Hello, I'm new around here. I may have joined a year ago, but I never got around to posting until now. We're now eagerly awaiting the delivery of out fourth MINI (currently somewhere between Oxnard and here). I've been used to MINIs or Minis for quite a while.

When I was young (which is quite a while ago) the family had a Mini, we managed to get the entire family (Mum, Dad and 3 kids) plus luggage for what pass for long trips back in England (about 4 hours from home to the South Coast). Not the prettiest Mini in the world.



Later on I learnt to drive in a Mini, I got driving lessons for my 17th birthday (dad insisted, so we wouldn't pester him for lifts). That was in a bright green Mini 850, with dual controls. That didn't like going much above 50mph.

Growing up in Britain, I was used to small cars, I preferred small cars, but the classic Mini was just too small for me. I liked something a little bigger, there were plenty to choose from, "Superminis" as they called them. My first car was a FIAT Panda 750l. After that I moved up a bit to a Lancia Y10, FIAT's premium brand, but still a small car (the Y10 was 2ft short than a MINI). I sometimes mused that it'd be interesting if the likes of BMW or Mercedes ever entered the segment, something small, but well appointed would be ideal.

Then I moved to the US, this was to be with my future wife Cathy. That's a different story involving a meeting in transplanted British Pub in Cupertino (California). The US was missing the entire market segment I preferred, there were almost no Superminis available. We got a Honda Civic, which despite being much too big for my liking, promptly worked flawlessly for just about ever (its still going almost 16 years later).

Sometime later there was news of BMW's efforts to resurrect the Mini as its own brand. I was quite eager to here any news of this new beast. Though I was dissapointed to learn it was going to weigh in at 2600lb. There's no way a car that heavy is going to be reasonably economical. By economical I mean 40 (UK) mpg, 32 (US) mpg which was always my benchmark.

The first time I ever actually saw a new MINI was when were on vacation in Scotland in 2001. MINI were doing a roadshow in the centre of Glasgow and were offering test drives to all and sundry. Unfortunatly, I did have my UK driver's licence with me, so I couldn't take the test drive.



When the MINI came to the US, we were interested, but uncertainty over Cathy's job (her company was being bought out) meant we didn't immediately run out and buy one, and the Civic was still going strong. We took test drives, and compared to the competition, so when Cathy got a new job, we ran out and ordered our first MINI that weekend. That was April 04, with production scheduled for June. My biggest reservation about this was the fuel economy figures, they really weren't very good and this was tweeking my environmental concience.

We were taking a trip to the UK in July that year, a friend was getting married. We asked if we could do European delivery, like they do for BMWs, but they didn't, and still don't do that. I looked around to see if I could find anywhere which would hire us a MINI while we were over there, but we couldn't find anyone who did. We did however get to go see the MINI factory. While our new baby was somewhere between Oxnard and home, we were at the factory, which is quite fascinating. I knew where the factory was, I used to live in Oxford and at one point cycled by the factory every day on the way to a temp job.



When we got back home, and while we were still jetlagged, we took delivery of our very first MINI. A Cooper in Indi Blue and a white roof.



He later got the plate "IPOD MNI", my day job is working for Apple and it was largely the success of the iPod mini which was helping us afford to buy the MINI. The iPod mini was the first iPod product I worked on seriously.

So now we had one MINI and one Civic. We were used to having only one car, I'd cycle to work 4 days a week and drive the other day. But with 2 cars in the garage it was much too easy to drive instead. However now I was driving regularly and getting the MINI one day a week, it was obvious that the old Civic was no MINI. This was causing a little discord.

However, Apple was really doing very well and that meant it was now possible we could buy a second MINI. So putting doubts about fuel economy even further aside, we ordered our second. This time a Cooper-S. We really didn't need an S, and its fuel economy is really suspect, but this was somewhat of an extravagance. We ordered in Feb 05 and in May 05 Quentin arrived. (You'll notice the first MINI still doesn't have a name, thanks to procrstination from some parts.)

Quentin was more or less "MY" MINI and the first Cooper was now Cathy's MINI, so we could return to our state of married bliss. I was really keen to get him in Purple haze (aka Black Eyed Purple) with a white roof, despite that being rather similar to the first MINI. The colours remind me of my favorite chocolate Cadbuy's Dairy Milk. He eventually got the plate "Q22 MINI" which is an inside joke not many people outside of work have understood.



Unfortunately just after that, we had to make an unexpected trip to the UK, my Dad died. We needed to hire a car to get to the remote village in North Wales where my folks lived, so I put the research I done into hiring MINIs in the UK into action and we hired a UK spec Cooper. Wales is an interesting place to drive a MINI.



The next year we had a planned vacation to the UK which involved a lot of driving. a couple of thousand miles taking the long way from London to Wales (via Kent and Cornwall). After our experience hiring the Cooper, we decided to try hiring a Cooper-S. The Cooper was really nice, but on the "interesting" roads we were driving on you could still get annoyingly stuck behind a road slug for miles and miles. With the power of an S, I hoped you'd just be able to blow by them. It turned out to be great fun, the extra power helped, but you still got stuck behind road slugs.



So we now have an 04 Cooper and an 05 Cooper-S. One thing I always thought would be great would be if they made the Cooper in a 6 speed version. They only made them in 5 speed and the Cooper-Ss in 6 speed, until the 07s came out. With the 07s the Cooper finally had a 6 speed. I was tempted by an 07, and I managed to temp Cathy enough that in March of 07, we ordered another Cooper to replace the (still unnamed) 04 Cooper. As well as the 6 speed, we ordered the Cloth/Leather combo seats. The Cooper-S we hired in 06 had those and they were really comfortable for my generously proportioned backside. Though they didn't do them in the black as you can get them in the UK, just in slightly garish blue or red.

Tristan arrived in May of 07, he's Lightning Blue, with a White roof, very similar to the much loved 04 Cooper (just half a shade lighter blue). Cathy was feeling quite guilty about letting go of him.



During the spring of 07, Mum was quite ill. It became clear that she was not going to last much longer. We hoped that she'd last long enough that we'd be able to see her when we were out on our vacation we had all planned for September/October. However, things took a sudden turn for the worse and 2 weeks after Tristan arrived I was flying out to the UK in the hopes of seeing her one more time before she died. Unfortunately she died before I even got to the airport.

Still I needed a hire car, so I booked another MINI, this time I booked a MINI-1, I'd always wondered what they were like. When I got to the rental office I found myself upgraded to a Cooper instead, an 07 no less. I didn't complain too hard about that. So I had 2 weeks running around North Wales in an 07 Cooper, I was convinced that the 07s were even better than the previous versions. A neat trick I thought.



As I mentioned we had a trip planned to the UK for later that year anyway. As was now usual, we hired a MINI. I couldn't quite work out the logisitics of hiring one one way from Scotland to London. (The trip starts in Scotland and drives through wales to London.) So we only hired one for only a week, while we were going to be running around the highlands of Scotland (and we were stuck with a Focus the rest of the time). That sounded like a really fun place to be driving a MINI, and it was. Rufus was a Red/Red Cooper-S with the half leather seats in red (which we had been afraid would be much too garinsh, but were quite reasonable really).



Unfortunatly Rufus was suffering a few fits. He'd occasionally ding and run an alarming list of Icons across the diagnostic screen. His handling didn't seem to be compromised (but maybe I was a bit mroe careful), but when we got to Edinburgh we rang the hire shop and they asked me to bring him in. They decided he need to be kept for observation so offered to swap him for an S Convertable they had available. I'm not one for convertables, and October in Scotland isn't the best weather for it, so I asked about the MINI-1 they also had. So we finally got to try out a MINI-1 for a day.



So now (back home) we have an 05 S and an 07 Cooper. I start to wonder if maybe we could trade in for a new MINI. The feel of an 05 is totally different than that of an 07. Its quite disconcerting to swap between the 2 they feel so different. Also the 07 Cooper is quite a bit more fuel efficient than the previous models, if we got another one, my environmental conscience could be salved a little. I do prefer the handling of the 07 over the previous models. So I somewhat hesitantly suggest the idea, we're definitely in 2 minds about this, a new Cooper would be practical in some ways, but getting rid of the Quentin's raw power (which is soooo much fun) was a big problem.

That was until I hit on the idea of buying a new Cooper-S, not a Cooper, we'd end up with a Cooper and a Cooper-S, both with all the new features. That was when I became more enthusiastic about the idea. After saying that we needed to make a decision, either keep Quentin for years to come, or buy a new S (and not just do nothing by not deciding), eventually Cathy decided we should go for it. So in April we went and ordered number 4. He's quite a departure from previous models, Dark Silver and a Black roof (on which we intend to put a "blackjack" Union Jack in shades of silver and black). We got the half leather seats again, but decided to be daring and go for them in red. (You have the option of blue or red in Silver MINIs.)

We ordered on a Friday, and by that Sunday he was already in production. He raced out of Oxford and down to Southampton only to sit on the dock for a frustrating 2 weeks having just missed the Isold (on which Tristan arrived the year before). As I said we're eagerly awaiting his arrival. We've tentatively named him "Shawn" after the sheep from Wallace and Gromit, because he seems somewhat like a black sheep with his radical colour scheme quite unlike the previous MINIs. We've still to finally decide on a name and we need a new plate for him, Q22 MINI is going to retire with Quentin.

PS: If anyone wants a much loved 05 Cooper-S, low milage (about 19,263 currently) we're looking for a good home for Quentin.

 

Wow - well - quite a story...Thanks for taking the time to write and post all of this. Glad to have you on NAM....

Donna

 

Thanks for the great Mini/MINI biography. It's really wonderful to hear such a personal account of your life intertwined with your vehicle history, even to the point of those sad events, the loss of family members. I still remember the phone call I received many years ago while living in the Bay Area, and flying home to bury my grandfather. I still feel that day. My condolences to you.

I'm sure you'll also find that there is a lot of overlap in the MINI/Apple enthusiasts.

Great pics too!

 

Shawn has finally arrived, so now I have pictures.

 

It's been a pleasure (for the good parts, not the loss of family, of course) reading your spots, and thanks for the pictures! Although I've had so very many rentals in quite a number of countries, I was never able to rent a Mini. Now I'll just try harder! The one country I wanted to visit, but never got the chance to while I was in Europe was Wales. You've inspired me to plan that, too!

Congrats on Shawn!

 

Wonderfull story about all the Mini's in your life. Thanks for sharing. I am just starting out with my first one and am still on the waiting list for that.

 

Update: I have another MINI to add to the collection. We're currently on vacation in Europe (we're in Nürburg, Germany at this moment) and we've hired a MINI for this trip as we tend to.

We're calling him "Eric (the red)", he's a UK spec 2010 Cooper-S, red with black roof and black wheels. The inside is pretty black as well with the anthracite headliner and piano black trim.

 

Eric is SWEET! At one point in time, color matched wheel arches and rocker panels were a major turn off for me. and while I still prefer the black trim, color matched red is really growing on me. BTW, nice story and very inspiring. I've had such a case of buyers remorse due to the problems I've had with my pre-owned MINI. Your love for MINI has renewed my love for mine. Thanks for sharing!

 

An interesting post with a lot of great pictures, thanks.

 

I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you for posting.

 

We're now getting our 5th MINI, a JCW to replace Shawn. We just ordered today, he'll be Spice Orange, with a black roof and a largly black interior.







He's due for production the first week of May, which is coincidentally when we're also going to be in Oxford.

We should also have another MINI to add to our collection in May, we're hiring a Cooper-S in Paris to drive around Normandy.

 

This has been great reading. Thanks for sharing.

 

Another one to add to our collection. We've just been running around Normandy in a French Cooper-D, I posted more about that in a separate thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post3515821. We called him "Mulberry" in honour of the invasion harbours.

It would be very interesting to try him out on a race track, but the closest we got was the Le Mans 24 hour circuit (which is public roads), as seen below.

 

Our "holidays" in the UK were much like yours....Mum, Dad and three kids in a Mini.....but then we stayed at our uncles in Bristol...from there we took day trips with all SEVEN of us in the Mini. Dad driving, Uncle in passenger seat, Mum and aunt in back with brother and sister...oh and I sat on the handbrake (emergency brake) between the two front seats with a pillow stuffed around the brake............ah those were the days....oh and I'm so sorry that you had to travel to North Wales.....South Wales is of course much better! (A little regional rivalry there for the US reader!)
Nice piece...thanks...Philip (originally from Swansea) Go CITY!

 

Great story. A very fun read. Thanks for posting and sharing your history with MINI.

 

If this site had a Thread Hall Of Fame, I would nominate this one for it (it would be next to the original Random Thoughts thread and the Ask Dave thread among some other oldies but goodies).

Great post !! Thanks for sharing your stories !

 

My goodness! What an awesome thread to read! I really enjoyed seeing that your very first MINI looks exactly like my current MINI (even down to the wheels). Gotta love the Indi Blue! The Purple Haze is another one of my favorite colors, and I really wanted one I found privately, and while that owner continues to drop the price over the last 4 months, it's still too pricey lol.

Every post I saw of yours, I was wondering what your next MINI was. Your adventures seem rather awesome, coupled with those MINI's that you name. Good luck with the new JCW, and I can't wait to see what you do next

 

I forgot to update the thread with pictures of the new JCW. He arrived in mid June and is a lot of fun, we're calling him Algy. We've been on a few trips with him and a few track days. I haven't actually managed to go faster than I did in Shawn, which is slightly puzzling.

 

Great thread mate, really enjoyed it. I am originally from Brum. I have a 2008 clubman S & a 1959 Morris Mini Minor that I have restored to original condition. I believe it is the oldest original import in North America.

 

I'm laughing my socks off here, your first Mini had a glassfibre Bonnet. I hit a dog with my red '61 and replaced the front with one from Halfords.

 

Great photos !!

 

Thumbs up on the OP. Great story!

 

Anybody besides me notice the steering wheel is on the wrong side in some of these pics?!?!?

 

That's the way they sell them in the US.

 

Damn I was beaten to it. LOL