Hahaha, very true! The amount of times throughout my life I've stated "I've repaired it" and it's actually (sometimes sneakily!) been an upgrade i've lost count of lol. Funny thing is, this is one upgrade I wasn't sure about about the exhaust when I first started her up as I thought it might be a bit too loud, but when Gayle came out to the garage and I fired it up to let her hear it her reaction was "I love it!!! That's sounds amazing!!!". Gayle said it's staying! lol True on the parts being a minefield, but had that before with the 1st one I had (incidentally the gen2's seem to be a lot more expensive for parts than the gen 1's) so was kinda expecting it. Good thing is because these are so popular, there's plenty of help out there and groups/forums. One of the main forums I'm on for the MINI the owner of the site lives about 10 miles away from me lol Parts wise the hoses seem to be harder to get than the bloody radiators! Looking like aftermarket ones possibly (did I hear "upgrade" again? lol)
Spot on mate. I don't mind replacing the bits tbh as we're wanting to keep this one for a long time, so will get the benefits out of it. Better doing the work now when I'm still able to rather than a few years down the line when working on the car might be a lot harder for me. Speaking of which, have to say for a modern car I'm really enjoying working on her. Just can't wait to get her on the road again!!