[Charliefarlie]

With so many MINIS on the road i cant understand why people say they are unreliable. Surely there would be an outcry if all the owners had problem cars. Perhaps they are talking about the older models, not the latest new MINIS.

I will probably look to change my UP GTI in 2024. I do fancy a Mazda MX5 soft top, but i do not want another manual. I only want automatics. Its only available on the top of the range RF and too expensive.

I will have a look at the POLO GTI auto and even the GOLF GTI auto, but if you can get a MINI COOPER auto at one year old for the same price as the POLO GTI auto i would prefer the MINI.

My next car after that in 2029 ( yes forward planning ) which will probably be my last car before i give up driving, could be something different like a BMW 320 auto or a Jaguar XE auto. As an OAP i would like comfort.

If the price comes down a lot i could look at an electric car in 2029. All electric cars are automatic so perhaps a MINI E, HONDA E, RENAULT ZOE or SMART FOR TWO E.

Then again with the low mileage i do, i could keep my UP GTI for many years as my final car until i give up driving. At the moment i am enjoying my UP GTI. I have had it for 6 months and only done 400 miles in it, so it looks like it will do 1000 miles a year or less just like my SMART did, so i could keep it and look after it for the next 10 to 20 years.I have plenty of time to decide, so we shall see.
[/QUOTE
It is a while since we had Minis but the two we had we’re dreadful. The first one was returned under rejection, We then had another because they would replace not refund. That one event was also rejected and they refunded. No point in trying a third one ..

I have a Mazda MX5. It’s quite old but very low miles and exceptional condition. Great was a weekend toy but hopeless as a daily driver.

 

[Mr Cholmondley-Warner]

There was an article in Autocar just after i bought my UP GTI. It spoke about how all cars are so much more reliable these days and buying a used car up to one year old makes so much sense. The car has lost a large chunk of money percentage wise, still has a good warranty and dealers are desperate to sell cars after the lockdown, so will be ready to offer good discounts.

Even though the article was printed after i bought my car, i found this to be the case.
I saved thousands on my 9 month old (10 month old by the time it was delivered ) UP GTI and did a great deal on a great car.

They're not desperate to sell at the prices I want to pay. My purchase is always a long drawn-out affair at screwing them down to the last penny. I'm typically only happy when I get down to a price and take it to another dealer and they think I'm lying. My other half is the complete opposite and always says "just pay it ffs", but she comes from a very privileged background, plus has predominantly enjoyed a motoring life of company Mercs. The Up GTI statistically has exceptionally good residuals and a lot of people on various leasing forums question the wisdom of leasing one when you could buy one with a five year bank loan, offload it at 3 years and pay off the bank loan and have £2,000 in your pocket against the cheapest lease deal. But I like the convenience and certainty.

It's a throw-away statement and quite lazy for a car mag to say cars are so much more reliable. In a broad sense it's correct. But at what point do they become unreliable? How expensive is a small but common fault to fix? And you look at any buyer's guide - something always has a common fault associated with them. And it's a numbers game - every so often somewhere someone is going to end up with the one that goes wrong and Autocar won't be paying your bills. It's easy to say that when you're in manufacturer-supplied long-termers which your daily usage of saves the mileage against your own car which, given the nature of your business you have a network of people you know can be trusted to do the work well and at the right price.

Having been on the wrong end of it myself, however, and seeing people I know fighting against it, and tangentially through my line of work as well I can tell you that back down here on planet normal there are plenty of unreliable cars out of warranty but less than five years old in need of lots and lots of repair work, and at eye-watering amounts. I should say that I'm seeing a disproportionately bad side of it, so I will be Mr Doom and Gloom but neither will it be 100% rosy - somewhere in the middle lies reality. All cars are reliable - right up to the point where they're not. I'm happier knowing that when they're not someone else is legally obliged to pay for it with minimal hassle.

Oddly, we're entering an era where EVs with their new technology, but far lower count of moving parts are statistically much more reliable cars. I would, perversely, have quite a lot of faith in an current generation EV at 4 years old, and I'm far from an EV advocate but am slowly moving in that direction. I just don't really like any of the ones under £35,000 or the ones I do wouldn't get me 100 miles on a cold morning. The internal combustion engine has overstayed its welcome with me - not conceptually per se - just in the way manufacturers approach them.

 

[freemansteve]

I suspect drive train reliability of ICE and especially EV is statistically pretty good these days - and I was comparing with 40-50 years ago (above) not say cars early 2000's.

But there are so many complex things fitted these days to all types of cars, that overall reliability suffers - I mean AirCon gets regualar mentions with a certain age of car, DPFs where fitted, plenty of electronic stuff that annoys when it expensively fails - none of this existed on budget cars of the past, so in a way, they don't seem too bad, but it really wasn't great back then.....