2003 MINI Cooper - 50,000 Mile Review

My personally owned 2003 MINI Cooper just turned 50,000 miles old this month. In celebration, I thought it appropriate to look back on the past three years of ownership and report on my experiences with this wonderful vehicle.

First I'll give some background. I put myself on the waiting list for a MINI Cooper in early 2002 at Long Beach MINI in Long Beach, California. The reason I picked Long Beach MINI was that at that time every other MINI dealer was marking up their cars $5000 and above just because they could. Plus you were stuck buying whatever was on the lot, and special orders were not accepted. Long Beach MINI however did not mark up their cars and did allow special orders. The only problem was that they had an incredibly long waiting list of customers. Anyway, after a nine month wait, it was my turn to order my MINI.

I had originally planned on buying the Cooper S (the supercharged version), but ended up going with the standard model instead. I figured I needed something to aspire to some day, plus the price point of the Cooper with all the options that I wanted was much more realistic. I ordered my Cooper with a five-speed manual transmission, black body color with a white roof and wheels, in-dash navigation system (thanks to my wife for that suggestion - it has changed my life!), black leatherette seats, panoramic moonroof, automatic climate control, and all-season run-flat tires.

Since picking up my new baby in February of 2003, owning this vehicle has been a pleasure. The handling is unbeatable, steering response is crisp and confidence inspiring, and despite the engine's somewhat anemic horsepower, the manual transmission allows me to really toss it around when I want to. I have experienced a few issues with my Cooper, but nothing too incapacitating or inconvenient.