Irish Mini Owners Club

hey guys just looking for some input on an automatic cooper im looking at in the uk, south london, 40000 miles, was japan import, looks v.clean, just wondering what there like to drive? resale value as its an automatic??, the guy is looking for 3000 sterling?

Automatics are not everyones cup of tea but I have one and I love driving it however as with any car autos tend to cost more new but resale value is always lower than manuals.If it has a good service record and the box changes up and down smoothly then the only thing is rust which all minis suffer from and is more expensive to put right than mechanical issues.If you have the spec of the car and pictures post them up and we can give a better idea.

came across this automatic 2day in dublin, going to see it saturday what do you think?,dealer said he'd be interested in my bike as a straight trade,
http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/Mini/Cooper/1.3/1174566,
looks really good, it would be my 1st car as iv spent last 4 years on bikes, so automatic wont bother me, if it came to it would it cost much to change it to manual??

dame its sold!

Don't give up yet.

I just found this Jap Auction website and the prices are incredible compared to what you pay here.

http://jpctrade.com/auction/japaneseuse ... abase.html

Apparently it costs about 700 Euros to get it to the UK or Ireland (need to check that side out more)

100,000 Yen equals about 670 Euros so a condition 4 (very good) '99 Mini 40 with 43k km at 670,000 yen is about 4500 Euros

It's definitely got me thinking

Billy

Thats was a nice little automatic, it's a Jap import, which means it has the leather seats, the air conditioning , the nice arches, although the trim on the passengers side has a bit missing.
But it only has 18K miles on the clock, for a 15 year old car that is seriously low, works out at 3.3 miles a day. Must have been owned by a little old Japanese lady who only used it for going to the shops and the local shrine.

Automatics require shorter intervals between services and more regular oil changes.

Converting from an automatic to a manual is fairly straight forward, you need to change the engine/gearbox, the gearstick and linkage, the pedal box and the clutch master cylinder.
Costs would depend on the spec of the engine you were replacing the auto unit with. all parts are obtainable second hand, look for a car with rear end damage, as this is less likely to have engine damage. If you have time and confidence, you could do the work yourself, otherwise enlist the help of a local specialist.
This being a car with air con, means that it is a little more complicated under the bonnet, so labour charges would reflect this.

Just on another point, do you have a full car licence ?
If not, and you do your test in an automatic car, then you will only be qualified to drive automatics, should you wish to drive manual cars , you would have to resit the test.

deff still looking billy, just looked at that site, is it just me or can you not see a pic of the car u want to look at, just a description?

thanks for the input, ya i got my full licence a few weeks back, pitty it sold.

Thats just a link to the cars that have already sold, go to the home page and link to the current stock, only 1 Mini at the mo.

What about this one? Looks like a Jap import, it's automatic and it's already registered here:

http://www.cbg.ie/Car_Detail.aspx?ID=2442587#

Thats the same car that was in the earlier post.

Oops sorry bout that. I just read the first bit about the one in London
There are more autos kicking around though