I know how you feel! I've been bit by a lemon also. I bought my so a 2000 BMW FOR 5k I have put about that much work in it and I do all my own work. The only thing I did not do was repair the body where the rear sub frame was tarring away from the body. BMW payed part of it but my part was 2k. I've had the car about 2 years, now it is reliable. The point is I was where you are ether take a loss or fix it. The only way to get your money out of it is to fix it and keep it long enough to recoup your losses. That's up to you.
I've had my S for 12 years and it's been a great car, the funniest car I have ever owned. I have owned a lot of cars. I run the stink out of it but I also take good care of it. There is no way of telling what kind of owner had the car before you. I will say the 6 speed Getrag is usually bulletproof transmission.
Last thing I will say is that the Mini community is really great. Also the car is really addicting! Very few cars can you customize like a mini. The R53 has all sorts of mods that can be done to it. We have guys on this forum pushing 240 or 250 HP. it's not a red light runner like a muscle car, it's a carver. And man is it fun on the right roads.
Good luck if you keep it there are lots of us on this forum that are ready to help.
In for a penny in for a pound
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It's a 6 speed manual. The dealer knows I can't do anything about it, and he refused to help me out He kept trying to incite me to hit him. We had some words. I went back a few days later and I apologized to him. That pissed me off nut I had no choice but to suck up. I still owe him $1500. He agreed to allow me 3 payments of $500 instead of the $1500 straight away.
He showed me the bill of sale, he charged me $650 less than he paid for it. My mechanic assured me that we wouldn't have know if the tranny was bad. The dealer is an A-hole, but I don't think he really planned on screwing me over, but he could have been more professional. If any of my clients are dissatisfied with my work I'll re-do free of charge. That's part of bring a good honorable businessman as opposed to a shady prick.:mad5:
My mechanic is also advising me not to sink any money into what he called a piece of ****. My main problem is that I have to borrow with $3600 to fix the tranny. So I either fix the MINI and have a working car that cost twice what it's worth or buy a $3600 car which is likely to break down as well. :mad2:
Not sure what to do, but my gut tells me to fix the stupid MINI.
There's also a chance that it's not the transmission, but possibly the clutch plate just broke :fingerscrossed:. At this point I hope that's what happened. That will cost $1350 instead of $3600. My mechanic won't even start the job until the new tranny is in the shop. He doesn't want to tie up his lift. He said he can return the tranny if it's just a broken clutch plate. In any case even if it is the tranny I'm having new clutch put in.
Anyway, I'll probably sell the dam car at a huge loss or trade it in and buy a proper American muscle car. That way I can fix anything on it with 2 ratchets and a screwdriver.
