A mini on a £2,000 budget?

BeenThroughItAll

bigjl wrote: »

Lets ne honest gearboxes have never been a French strength.

Plenty of gearbox bearing failures in Renaults back in the 90s.

I had a Mechanic that could rebuild them in his sleep.

Once took a R19 16V box and made it good with bits from a R21 gearbox(i think, it was 20yrs ago)

Yep. That's why I think it's always a bit unfair when everyone blames Rover for the MINI's problems. If you compare the PSA-derived Midland box (which was originally designed for much less powerful cars than it ended up being fitted to), with the Rover PG1 (which was jointly developed using Powertrain Ltd expertise with Honda in the late 70s/early 80s) the PG1 walks all over the R65, and it was fitted to all kinds of things from Metros to 220 Coupe Turbos. I had a 220CT in 2003 which was running at over 250BHP reliably on the standard PG1 Torsen-equipped gearbox.

mattyprice4004

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Yep. That's why I think it's always a bit unfair when everyone blames Rover for the MINI's problems. If you compare the PSA-derived Midland box (which was originally designed for much less powerful cars than it ended up being fitted to), with the Rover PG1 (which was jointly developed using Powertrain Ltd expertise with Honda in the late 70s/early 80s) the PG1 walks all over the R65, and it was fitted to all kinds of things from Metros to 220 Coupe Turbos. I had a 220CT in 2003 which was running at over 250BHP reliably on the standard PG1 Torsen-equipped gearbox.

Indeed - I own a large spares company for MG Rover vehicles, and the only weak point of the PG1 is the differential bearings.
My old 620ti with 197BHP out of the factory used the PG1 and was OK at 79,000 miles, as is my MG ZS diesel, also a PG1, at 144,000 miles.

The ZS is probably going to need some in the future, as it's been quite heavily modified and will have an absolute wallop of torque (which kills the diff bearings quite quickly) but I have plenty of steel caged replacements here.

I don't bother keeping bits for the R65 now - they suffer from such a variety of issues it's just easier to replace with a low mileage box.

BeenThroughItAll

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

Indeed - I own a large spares company for MG Rover vehicles, and the only weak point of the PG1 is the differential bearings.
My old 620ti with 197BHP out of the factory used the PG1 and was OK at 79,000 miles, as is my MG ZS diesel, also a PG1, at 144,000 miles.

The ZS is probably going to need some in the future, as it's been quite heavily modified and will have an absolute wallop of torque (which kills the diff bearings quite quickly) but I have plenty of steel caged replacements here.

I don't bother keeping bits for the R65 now - they suffer from such a variety of issues it's just easier to replace with a low mileage box.

Interesting. Ever hear of cars for sale? If you do, and you come across a decent coupe turbo, I'd love to own another one so let me know!

JustAnotherSaver

Well then, that's that one solved - she wont be getting one Thanks for the responses.

I remember picking up my MK4 Astra 1.8 SRi when it was 7 years old for only £1,400 with FSH. It was a cracking deal. This was back in 2008. I still have it today & in all that time it's only needed general wear & tear items really, aside from the thermostat needed replacing when i bought it & the ECU went duff last year which i sorted myself for £200 all in. Beyond that it's just been exhaust, break discs & calipers, pads too, tyres etc.

Can pick them up for a few £100 these days so i think this is what she'll be looking at - MK4 Astra 1.6 (1.8 will be too expensive for her all round) or a MK1 Focus 1.6. She was also looking at the MK1 Yaris but not too many about round here it seems & those that are don't look the best.

bigjl

The MK4 Astra was a hardy bu@@er.

We had the 1.8 Astra auto as RRVs at work. They were almost impossible to kill.

Bloke on shift before me hit a speed bump, a table top one, at speed, was a new bump with no painted markings yet and he was out of area.

He thought he got away with it till I drove to my first jib and the big front engine mount split in half and the engine dropped onto the front subframe.

Loads of vibration and engine management light but the car still drove true and I was less than 1/4 mile to the call. So continued at.normal road speed.

Vehicle was back on the run the next day.

They had handling issues like lift off oversteer especially in the wet.

The 2001X were SXis and the last ones on a 53playte were Elegance spec.

They were all fast and did the job much better than the 2.0dti Auto Mk1 Zafiras that followed and also the 120bhp 1.9 cdti Auto Mk2 Zafiras that came in 2005.

They also used less fuel, so much for progress.

JustAnotherSaver

Anything else she should be looking at in this price bracket?

I know it's not lightning fast but she doesn't really want to go slower than her 1.2 Corsa.

The mk1 focus & mk4 astra both in 1.6 size.
Mk4 golf TDI? I know it'll be high miles in that bracket.
The mk1 Yaris.

Anything else?

BeenThroughItAll

theghool wrote: »

Your budget is better suited to a newer Yaris or the like that will be much cheaper to repair/service than the Mini

True. Just be sure you don't go for one of the base models with no rear brakes. They're deathtraps.

facade

I'd do some homework on the Yaris.

A work colleague has one, bought to replace her pink (was red once) Cavalier diesel (with the isuzu engine) when the cavalier needed too much work for the MOT.

Doesn't have a good word to say for it.
Reckons she has spent 10x the lifetime spend on the cavalier fixing it over the last 3 years.

burlington6

facade wrote: »

I'd do some homework on the Yaris.

A work colleague has one, bought to replace her pink (was red once) Cavalier diesel (with the isuzu engine) when the cavalier needed too much work for the MOT.

Doesn't have a good word to say for it.
Reckons she has spent 10x the lifetime spend on the cavalier fixing it over the last 3 years.

She was probably too attached to the cavalier

BeenThroughItAll

theghool wrote: »

Not sure about the diesel variant of the Yaris but the petrols have a good reputation on being reliable.

Who said the Yaris in question was a diesel? Keep up DM.