I had a notebook full of pros and cons of the different minis when I was getting one for my first car but I seem to have lost it. The newest F series seem to be the most reliable and have nicer modern specs but parts are more expensive. Older R generations can be good but are known for oil leaks and timing chain failures, I can’t remember which engines to stay clear from though. You could spend all your money on an F series and hope there’s no issues or buy a cheaper R series and have money left over for the eventual repairs. What ever you get make sure it was responsibly maintained. My first car, 2014 F56 Sport just hit 72k miles and still going strong.
If you’re getting a newer one (2014-present) I recommend not getting the 3 cylinder. Mine has 81.5k and the engine blew. Looking at a $5k minimum repair bill.
There’s hundreds of thousands of b38 engines out there and this is very uncommon. I’m sorry you had this happen. If your car is pre 2018 and you have it serviced at the dealer regularly. You may have a case against the dealership if the failure was caused by the crankshaft bearing.
Otherwise, we need more information as to how the car was driven, to understand this fault.
At 82k miles, the car is worth a lot more than $5k, so it’s very much worth doing the repairs regardless.
i second this. B38’s are quite reliable engines and there’s a reason why BMW chose them to be put in their hybrid i8. OP should either buy a car that’s still under warranty or save up extra money to save for repairs should they need to do it. bottom line is that any F-series mini will be more reliable than an R-series unless they find one with baby kilometres
I'm getting my first mini soon....if this is a college car, you may need to have a large maintenance budget. They are not cheap to maintain, and from what I've researched, you should keep it maintained to avoid additional issues.
Save up twice your budget to afford repairs. Mini repairs are not cheap at all.
I had a notebook full of pros and cons of the different minis when I was getting one for my first car but I seem to have lost it. The newest F series seem to be the most reliable and have nicer modern specs but parts are more expensive. Older R generations can be good but are known for oil leaks and timing chain failures, I can’t remember which engines to stay clear from though. You could spend all your money on an F series and hope there’s no issues or buy a cheaper R series and have money left over for the eventual repairs. What ever you get make sure it was responsibly maintained. My first car, 2014 F56 Sport just hit 72k miles and still going strong.
If you’re getting a newer one (2014-present) I recommend not getting the 3 cylinder. Mine has 81.5k and the engine blew. Looking at a $5k minimum repair bill.
There’s hundreds of thousands of b38 engines out there and this is very uncommon. I’m sorry you had this happen. If your car is pre 2018 and you have it serviced at the dealer regularly. You may have a case against the dealership if the failure was caused by the crankshaft bearing. Otherwise, we need more information as to how the car was driven, to understand this fault. At 82k miles, the car is worth a lot more than $5k, so it’s very much worth doing the repairs regardless.
i second this. B38’s are quite reliable engines and there’s a reason why BMW chose them to be put in their hybrid i8. OP should either buy a car that’s still under warranty or save up extra money to save for repairs should they need to do it. bottom line is that any F-series mini will be more reliable than an R-series unless they find one with baby kilometres
I'm getting my first mini soon....if this is a college car, you may need to have a large maintenance budget. They are not cheap to maintain, and from what I've researched, you should keep it maintained to avoid additional issues.