Yikes, a Mini Cooper? I agree with @db4690 - pretty much the opposite of a Honda or Toyota, reliability-wise. Much more reliable cars out there that’d still be fun. Mazda 3?
I would imagine that the reason why “Rob” is hesitant or refuses to work on a rust bucket is that he’s probably had a finger pointed at him more than a few times when he was in New England when a rust related repair snowballed into considerably more expense and aggravation.
Rust is not much of an issue here in OK but I’ve refused to work on some rusty northern transplants due to having naively waded into several previously.
@ Honda_Blackbird Best advice ever about letting go. It’s surprisingly not easy. I’m going through this pre-separation myself with my dear loyal friend, a 100% stock 1994 Acura Integra GSR with 355,000 miles which I have had 15 years and is rusting badly past the point of being saved IMHO. As reliable as these 90’s Acura\Honda cars were, they didn’t seem to hold up well rust wise especially in the midwest. Letting go It almost feels akin to putting an old loyal dog to sleep. I’ve never had this with any another car i’ve owned. As I respond to people who say “your still driving that rusty old piece of sh!t?” my response is “It’s a Honda thing, you wouldn’t understand”. Worse yet, I cannot even fathom owning a automatic and now a days manuals are getting harder to find. While not a turbo fan, at one point, I was really considering a Civic coupe EX-T manual but Honda discontinued the manual in 2019. That car at 174 hp to me seems like the modern interpretation of my GSR with the added bonus of running on regular gas. Sadly, Honda replaced it with the non turbo sport coupe and sedan however you can’t get a manual\sunroof combination any more. Screwed.
I know its been a couple years but guess we are pushing old discussions. I didn’t get a honeymoon 'cause I had to work but my 68 Dodge Dart was our car we drove away from the church in. I don’t remember my wife crying when I sold it but I’ll have to ask. They used to be good cars though.
I would say the Civic Si is the closest thing to your GSR today. And you can get it in a manual with a moonroof, because that’s the only way it comes. 
The only downer is that the seats are cloth.