I was originally going to buy a Mini for my first car, just a Mini One nothing too special, but I think the fact that BMW owned Mini sucked me in. The Cooper S used to be a dream car of mine, but now they are relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things. You could probably pick up a nice one for 3-5K. 0-60 in 7.1 a well, quite quick for that price. Just like with most cars the newer the Mini, the more reliable, and for the case of the R53 the 2005-2006 model is the right vintage. This is when Mini ironed out a lot of the teething issues, one of these issues was screws not being tightened up (English engineering at its finest).
The R53 is said to be the 'final good Mini' in a lot of peoples eyes, I really like these, but don't have any complaints about the new ones :). What makes the R53 very special is the fact that it was designed by Frank Stephenson, a reasonably unknown name for such a great designer. Frank designed or has at least helped design; the Ford Escort RS Cosworth, Maserati GranSport, Maserati MC12, Ferrari FXX, Ferrari F430, Mclaren MP4-12C, P1, 675LT, 570S, 720S and obviously the Mini Cooper S R53. Considering the pedigree of all of the other cars he has designed, it really puts in to perspective how good of a deal the Cooper S is.
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