I BOUGHT A CHEAP MINI ONE FOR £250!

All right guys, how's it going? Welcome back. Well, today we're going to pick up a very cheap car that I've agreed to buy. I've agreed to buy a 2002 Mini. It isn't a Mini Cooper, it's a Mini 1, so it's quite a basic model. I've seen a photograph of this and it is very basic. It's silver, which is quite a boring colour. It's got wheel trim, so there's nothing really too exciting about it. In fact, the most exciting thing about the whole car was the price. I've I've paid just £250 for it. Now, I know it's a 23-year-old Mini, but still, I'm quite excited to see what it's like. I don't think they're reliable and I'm not a massive fan of them. However, when you're in the right mood, they are quite good fun to drive. So I think for £250, I can't really go wrong, can I? I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this cheap Mini yet, I've got no reason to keep it, but I just thought £250, there must be some profit in it. Somebody somewhere must be looking for a cheap runaround. There's got to be a few hundred quid profit. There must be, surely. Before I agreed to buy it, of course, I did a thorough vehicle history check using CarVertical. Now, it's really important that you do one of these checks before you hand over any cash for a used car or motorbike. There are so many dodgy cars out there, you really don't know what you're buying until you do one of these checks. I had this issue recently with a Renault Clio that I bought, turned out to be a Cat S. Without doing one of these checks, I could have potentially given too much money for it. It's really easy to use. All you do is go to carvertical.com and type in the reg or the VIN. In the case of this mini, it was all clear. It had never been stolen, never been written off, no outstanding finance, and no recorded accident damage. So again, I thought, well, my £250 is well safe, isn't it? If we scroll down a little bit further, we can see the MOT history. It's even got quite a long MOT on it. So again, I think I've just had a bit of a result, really. By the way, if you want to do any of these checks for yourself, and I urge you to do so, you can save yourself 20% if you use my promo code HYPEAK. That's HYPEAK, all one word, H-I-G-H-P-E-A-K. Like I say, 20% off each chevy check that you do. It isn't just a one-time thing. And also, the other good thing about Carvertical is this isn't just a UK thing. It works in 35 different countries. So if this little mini's had a smash in Siena or a crash in Cordoba, this'll tell us. And I can't think of another vehicle history check that's just so thorough. So anyway, in the case of this mini, we're all clear, so that's good. As I say, I have seen this car, only on a photograph, and it looked okay. My colleague described it as being quite tidy, and really, £250, I can't go wrong. If it turns out to be a complete dog, I can just scrap it. I'll probably get £220 back for it from Jay Davidson or somebody. So worst case, if it's not drivable, there's something catastrophically wrong with it. I haven't lost too much. I just always like buying these cheaper end cars, because it's a bit of a lottery, isn't it? It's a roll of the dice. It's Russian roulette. You just don't know what it's going to be like. This might be all right, or it might be a complete nail fit only for the scrapyard. We'll soon find out, won't we? I shall see you when we get there. We're here, and it looks very boring, but it's £250. They were way ahead of their time, weren't they, those cars? They are possibly the most offensive, ugliest, boring wheel trims I've ever seen in my life. Boring. Are they original mini wheel trims? They are as well. They're original mini wheel trims. They look terrible. I think that with a very good clean, that could be quite a tidy car. There are a few dents just around the fuel door, a little bit of rust. If you spent a day on that cleaning it up on your driveway, you could transform that car. Get heat good on the mirrors there, bring them back to black. That'd look all right, wouldn't it? We've got good year tires on the front as well, and decent size on the back. I think there's some profit in this. It's got its original mini plate on the front. I'm not sure about the back. We've got front fog, so I think they were an option. Not too bad, is it? All right, let's go and have a look around it then. I've only seen one photograph of this from that angle, so I didn't really pay much attention to the wheel trims at the time, but they're very boring. Anyway, £250, I can't complain. Right, let's go and have a look then at my cheap mini. So the first bit of good news is we've got not one, but two keys. One of them's a little bit broken, but again, I'm quite pleased to have two keys on a £250 car. It's very dirty and very grubby, but I think with a quick wash and dry, it'll be transformed. We've even got rear parking sensors, which I think look a bit aftermarket. I think you'll agree. We've got odd reg plates, which always suggest that it's had a bit of a bump or a whack or something, especially when the name on the plates says something like that. SD Repairs. It's from Williams originally. 0151 is Liverpool, so that's obviously the supplying dealer on the front. We've got a broken rear light here, but I can get one of those off eBay. It's just very dirty. It's just never had a clean, I don't think. So we've got a multi-hawk tyre. That's a new one on me. Oh, it's Firestone. Firestone multi-hawk. Someone's actually looked after this, and with decent branded tyres, again, I think with a good old clean, I mean, look at this. Once this is all cleaned off, it should be all right. The roof, I've just noticed, is covered in, looks like someone's parked on a golf driving range. I wonder if that's hailstone damage. It's just peppered with little dents on the roof. Not that it really matters on a car of this value, but it's just a bit odd. We've got a Goodyear tyre on the front on about 5mm of tread. That's pretty good. A few stone chips, but nothing terrible. So we've got a matching Goodyear on this side, again, about 5mm. I think they're winter tyres as well, actually. They look like it. A few dents there. That's obviously had some paint, because that's a slightly different shade of silver than that one. In fact, on camera, it'll probably look even worse, but in plain sight, it's not too obvious. But yeah, I just know that when I watch this back, the camera will make it look 10 times worse. We've got a Salem tyre on this side. That one's quite new, actually. That's on about 6mm. That's all right. Then I can get a rear light off eBay for 30 quid. Right. Got central locking, but my key fob doesn't work. What have we got there? My check strap thing's broke. There's no resistance there. Railway museum. I think what's happened here is I've bought that Francis guy's car. What can I tell you? Smells a bit doggy. I can see loads of dog hair everywhere. But we've got original mini mats, rubber mats. Dog hairs everywhere. It's not bad, really. It's not bad at all. A spare mirror there, just in case. Oh, broken mirror there. Right. Put that back on there. Pretend it was like that already. Quite heavy-handed, aren't I, sometimes? Broken that. Someone's put a cassette player in there with an auxiliary jack. OK. Service history, then. I guess this has got any. The logbook's there as well. Let me just move my camera out of the way. It's been a local car. Last lady's had it for two years. Got some receipts here, then, for supply and fit rear brake discs and pads, brake caliper, brake pad fitting. Then we've got supply and fit nearside rear ABS sensor. Got the service here at 87,000 miles. Supply and fit nearside rear wheel bearing. Someone spent some money on this. Had another full service and a brake light at 85. That was in Reddish at Station Service MOT Centre. Someone's looked after this, then, haven't they? In the service book. Then what have we got? Loads of history, by the looks of it. So, Williams Mini, Mini, Mini, Mini, the first four. Then after that, we've got S&D Repairs, which is the rear plate. They've looked after it, haven't they, for a good few years, then. In fact, a very good few years. Every single year. Plugs again. S&D Repairs. Baymou, their BMW specialist in Stockport. I think I've used them before. And then the last one, 85. And then it's also had another one, 87, which isn't stamped in the book. When was that done, then? 87,000 miles in October, until the last year. I really didn't expect to see such good history, to be honest. Let's see how many miles it's done, shall we? Even got plenty of fuel in it, as well. So it's an 89,771. Okay, right. Let's have a look under the bonnet, then, shall we? They have these weird, like, clamshell bonnets, as well. Before we do that, though, let's have a quick look in the boot. Right, well, we've got jack, tyre inflator, a spare indicator stalk. Again, though, it just needs a clean, really. A very good clean. This would be a perfect little first car for somebody, though, wouldn't it? Right, got to remember how to get in the bonnet on these. There we go. Right, so we're in. So the whole bonnet lifts up. So, no signs of any accident damage. Chassis legs are straight. Apart from being grubby, there's no rust or anything. We're all quite good. Just looking now for any obvious leaks, oil leaks, or whatnot. And it all looks okay. All looks quite good, actually. And it was only serviced in October, so it's not even due a service. Look at that oil, as well. It's like honey. We've had a result with this. Let's fire her up, shall we? Are you ready? Let's see how many warning lights we've got on. Sounds sweet. Doesn't have a blown exhaust or anything. My engine lights, oh, it's gone off. Sounds all right, actually, this. Yeah, it just makes you realise how ahead of the time these cars were. Because it still feels like quite a modern car. Not sure what that is. Hmm, okay. Do my windows work? That one does. That one does. The central locking switch doesn't seem to do anything. Yeah, that's not working. Still, £250. You could live with that, couldn't you? Back seats look okay. Headliner's quite clean. Right, we've got a problem with the brake light, then, because when I release the handbrake here, the light is still illuminated. So we've got a fault there. That could be a brake pad wear wire or something, couldn't it? I'm not sure how these work. All low brake fluid, perhaps? My brake pedal feels okay. There's no excessive travel or anything. I think, then, we need to go and see how this drives. This one's with less than two capital. Right, let's get this on the road, then, and see how it performs. A few moments later. Okay, slight problem before we get this on the road. I've just tried to get out of the car to go and get my other camera out of the other car, and look at this. No resistance. No resistance at all. So we've got a dodgy door latch. Let's hope this works from the outside and I don't have to climb out. There we go, right. Quite a slow window as well. Okay, then, right, let's get this Mini on the road. I'd say it sounds sweet, actually. The engine sounds as sweet as a nut. Clutch feels okay. Now, these early Minis, like pre-2005, suffered with quite weak gearboxes. Quite often, you'd have a crunch or there'd be a bearing noise, like a bearing whine or something, but it seems to be all right. Pull's okay. Now, I think the little Mini 1 was just a detuned version of the Cooper, so I believe, with a, I don't like this really, but with a remap, I think you can get this to the same power as the Cooper. It was essentially the same engine. Now, I've only got as far as second gear, but it feels all right. Like I say, clutch feels good, brakes are good, steering feels a little bit heavy, but then, they always do. Feels like driving a little BMW, actually. I've got my brake light on still, which hasn't gone off yet, but the brakes feel okay. There's no judder. There's no obvious fault there, like there's something wrong with the ABS or anything. Could just be low pads or low fluid or both. This is quite decent, this, really. What are we going to do with it, then? What do we do? You might think I'm putting the cart before the horse here, but I think it needs a good clean. I think if I could get it all cleaned up, then we'd be looking at an entirely different thing. If I could clean this, order a new third brake light for it, I could probably fit that myself, then maybe run it down to my mechanics. It's had a service recently. It's got a long OOT. I think we just have to try and fix this door, sort out the brake light. I wonder if that brake light... No. I was just thinking, then, I wonder if the brake light's on because we've got no rear brake light, but I don't think that would be related. I don't think the car's that advanced, to be honest. Come on, let you go. I just want to get through this traffic so I can try out all the gears. Make sure before I go ordering parts for it, we haven't got a synchromesh issue or a gearbox bearing issue or something. The gear knob itself is a little bit loose, but could probably be tightened up. I'm actually quite impressed with this. Washer jets work, wipers work, windows work. Does my air conditioning work? I very much doubt it, but we'll try. We'll give it a try. I sold a little Citroen C1. Useless trivia for you there. No, my air conditioning does not work. It's quite warm. This is the kind of car that you could just keep until it's next MOT and then scrap if it fails. I'd drive to work in this every day. Wouldn't bother me in the slightest. I think, actually, because we're this way over, I might just swing by my mechanics, let them check it over, see why that light's on. Also try and figure out why my door's not working. If I could be quite economical with the repairs of this, ordering a rear light off eBay, ordering a door latch or whatever from eBay, could keep the cost nice and low, couldn't we? Hmm. See what I mean about cheap cars, you just never know what you're going to get. This could have been a complete dog, but it's far from that, really. It's had a dog in it, don't get me wrong, there's dog hairs everywhere, but they're good old clean. We'll be all right. My brakes feel okay. Right, we've got a gap in traffic here then. Everyone's in a rush. Right, second gear. It's not the quickest thing in the world. Second, third, fourth, and then fifth. Perfect. This gearbox is pretty good, actually. No crunches, no bearing noise. They're very good fun, these. They're just so grippy. You sit nice and low down. They're just good fun to drive when you want to get a move on. Okay, right, leave this with me and I'll have an update for you very soon, hopefully with good news. Hopefully, if I give myself a budget of maybe, hmm, I paid £250 for the car. If I give myself a budget of another £250 to do all the repairs, we could have quite a decent example here for just £500. And then it's got to be worth £750? A grand, maybe? Cars are dear these days, aren't they? So £1,000, maybe, would leave me with a profit of £500. Even the horn works. Right, leave this with me. Wish me luck. See you soon. And we're back in my very cheap Mini, which is now looking tons better, but sadly it's not quite so cheap anymore. If you remember, I paid just £250 for this car. It now owes me quite a lot more than that. But still, it's still a cheap car and I'm quite pleased. The best bit about it, maybe the biggest improvement, is, you ready for this? Watch this. My door now opens from the inside. What a result. Honestly, it's the little things in life, isn't it? After we last spoke, I took this down to my mechanics for a service and an MOT. I also asked them to replace the rear brake light, the upper brake lamp, because that was all smashed. And I also asked them to fix this driver's door. Now, I had a bit of a result with this. This was fixable. I didn't need a new part. The stop lamp, on the other hand, obviously couldn't be repaired because it was smashed to smithereens, so I had to order a new one. That was about £80. Quite a big percentage of the car's value, really, when it was only £250 for the whole car. But still, £84 direct from BMW. I probably could have got a cheaper one, but it's there and it's working and it's done. If we look at the MOT fail sheet, it failed because of its upper stop lamp, which was... well, it wasn't there, it was invisible. The driver's door couldn't be opened from the inside. It now can. There was a fluid leak from the... some sort of hose that's been sorted. And yeah, done. So we've now got 12 months MOT with not a single advisory item on my 23-year-old Mini. So I'm over the moon. After that was done, I took it over to Tameside Detailing for a thorough valet, and here we are. It's all ready to go. The lads at Tameside Detailing have done a really good job with this. It was quite grubby. It was covered in hair and dirt, and now look at it. It's cleaned up really well. You know one of those rubber Mini mats with some original carpet mats? They've cleaned up well as well. It's just a There are a couple of jobs I haven't done yet. Now, I ordered some new reg plates for it, which are back at the garage. I need to fit those as soon as I get back. I might ask James to do that, actually. Cheers, James, if you're watching. I need to get it to dents and pop out a few dents. I know you're probably thinking that's a waste of money on a £250 car, but I've got too much self-pride. So I thought for, I don't know, £60 or £80, I may as well pop those dents out and have it looking its best. And also, that reminds me, it's quite a warm day today and my air conditioning doesn't work, so I might have them gas the air con as well. Now, the lads over at Collision Craft, which is where dents are also based, they'll pop the dents out and they also do things like air con re-gassing. So I'll get that done too. I really don't suppose that it'll hold its gas, but I'll try. I can but try. In all then, I have spent quite a bit on this car. Bear in mind I only paid £250 for it. The bill at my mechanics was more than that alone, plus the cost of the valet, plus the cost of the dents, the nimble plates, the air con gas. So this car I suspect will owe me about £900. So it's no longer cheap cheap, but it's still cheap enough really. I've had an idea. I was thinking of keeping it. Now, not for myself or anything, but I was just thinking of keeping it as a courtesy car. Why not? I know it's getting on a bit in age, but I could probably get a year or two out of this and then, well, deal with it then. It's way better to drive than my current fleet of Picantos and Aygos. Or saying that, a mate of mine's looking for a cheap car, so I might recommend it to her. I'll send her some pictures later and see what she thinks. But this could be ideal for that as well. So I'm sure we'll find a use for it, whether it's with me or somebody else. But yeah, I'm just really pleased with it, because a £250 Mini, I really thought was going to be a complete dog. But it isn't. That's always a nice surprise, isn't it? I'm not ending this video by saying, hmm, I'm going to scrap it. I'm going to call the local scrap merchants. What we're going to do then in a second is park up in my favourite lay-by, as soon as we've gone past this Ford Ranger with the horse box. Gracias. And then I'll sort you through my costs. Do need to get that aircon fixed. Sweating. It doesn't help that the seats are still damp from its valet. I need to leave this in the sunshine really to let it dry out. So my t-shirt is a little damp. Not from sweat though, from shampoo or whatever I've used on these seats, I promise. Okay, let's get our calculators out then. Don't want the world clock, do I? Idiots. £250, then was the purchase price. The bill at my mechanics was, you ready for this? MOT test fee, upper stop lamp unit £84.20, offside front inner door handle. Oh, it did need a handle. Okay, I forgot about that. I thought they'd just fixed it. That was £66.20. Bulb, £6.50. Labour, £1.65. Okay, so my total there was £433.47. Then we've got the cost of the valet, that was £70. Cost of the new reg plates, they were £15. Is that it? That's it for now. So the car currently owes me £768, but I'm gonna, let's factor in £80 for the dents and £60 for an aircon gas. It'll owe me £908.47. So I was sort of, I was quite right with my estimate, wasn't I? So yeah, I think that's about it. I'm quite pleased with my little mini purchase. When they work, and they are quite unreliable these cars, but when they work they are great fun to drive. I remember my late grandmother coming over to visit from Bermuda years ago, back when this car was new, like, not this car, but the new Mini, back in 2001 or something, and she rented one and I was so excited. She rented a British Racing Green Cooper. The fact that I remember things like that is probably why I've got a car YouTube channel, isn't it? Because I'm a car geek. Anyway, on that note, thank you once again for watching. Make sure you give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't done already. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. I'll leave the links below. And yeah, try and get a breeze going. See you next time. Cheers, guys.