Are old mini's safe?

Question

I absolutely love minis (the old ones particularly), and I am saving up for one. Although I love them, I am worried they might not be safe, have airbags, protection in the doors etc.. especially as it would be my first car, and the one I would learn to drive in.

I would be looking at some of the later ones, 1995 and onwards - how safe are they? What do they have in terms of safety features? What would be the best date to buy and how would I check it for rust and other problems that could be to do with old mini's? Is it a good 'first car'?

If you have one, where did you get yours(sites etc), and are you happy with it?

Sorry about all the questions, any answers to the above are appreciated. Thorough answers are (almost) guaranteed 10 points.

Answer 1

Old car designs aren't particularly safe by today's standards.  Old small cars are even less safe by today's standards because they don't have large expanses of sheet-metal separating you from whatever is hitting you on top of not having the airbags, the crumple zones, side impact beams, ABS etc.,.

That being said, any car is relatively safe if you don't wreck it.  You might be taking a chance if someone else hits you in a Mini and there's nothing you can do, but you can control how YOU drive.  You might have a little extra incentive not to wreck if you love the car and you notice how much smaller it is than anything else around you.

My advice would be to get something a little safer as a first car and learn on that first, then get a Mini once you've learned the basics of driving.  If you are unfortunate enough to wreck at first, you'll wreck the safer car and not the Mini that way.  Your first wreck is normally your worst, at least statistically speaking, and most people's first wreck happens when they first start driving.

Good luck!