looking for a new DD and autox car

David Spratte · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 3:45 pm

BriceJohnson wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, you can "calibrate" the TPMS on the mini (there is a button that does SOMETHING) so that it can account for ACTUAL differences in rolling diameter that aren't pressure dependent (i.e. the front tires wearing so much more than the rears for example). You press the button, and you are supposed to drive straight for a certain distance. Its possible that Carmax put the tires and new wheel on there, got a TPMS, and just recalibrated without actually checking the pressures. If so, it could in theory not set off the sensors. Thats one of the risks of indirect monitoring systems. The other one I've found, since we drive my wife's mini so infrequently, is that they do not detect seasonal variations in pressure. For example, if you're at 30 psi in summer, and it drops below freezing, dropping your pressures to 19 psi, it won't set the monitors off, b/c the tires are ALL equally flat.

Then again, you can go with direct monitors like whats on my mazda, and get constantly leaking valve stems and dead batteries. All TPMS systems SUCK.

Brice has it. The MINI (at least that generation) is a calibrated deal. You can spoof it.

Congrats on the purchase. The MINI has/had more headroom than any other car I've ever owned so tall guys rejoice.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:19 pm

yeah Brice nailed it on the TPMS. Just works off the ABS sensor rotation as far as I can tell. You can reinitialize the system anytime by pressing the TPMS button in the console. I wasn't real thrilled w/ the differences in the tire pressures, but it's addressed and drives much better.

Now, for some added drama, I've just found out the hood has been resprayed. I swear, I just can't win when it comes to buying cars these days. Just to preface, every time I went to see the car it was raining. Now that it's dry and I've had a chance to pull it in the garage, you can see the trash in the paint. Not very happy about this, but Carmax wants me to bring it in and they said they'd look at it and go from there. Based on the experience so far, I feel confident they'll make this right.

They did pull up their version of a carfax and no issues were found. This must have just been a respray for hood rash. They did an OK job and I never felt any over spray when I went over the car. Taking it in Thursday, so the saga continues.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

RodneyWright wrote:

yeah Brice nailed it on the TPMS. Just works off the ABS sensor rotation as far as I can tell. You can reinitialize the system anytime by pressing the TPMS button in the console. I wasn't real thrilled w/ the differences in the tire pressures, but it's addressed and drives much better.

Now, for some added drama, I've just found out the hood has been resprayed. I swear, I just can't win when it comes to buying cars these days. Just to preface, every time I went to see the car it was raining. Now that it's dry and I've had a chance to pull it in the garage, you can see the trash in the paint. Not very happy about this, but Carmax wants me to bring it in and they said they'd look at it and go from there. Based on the experience so far, I feel confident they'll make this right.

They did pull up their version of a carfax and no issues were found. This must have just been a respray for hood rash. They did an OK job and I never felt any over spray when I went over the car. Taking it in Thursday, so the saga continues.

Return it and buy something you don't need to finance. My $0.02

RobLupella · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:25 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

Les Davis wrote:

Can't you get Carmax to do the alignment?

All they will do is the standard alignment. Need Mark to put his magic touch on it. I did figure out the pulling issue though. Checked the air pressures this morning. Both the left front and right rear were at 15psi each, so pretty close to being a true run flat. Back left was at 20 and the front right at 42. No wonder this thing drove wonky. Much better now and drives like it should.

BTW, these damn run flats suck. Noisy as hell and stiff. Can't wait to burn these down and order some decent tires for it.

This is a very fun car and getting ~27mpg mixed driving. I'm digging that part of the car.

Laurinburg will help with that. :-)

I guess air pressure is not part of their 172 point check. :shock:

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 7:46 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

yeah Brice nailed it on the TPMS. Just works off the ABS sensor rotation as far as I can tell. You can reinitialize the system anytime by pressing the TPMS button in the console. I wasn't real thrilled w/ the differences in the tire pressures, but it's addressed and drives much better.

Now, for some added drama, I've just found out the hood has been resprayed. I swear, I just can't win when it comes to buying cars these days. Just to preface, every time I went to see the car it was raining. Now that it's dry and I've had a chance to pull it in the garage, you can see the trash in the paint. Not very happy about this, but Carmax wants me to bring it in and they said they'd look at it and go from there. Based on the experience so far, I feel confident they'll make this right.

They did pull up their version of a carfax and no issues were found. This must have just been a respray for hood rash. They did an OK job and I never felt any over spray when I went over the car. Taking it in Thursday, so the saga continues.

Rodney,

Carfax is worthless for seeing if a car has been wrecked. It's a false positive. Cars with a Carfax record of being wrecked most likely have been while cars without a Carfax record of being very well might have been wrecked/damaged. I realize you already likely know this, but it really burns me if a "dealer" ever tries to imply that a Carfax is a significantly worthwhile indicator of prior accidents.

When you find something like you've found, you have to assume the worst. Assume the car was pieced back together by 12 different cars from 3 different countries, and then go about proving that worst case assumption wrong (if possible). Hence if I was you, I'd assume the car was wrecked at this point and try to prove my assumption wrong.

Perhaps take Carmax up on the 5 day return would be the best route to take since you can rid yourself of it without investing a lot more time in discovery. On the other hand, if this particular car/options is a very hard thing to find, you might want to take it to a high-end body shop for inspection, paint meter evaluation, etc. Assume the worst has occurred and work backward from there.

Sorry to hear about the paint. I've never trusted Carmax since they tried to cheat me big-time on their "wholesale" value offer of a car I owned a few years back.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:20 pm

If Mini is like BMW, aren't the body panels tagged with a VIN? Maybe check and see if it matches up. Rodney's combo is not easy to find, it's going to be used for autocross, and it's not reliable to begin with since it's a Mini. I say keep it and try to ---perish the thought--- haggle a lower price from CarMax. can't hurt, right?

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:42 pm

I think the last BMW that had body panel tags was the E36 for what it's worth.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:45 pm

Steven Carter wrote:

If Mini is like BMW, aren't the body panels tagged with a VIN? Maybe check and see if it matches up. Rodney's combo is not easy to find, it's going to be used for autocross, and it's not reliable to begin with since it's a Mini. I say keep it and try to ---perish the thought--- haggle a lower price from CarMax. can't hurt, right?

Not reliable? I really hope that's not the case. I read literally a 100 reviews between autos.msn, cars.com, kbb.com and north american motoring.com forum and I came across nothing glaring in regard to the r53 body. Biggest concern I saw was the aux fan for the electric power steering and that seems to have addressed from 05 on. Did I miss something? There is no perfect car and for me my choices are severely limited due to interior height. It was this or back to the mustang or a subie, and there seems to be some soft points on the subie as well depending on what year/motor you get.

Hopefully this will turn out to be a decent long term car for me, at least for the next 2 years

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:50 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

Rodney,

Carfax is worthless for seeing if a car has been wrecked. It's a false positive. Cars with a Carfax record of being wrecked most likely have been while cars without a Carfax record of being very well might have been wrecked/damaged. I realize you already likely know this, but it really burns me if a "dealer" ever tries to imply that a Carfax is a significantly worthwhile indicator of prior accidents.

When you find something like you've found, you have to assume the worst. Assume the car was pieced back together by 12 different cars from 3 different countries, and then go about proving that worst case assumption wrong (if possible). Hence if I was you, I'd assume the car was wrecked at this point and try to prove my assumption wrong.

Perhaps take Carmax up on the 5 day return would be the best route to take since you can rid yourself of it without investing a lot more time in discovery. On the other hand, if this particular car/options is a very hard thing to find, you might want to take it to a high-end body shop for inspection, paint meter evaluation, etc. Assume the worst has occurred and work backward from there.

Sorry to hear about the paint. I've never trusted Carmax since they tried to cheat me big-time on their "wholesale" value offer of a car I owned a few years back.

They didn't have a carfax per say, but per carmax something more dealer supplied. I plan on being there and asking them to meter the paint. I don't think it was wrecked, at least not from what I can tell from either top side or from underneath the car. I'm hoping this was just a simple respray.

Also to your point, this was a tough car to find w/ this combo of options. 95% of the mini's out there have the sunroof which I can't have. Have to be optimistic here and hope this gets resolved to my satisfaction.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:54 pm

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/02/honda-subaru-tops-ford-biggest-gainer-in-consumer-reports-annual-report-card/1

Rodney, I thought you read Roundel? :wink:

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:56 pm

It's a Chrysler/Brazilian MPFI SOHC engine with little to no aftermarket support other than charger pulleys. Plus the car overall is made by BMW, how can it be reliable?

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:58 pm

JamesShort wrote:

It's a Chrysler/Brazilian MPFI SOHC engine with little to no aftermarket support other than charger pulleys. Plus the car overall is made by BMW, how can it be reliable?

Oh, insert knife, break off handle. I've been shanked. Talked to my mechanic and he states he's heard no major negatives w/ the car. Again, head room is my nemesis and limits my choices.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 10:01 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

JamesShort wrote:

It's a Chrysler/Brazilian MPFI SOHC engine with little to no aftermarket support other than charger pulleys. Plus the car overall is made by BMW, how can it be reliable?

Oh, insert knife, break off handle. I've been shanked. Talked to my mechanic and he states he's heard no major negatives w/ the car. Again, head room is my nemesis and limits my choices.

Granted the Prince/Peugot engine in Maria's R56 is probably a work of 'art' too

.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 10:34 pm

Rodney, don't take all the BS to heart, Gwen's mini has had virtually every single mile put on it either going to or coming from an autocross or at an autocross. Last year two of us were flogging the shit out of it at ncr, triad events and national events. This year there are three drivers flogging the shit out of it at ncr, triad, thscc and national prosolo and tour events. Judging from the posts on this forum virtually everone has had more problems with their car than with the blue mini(none) and it gets a hell of alot more abuse than most cars in this club. So either we're really lucky or the blasts you've been getting are BS, or maybe a little of both.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 10:43 pm

N/A Prince != FI Tritec || N/A Prince != FI Prince

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