I do about 200 k's a week in my daily (De Luxe) and rarely have a problem. Mine does get a basic service at a mechanic because working on the same car for an extended period gives me the shits If something does go wrong I can fix just about anything myself (back up plan 1), plus I can always borrow someone else's car if things go horribly wrong (back up plan 2).

If you can find a mini that hasn't been f**ked with by someone that doesn't know what they are doing you should be fine. Because mini's were so cheap to start off with many people didn't bother regularly servicing them.

Find yourself a good mini and it should give you little problems

When I get mine serviced it's about $110 for greasing all the nipples, oil, oil filter, points, condensor & all labour. If I did it myself I would be able to do it for about $50 (it would be cheaper if I bought cheaper oil).

Hope that helps.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

As Simon K said there is Minitopia (check out the website for more info)
Firstly what side of melbourne are you coz if you'd like to have a chat about what you want from a car i maybe able to point you in the right direction.

I used to use my mini as a daily driver for about 10 years and other than the usual maintenance rarely had any problems (hose/s perishing, throttle cable breaking, radiator leak, spark plugs failing, moisture in the dissy cap were my major issues), It did about 500ish km's a week including club events competion and social.
Anyways they are really not more or less unreliable than a late model car, any brand.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMkVq1jRGU