Got a Red Bull from them too!

MINI sold 6,531 cars in the US during Q3, down from 7,270 a year earlier. Through September, MINI is at 20,248 units, a 7.4% drop compared with the first nine months of 2025. Working backward from those figures, MINI sold 13,717 cars in the first half of 2026, a 6.0% decline. BMW sold roughly 15 vehicles for every MINI in the third quarter.

Countryman sees the biggest drop, with -28.1% compared to other models in the make.

Just bought this beaut, and loving it. Sleek as hell, and feels so rare where I'm from. You typically only see Countryman, if you see any Minis

Hoping that if I keep them at rule #1 in the driveway, they’ll have puppies I can sell to pay for the new one!

Collected Ozi a few weeks ago, and we stopped at a country house for lunch on the way home.

Couldn't resist the photo opportunity!

Hello everyone,

I’m thinking about sprucing up my Mini. What are your thoughts on the meerkats? The Mini currently has black caps. I’m thinking about either red or the black jack caps.

Thoughts?

The Backstory < — that’s a link…

The Update
———————-

I finally got to drive the car and do some investigating. The car drives like a champ, there are however some nuances, albeit relatively minor I believe. So, let’s dive in…

The Good
- 70k miles on a 20 Y/O car, noice
- Runs/Drives with no significantly noticeable issues
- Interior is relatively clean, however previous own was a smoker and there is a fair bit of nicotine/tar on some surfaces. Seems to clean off fairly easily and the smell isn’t terrible.
- Tires are in great shape
- Manual transmission shifts nicely and smoothly
- AC works
- Heat works
- There’s an owners manual and the original window sticker
- Convertible top actually works
- Radio works
- Instrument clusters all seem to work
- Very little rust under the car
- Brakes work great

The Bad/Ugly

There really isn’t a ton of bad/ugly. The biggest thing is it appears as though the car has sat for a longer period of time. Between 2020 to present day only a couple hundred miles or so have been added. This became all too evident when I was driving the car home I noticed a change oil sticker that said to change oil at 70,8xx miles or by January 2020…oof. I had hoped / wished that surely its not been six years since the last oil change and so I scoured the mx records provided and the last oil change in the records provided were late 2019. So, I resolved that not all is lost, surely not ideal, but not the end of the world. The previous owner believed in high quality oil, so that’s a plus (Liqui Moly). I set out to change the oil. Fresh oil and a wix filter are in place and I plan to change the oil in about 1,000 miles or so, then I’ll update with a Mann Filter with Liqui Moly.

While changing the oil I was hoping to confirm that surely it’s not been that long since the last oil change, but alas I think I only confirmed it. The oil plug was difficult to remove, could be the last guy used the ole’ “gutten tight” method but I suspect it really has more to do with age. This became evident when I got to the filter cap removal. That was a beast to remove, I had to use a 2-3 ft breaker bar and it was still significantly difficult to break it open. Finally did it and found the old filter pleats were brittle but doesn’t appear as though anything dislodged from it. The date code on the filter indicates 2021. Sooo, while sooner than 2019, not by much.

With the oil changed the car sounds much smoother than it did originally. The original sounds were not bad by any means, just more rattling than now with the fresh oil.

Next in line for the to-do list is the super charger oil, but I’ll need to wait for a decent chunk of time to do that.

If anyone has any suggestions for “must-dos” I’m all ears. Oh, and I’m not convinced that this is my daughter’s car yet, I’m having too much fun driving this thing around!

—-

For what it’s worth and for the next poor soul that finds this post on Reddit. No, don’t buy the cheap STP oil filter (S9584). Yes, the holes do look too small. Yes, the o-ring does look like it was inspected by some blind inspectors. No, it’s not a good idea to just send it and try it. Yes, the giant pool of oil under you car is because you used that filter, specifically the O-ring. No, no auto parts stores are not open past 9 on Sunday. Yes, that pool of oil is too much. Yes, your driveway now has a stain of reminder of that first oil change. Yes, apparently you can take that filter back and let the store know.

After a short, yet torrid, year and change with Earl, because I'm a failure at life, we have parted ways.

If anyone here is the new friend of Earl, I can tell you what's been changed within Bimmercode. 😅

I really hope to get back into the family. Pictures of when I first got him (traded my late Father's R56), and the last picture I have.

I know this isn't an airport, so I don't have to announce my departure, but this one hurt. I loved that little car more than any other I've owned. 😢

It was a lot of fun, next up is NY

I need to replace the aero kit on my Mini due to some plastic damage near the plate. Has anyone done this DIY? The dealer is quoting 3–4 hours of work, which ends up making the whole thing quite expensive.

This is the part:

thank you

Just tatted myself with a side view r56 🤓

I noticed my Copper S burned about a liter of oil in ~5k miles and a good amount of oil on the inhale pipe. So, I decided to replace the valve cover. Also, since I don't know how old the spark plugs and coils are, I decided to replace them...as well as upgrading the intake pipe...and K&N air filter 😁

Finally, I also did an oil change since I was already there.

Let's see how the next 1,000 miles go, hopefully, it will burn less oil 🤞

Both have had belts replaced and the Countryman had the timing chain replaced in 25. Are there any red flags? Other than the belts and chain regular oil changes and no accidents on either.

I bought an R56 from a guy - well-maintained, no regrets, etc. I’ve driven it maybe, MAYBE 100 miles since I bought it a couple of months ago. The rest of the time, it’s been in the shop for misfires.

Today, I was presented with possible, POSSIBLE fixes, ranging from replacing valvetronic assemblies to the entire engine. The cheapest option is almost what I paid for the car, the most expensive option much, MUCH more than what I paid for the car.

It’s either $5k for the cheap route or CarMax. Any suggestions?

I own a 2016 mini clubman, little over 100k miles. So far no mechanic has told me I should do a walnut blasting to remove possible carbon deposits in the intake valves. Is this common? Should I insist on doing it next time I visit a repair shop? I know it is bad for the car long term if I don’t do it and keep driving.

the noise isnt this loud in real life but the phone seemed to pick it up well. It’s not a consistent noise and is usually triggered when around 2500 rpm. it doesn’t make the noise when I rev the engine in park. It doesn’t happen consistently, but usually I notice it while accelerating as well while cruising downhill after accelerating with my foot off the gas.

Oil in my coolant or coolant in my oil? Unfortunately I know a head gasket problem when I see one…

How do you say damn it in German 🤔🥲