Should you buy a 2nd Gen Mini Cooper? My Love/Hate relationship with my R56 Mini Cooper.

The Mini Cooper is world-renowned for its driving dynamics and racing ability but should you buy one? I review my 2009 Mini Cooper R56 Base model and what I have had to fix. My Cooper has about 80 thousand miles on it and I have had to do significant work to keep it on the road.
My Cooper has been in a minor accident and is on a prior salvage title but it was just body damage.

Here is a list of parts and upgrades I added to my Mini. Some of them required and some I just replaced since I was working on items around that area.

New timing change and guides at 75k. Worn so bad that it barely ran
Oil pump chain
Oil pan gasket
Head Gasket- Because I had the engine apart
Valve cover gasket
Oil Filter housing gasket
Oil filter K&N
New CravenSpeed Dipstick
Head bolts
Bosch plugs
Valve cover vent tube- I broke it
Coolant reservoir-I broke it
Rear sway bar bushings
K&N air filter
New bulbs
Passenger wheel well trim
Passenger door matching color via eBay
Mobile 1 synthetic oil
A/C condensor
A/C Charge
Carbon clean of piston heads and valves
Prolong Engine additive
Muffler Delete
Rear trunk lift trim with button
Zimmerman Front and rear brake rotors
EBC Yellowstuff brake pads
Rear calipers
Painted calipers blue
Enkei EDR9 Wheels
Powerflex Polyurethane sway bar bushings, lower control arm, and lower engine mounts. Worn so bad that the wheels jiggled when you kicked them
Red aluminum valve cover due to cracked plastic valve cover... and it looks awesome.
Radiator shroud, Radiator due to hitting largest raccoon in Kentucky!
Coolant crossover pipe…twice! They leak or break.
Painted subframe, had a little rust
Racing header
Replaced subframe bolts…because Mini says to every time