Definately count me in for a badge!

 

wow, love PeeWee, Sparkeyand Claytonl! beautiful!!!
congrats to all!!!

 

Claytonl,

Nice looking Motoringvehicle ! The white top will help keep cool this Midwestern summer!

And those of you with white wheels, yep, they need to be washed once or twice a week, even with a good polymer coating or wax. Just a 'sacrifice' that we make . I use a soft brush on a pole, dipped in a bucket of car wash/water. The car wash doesn't remove the wax.

 

Thank you OWG!

Haha yeah that's my Kuya. Aka my co-pilot! ...you're good.
-Just make sure you tell yuko what to expect.

Yeah I know what you mean!!

Haha thank you..


Thank you! I'm up for that.

Thanks toolazy~! They charged me $190. I made a thread here a while back and from what I've gathered, it's what the others got too, some were even overcharged!

Thanks gemgirlpa! How's Nugget?

Did you count me in?

 

Drove around last night with my co-pilot and took some night pics.. [all by my co-pilot except the last one]
-about the water marks on the windshield, had the car blessed.. wanted it to stay there for the night. Cleaning it today.

Practice shot. ..that's why it's blurry.


PeeWee overlooking the Northside of OC


Interior shot with the blue mood lighting on


Making his presence known



I will take more day pics today. I'm working tonight so I'll try to squeeze in as many shots as possible! Have a safe Motoring everyone!!

 

Congrats to all that have taken delivery. Now the REAL fun begins.

And count me in for a badge (which ever one is decided upon) as well.

 

Nugget had her first "real" bath this weekend and i got some pics. I tried to upload them yesterday morning, but it wan't working... with try later tonight...

 

Wow, so many posts to read.

Sorry I have been MIA, between motoring, busy weekends, and work it has been tough to hop online..

So here is my long blog since pickup of lil Buzz.

I am from the mindset that you should break in a car hard in the first miles, so keeping the Rev's down has been non existant.

Between the suspension upgrade and the JCW Tuning, i have had nothing but extreme joy driving this car.
Prior cars would be 350Z, 2006 M3, Porsche 944 and driving a freinds MUSTANG, VIPER , Corvette etc.

I can honestly say that this car has the best of all worlds. Damn zippy off the line, smooth transmission and sticks in corners like it really is on rails. I have taken 15 mph turns going about 45 and the car had NO roll whatsoever. The car was just pointed and it knew where to go.

Sport mode is interesting. The tight steering is greatly appreciated and the change in the accelerator pedal is fun, but the downside is that the car's torque makes it weird when negotiating a turn. No other car have i ever had to correct going straight after letting go of the wheel. Most the time if you loosen your grip on the wheel the car will true straight. Sometimes the MINI will continue the turn if you arnt carefull. Not a big deal, just have to get used to it being a front wheel drive car with lots of torque.

I have drivin the car in traffic, highways, slow ways, and plenty of back winding roads. All a blast!

Went to a wineray last weekend and took the highway to get there, but used the NAV to take back roads back. Whoah baby was that the best time ever. My wife made it more fun by putting her hands up in the air every time we went over a hill fast and got that sinking feeling in your stomache. She put her hands up like we were on a roller coaster.

I have had about 5 MINI waves from other MINI drivers. Not the hand out the window kind, but the steering wheel fingers up wave, but a MINI wave none the less.

At least 4 or 5 times now have I gotten the looks from non MINI cars. Usually I see the folks turning their heads around and pointing at my car and then when i drive by i get the thumbs up! It seems the sport stripe and the rally lights grab the attention..

Yesterday I was messing in my front yard and a random guy stopped at my house and started asking me about the MINI. He asked to sit in it and I had no problem.

So safe to say the MINI is still grabbing attention.

ISSUES:
Not really too bad. I have noticed the sunroof being too hot issue. It doesnt stick, but if I know I will be parked in direct sunlight, i pop the sunroof. When i leave, and I hit the button to close the roof it will attempt to close and then bounce back to tilt. I hit the button again and it closes fine. It has done this about 3 times now.

I will agree that the AVG Gas mileage is not that accurate. First tank it said i got 27 MPG and this was driving like a mad man. But when i did the calc myself, it was closer to 25 MPG. 2nd tank it said i got 31 MPG, but with my calc it was actually 29 MPG. No big deal.

I set the tach display to show exact MPG rating so that It acts like a becon for me to see how bad mileage i am getting flooring it.



Had a Road Rage incident on my way to work last tuesday. Some of you may not know but I am a local Law Enforcement Officer part time and it came in handy with this idiot I had to deal with. I was traveling down a 4 lane road and a the guy behind me didnt like that I was going 5 mph over the speed limit. So he did one of those zoom around me in the left lane and as traffic hit its brakes he swerved in front of me and missing my bumper by about 8 inches.

I am a fan of the long horn. Short horn beep says hey... Long horn beep (10 seconds or so) says hey, you are a FU(%ING idiot! So I gave him the long horn. Another lane opened up to 3, and i got over a lane to the right. My car got next to his and he gave the the friendly finger as well as yelling at me with his windows up. I just smiled and motored on. Well once again traffic in his lane slowed and this time he yanked his wheel and missed side swiping me by about 6 inches. I slammed on my brakes and he swerved into my lane again.

Being my LEO involvement, I contaced dispatch to try and get the guy pulled over. Unfort no on duty patrol officers could get close in time. I followed the guy for about 5 miles and he almosted wrecked 2 other cars and made MANY others slam on their brakes. I got his plate and ran a check. Turns out he had a suspended license and his registration was expired. Therefore I swore out warrants for Reckless driving ,driving on suspended and expired registration. Court is in September. Guy was suspended due to another reckless driving incident...



Lets see.. oh and lastly I wouldnt let my wife drive the car until I got 500 miles on the transmission first since she is new to driving a manual.

Yesterday at about 650 miles on the car we went out driving. She has driven stick before, but hasnt had that much practice. She has level pavement driving fine, its starting off hills like most folks that she has a problem. We were doing great until it was time to practice on a hill. In short she had a mental break down and got frustrated. After a 5 minute break and some coddling, she did fine but I felt so bad that she broke down. She really wants to get the hang of driving stick but doesnt want to mess up a brand new car. And 2 seconds of hill assist wasnt enough for her to get going. So she would freak out if the rev's got too high and she started rolling backwards. After some time she was fine and we stayed in the neighborhood. She totally gets messed up when other cars around, but she will get it after some more practice. The car is very forgiving and the hill assist does help.


OWG, saw that you had the same lackluster presentation as I did. oh well, i was happy to be off with my MINI and have my own personal presentation.

congrats to all others who are getting their MINI's..

oh and big "how you dooooin" to Dance and tweeky! haha


Ok anyway, that is my very long update. Thanks for reading!

Alex

 

If you are looking for some places to practice hill starts, try the National Arboretum, 3501 New York Avenue, NE. The area around the Asian collection is nicely hilly. Traffic is light, the area is beautiful.

 

haha, no way... The wife barely likes the steep hills in our neighborhood. She is too scared to try in real traffic. Few more weekends of in the neighborhood then we will try it out in decent traffic.

but thanks for the heads up of a nice drive destination!

good thing we dont live in pittsburg or San Fran

 

well I am sad... for some reason there is a delay in the trucking in of my MINI (and all others coming here) so they expect it in tomorrow.... so I should be able to pick up Thurs or Friday... At least it still is going to be this week!

 

Gem have you recieved a survey for you sales experience at Ottos yet?

I want one to show my appreciation for such a great sales experience, but i can't seem to get one. And I want one for my second service experience also, since that was great.

Has anyone gotten one?

 

I'd take a Week 23 badge.

 

I'm in for a badge/decal/sticker/tattoo as well.


nice shots of your PeeWee!

i'm down for something, pending me not being slammed with work.

 

Any of you Seattle folks get yours yet? OL shows mine at the dealer, but haven't heard a peep from them. I will give them another day or two then its time to check and see what they are doing to him.

 

my OL didn't flip over to At Dealer until Yuko was safe in my backyard. I'd call if I were you.

 

Got mine on Sat. Still getting used to my first manual car, but absolutely loving it so far! I've been really pushing him, despite not going past 4k RPM. The only problem is that there are never enough curvy roads and definitely not enough turns without the possibility of hitting pedestrians .

Anyway, here's a picture!

 

On behalf of the members of Production Week 23, 2008

Delivery #37

 

Went down into the garage where I work today and a couple of agents were leaving at the same time. My MINI is directly across from the entry door. One of the agents looked over at the MINI and me. He said, "That's the cutest car in the garage. Looks like a bumblebee!" I laughed 'cause most of the cars are cop cars and it didn't take much to win the prize. I told him it was a great little car and like a bumblebee had a stinger! In Maggy's case the turbo! We all had a good laugh and they were quite surprised by the roominess of the MINI. More converts in the making!!

For the record, I'm in for a badge too. Like the blue and white one best!

 

Dchaps, the only survey I have received was from:
MINI USA [satisfaction@MINIexperience.com]
Looks like it was from MINIUSA not Otto's, but it must have been sent to Otto's because my MA told me she saw it.
I have not received anything else.
if you want me to forward this email to you, let me know, I found your email from when you did my Sig.

 

Nice McEnvy... congrats!

 

yeah send it to me please.

 

I've had Waldo for two weeks on Wednesday...and my OL STILL shows "at distribution center". So who knows where yours is?!?

 

...and you're right proximal, it's all worth it in the end!

Congrats Tweecky; Nice to put a face with the text...

I should get mine in the next day or so

 

again... too much to catch up on. My computer crashed so I'm on a friends. Got a call today from my MA... Should be picking up on Friday!!!!