Hi all!

I'm in the market for a fun car, and looking at the ~35 different cars I've owned, one of my favorites was a tuned 06 MCS, right at 200 whp. Granted that was back in 08-10 so it was a lot newer than R53s are now. I have regretted selling the R53 ever since.

I'm considering an R53 or R56, but looking at listings has me somewhat worried. It seems that the R53s are mostly high mileage and in poor condition. The R56s seem to have lots of red flags around timing chains, head rebuilds, oil consumption.

My R53 was really reliable, but again that was 15 years ago and it only had 17k on it when I bought it. I also had an R56 loaner for a while during a recall/TSB thing, and while I preferred the R53 at the time, the 1.6T engine and the seats were a real improvement over the R53.

Am I asking for trouble considering an R53 or R56 at this age?

I should note that it would not be my only car, and likely would get driven about 500-600 miles per month.

Lastly, I just found out that the Countryman also had an available 6-speed manual. Are they any good? It seems like a fun car with enough practicality to be a useful daily driver.