a 2005, with an automatic (sharing with the wife). I've been looking for a Subaru but nothing has come up that's grabbed me.

If anyone has a line on something decent for under $9000 or $10000 than please let me know asap.

 

Ew. A soob is worth the wait!!

 

don't do it. the 05s are just so sluggish. wait it out or get a 07+ cooper as I think that is when it got better. might have happened in 06, but I know the 05s were not fun when we test drove it.

 

I say you wait. What's the rush?

 

yea I think 07's is when they switched over to turbos instead of superchargers. more mod-able.

 

I was talking about just the regular cooper, not even the S. our 07 isn't turbo, but is fine for around town. the 05 or 06 we test drove felt like it was being pushed through the interesction. I know it doesn't have power but it was just ridiculous how slow it was from a stop.

 

my gf is trading her TC for one but believe me when i say you NEEEEEEED the turbo. its like driving an old honda compared to a wrx. you wont believe the torque, hp and just overall better engine of the 07+.

wait for the better coop! its woooorth it soooo much.

 

good advice... thank you. It's cheap... I may pass. Need something asap though so I'm not down to taking the shame train.

 

My girlfriend and I have a 04' Cooper S. Car is quick (nothing like WRX/STi) but fun. I would recommend a 07+, but wouldn't settle for anything less then an '06. As you go earlier from '06 they are known to have minor issues. Nothing crazy, but small things like a notorious oil leak from a an o-ring and a few other little things.

We got the '04 before discovering a few things out. Ours was thankfully 1 owner, and well taken care of. Still needed a few minor things. But the S is loaded, drives very sporty, (rides very sporty also) and a rad car.

You won't find very many Cooper S's below 10k, so good luck if you got that route!

 

ok, so '06+ is the way to go?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/2134979181.html

not an "S" but that's ok, we just need something inexpensive and reliable for the time being.

 

muni. :d

 

yeah i live down here also man. muni sux.

all sides considered....
even though it might be low hp and what not. gas mileage is great on those things and if you need a car, you need a car..

 

sadly, it is at the point that we do need a car... and it's fairly cheap.

 

ok, it's been sold. So... I am still on the hunt for something! LOL!

 

dude, whatever you do stay AWAY from the first gen minis with the automatic CVT trans! They are all ticking time bombs that grenade usually around the 60-80K mile range (right out of warranty, nice) they are non serviceable so you just need to buy a whole new trans directly from ZF which run about $5K, the average job if done through the dealership runs about 6-8K otd. Ours is on its way out at about 65K and its been stored for the last 3 months till we can figure out what in the hell we're going to do with it

do a search on mini2.com or northamericanmotoring.com, plenty of horror stories, and its only the non-S autos that are CVT, the S autos are all standard 6-speed automatics made by Aisin, those ones seem to be fine. G'luck!