mini in bellevue

[shaggy591a]

A friend of a friend is looking at buying this mini. I was going to go look at it for them as they are no local. It is listed as a 1984 mini cooper but I don't think it is. What can u see? Any help would be appreciated.

http://www.bellevuebentley.com/used-...ake_~Model_/33

[72 Norty]

19_ _ Mini

I love the colour scheme! A Japanese Rover Mini, in good shape not a lot of rust on these....dunno about the 14k price tag though. It is at least a manual transmission. I'm not going to tell you what year I think it is, for obvious reasons. Offer them 11k or 10.5k. Good Luck

[shaggy591a]

Yeah it is a japanese mini I did not see that, thanks for seeing that. Yeah I think it is a newer mid to late 90s as it has a mpi or spi. Can anyone tell me about the japanese mini's and the mpi or spi mini's. yeah I would offer like 10k never 14k.

[Peter J Larsen]

definately a nice good looking clean car.
Norty why you think it is japanese, just because right hand drive??
peter

[shaggy591a]

It has the non-swing out rear windows.

[James T]

It dose look like a Japanese market car to me as well....being the owner of one. Looks like a really nice car. The price point is most likely influenced buy the cars in the background It is most likely a post 92 pre 96 SPI cooper with AC (another clue to the Jap market). I think 96 on where coil pack cars with no distributor. Don't be fooled....i'm sure there is rust somewhere

[shaggy591a]

Well I went out to see it today. From what I could tell it was line-xed in the wheel arches and a lil bit along the bottom edge of the car underneath. I was told it is the Bentley dealer owners car and was keep in a climate controlled garage the last five years that is all that he could say about it. Would have liked to have talked to the owner to hear his story about it. Overall from what I could see is that it is a nice clean car. I wonder how it drives compared to mine.

[72 Norty]

Drivability....

Shaggy, it has to drive better,....the steering wheel is on the correct side.
The 1.3 on the "a" panel also is a Japanese hint. The Limey models have the 1.3 on the boot lid.
Fixed rear windows indicates to me that either it WAS a lower end model, then later embellished with Cooper goodies.....or the Japanese just didn't trust English engineering (hinges) and opted to not have another moving part. I've heard that the SPI's (96' on) can be more finicky. Just too much evil Rover trickery going on under the bonnet.

[James T]

All cars equipped with factory AC had fixed 1/4 windows. They figured you wouldn't need the extra air flow if side windows are up in the summer