, that's informational. Now I know the exact build date of my car. 11/27/06. I knew it was one of the last R53's but it was hard to tell just how late it was, now I know.
I only have one key for my Mini. I have heard these are expensive? I want to get another one some day, but just retired and with all the Gun buying and My new, to me Mini, My Wife says slow down a bit on the finances. Want to get the manual as well.
We have the Owners Manuals in PDF format that you can download here on Motoring Alliance. Owners Manuals - MINI Cooper 2002-2013 - Library