Happy New Year!!!!

 

Messy outside today, rain and mud - I really hate driving by construction sites on days like this! I'll have to rinse Hilla with a hose tonight to get the bigger stuff off! How's the new year starting for everyone? Our little tread is suffering from neglect. I hope it means everyone has been busy motoring!!

 

Ow. I was going to post about the hairline crack that I got on my windshield on new year's day, then I read your post. At least you are going to get brand new OEM

 

Ow. I was going to post about the hairline crack that I got on my windshield on new year's day, then I read your post. At least you are going to get brand new OEM glass! And you def have it right that you are lucky it didn't touch metal.

 

good thing you have a coat or two of wax on it! I'm so glad we don't have to deal with salted roads out here!

 

Yes, we are having freezing rain today, so the roads are salted again... so much for the nice, clean car. Winter in Ohio... oh well, what can you do.

I'm just over 2800 miles now. Just filled the tank again. MPG has really gone down in the cold weather. Last tank was between 27 and 28 mpg, as opposed to over 30 in all previous tanks. I guess that's to be expected.

 

Mines been below 25, combination of city driving and too much fun!!!!

 

I heard that MINI sales were up 20+ percent last year! I didn't read the article myself, but that would explain the increase in MINI sightings. I've noticed some will enthusiastically wave others are oblivious to everyone else - no doubt too busy grinning!

 

Yes, I think the first three quarters were huge and even through a less than stellar 4th quarter, they came out ahead compared to 2007.

The real test will be 2009 not just for MINI but all car manufacturers. It's going to be a bumpy year for everyone!

 

Well lets hope that this downturn will remain brief and we can get the economy rolling again. I would hate to see us go through the early 1980's again. At least with MINI saving on peoples expenses, it may actually help MINI fare better then the rest, but probably not at this current level.

 

I don't think anyone, anywhere is expecting a quick turnaround. Most think we're in it for a long haul. This morning on MSNBC Morning Joe, Suze Orman mentioned 2015 before things get better again.

 

Cr@p!! I heard that it might take years; this is the first I've heard of a 2015 projection. I've been trying to be optimistic, but I guess the best we can do is take it one day at a time. I can see a slow down in my practice, but I'm a small fish in a big pond and the big fish are still doing okay here. If this lasts 6 years thinks are going to get pretty messy.

 

Yes, it is scary times. I just read survey results from Yahoo the other day that reported 75% surveyed said that their company was going through some sort of staff reductions.

On another note, I have logged ~5300 miles on Trooper. My wife is baffled how I logged so many miles, and when she realized that 99% of those miles were driven by me, she now wants to drive the MINI more! No problem - I'm willing to share (a little).

 

You do know that by sharing you may end up on the navigators seat!!

I can believe the survey, I've reduced my own hours and not by choice! Lucky for me nobody else is dependent on me, so at least I won't have to worry about someone else's life getting messed up. The best thing for anyone at this time would be to have as little debt as possible, but that can be hard to achieve if your income is reduced. Luckly, I don't have too much left to pay off, so as long as there is even a little work for the next few years I'll survive. I really feel bad for the younger set just starting out, they'll have it really tough if this continues. I've noticed an increase in work applications to my office, but there is just no way that I could have that much work in the near future to take on the responsibility of an employee. And that means they can't get any experience if no one will hire them.

 

Good advice, sikamini. Reducing debt is so important - the flip side of that is living within your means. I think that is going to be key in our collective recovery. This is going to be literally pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, government initiatives not-withstanding. I agree about young grads ... best luck to all of them finding jobs. I guess they have the option of continuing education and getting an advanced degree while the job market and economy recovers.

The group I am most concerned about are those nearing retirement. I am lucky that I have years until retirement but even so, it pains me to look at my pitiful 401k balance right now. I have a co-worker who had to delay her retirement because her house value went down so much and she was relying on selling it and getting the equity out for her nest egg. Sad.

On another note - for those of you who went back for service ... did anyone go back to another dealer (except gbsim of course who had special circumstances) for fixing stuff? I'm throwing in the towel trying to fix the squeaky back seat , so need to bring in the Clubman. The thing is, the dealer where I bought the car is ~40 miles away across the bridge. I work in the City so SF Mini/BMW is only a few miles from work. Advice?

 

I graduated in May and had a job lined up for about a month before that. I guess I may have lucked out, but I had an in-demand major and there are still demand for more of me around here.

 

You know, I had a situation with my Mini. The passenger door window was not going up and down properly. To try to say it as short as possible, when you open the door the glass "ooches" (scientific term... ha) down about 1/4 inch, right? Mine was going down about an inch and was S..L..O..W. Not normal (and we Mini owners know what normal looks like). I also have a slight buzzing sound in the dash somewhere upon acceleration at about 2200 rpm.

Took it back to where I bought it for warranty service, got a "we'll get it taken care of it" line, and when they brought it up, said basically there was nothing wrong. Said they couldn't "duplicate" the buzz, said the window was "performing normally." I thought, after all that time, you're telling me that nothing is wrong? I said, nope - come out here with me... we went out and I showed the service guy the difference in the passenger and driver windows. He said, yes... not normal... took it back again. Upon bringing it back up again he said "they cranked the window regulator as high as it would go and it seems to be normal now." It wasn't (and I don't think still is) normal. Now, when I roll the window down, it doesn't quite go all the way into the seal of the door as it should. They basically didn't address the "slow" issue - they just band-aided it to resemble what it should be doing.

All in all, I'm taking it back again and getting the other Mini dealer to look at the same issue. I don't want the window to be going up too far and ruining the edge seal. And don't think I'm above pitting one dealer against another to get my problem properly solved! However, the dealership I'm going to try now has the service mgr. in our local Mini club so hopefully I can make something happen.

Oh, and I can duplicate that dang buzz every. single. day. Not the worst thing in the world, but... "Can't duplicate" my ****... :D If they aren't doing what you ask (which is their job), I'll change dealerships. There are only two in my area, so I don't have much choice. Being in the local club helps my chances of getting treated well, though.

 

Geez - sorry. I did not want that explanation to be that long...

 

WhiteLightening08 - not long at all, very helpful, at least for me! I think I'll try SF Mini first, then see what happens. If I get bad service at least I would've only gone a few miles from work instead of 30!

I too have that dashboard buzz at low rpms. It's not as irritating as the back seat squeak, but like you, it's there every single time. It seems to be spreading to other internal dash areas, too. I anticipate some back and forth with the dealer on that one, but if I bring it back for the back seat squeak and they claim everything is 'normal', I just might have a cow.

 

Oh, and yes, I would be concerned with the 'fix' they did - it does very much sound like a band aid solution - if the regulator or whatever mechanical part is the problem ie. root cause, they should replace it instead of working around it!

 

That's great, Tu13es. Even in May, things were already sinking for many local economies so you are fortunate to be graduating with high demand knowledge/skills but also hats off to you for impressing the interviewers.

 

Hi Everyone,

I've been busy and have not been on NAM for awhile. Hope everyone is doing well.

I turned 60 last Friday and got a new pair of driving shoes for my birthday. They will go good with our Corvettes & the Mini.

Speaking of which - I publish a small informal newsletter that is e-mailed to family & friends with Corvettes. And Now MINIs... It's just for fun - something I started a couple of years ago. After we took delivery of the Mini, I started to include stuff about Minis and now send it to family & friends who have Minis too.

It is a PDF which includes news, trivia, photos, road trip info, etc about Corvettes & Minis. I call it the Corvette & Mini Bit of News Update...

Attached is the first issue for this year. If you would like to receive it (every 3 to 4 weeks), please PM me with your e-mail address and I will include you.

Also, feel free to contribute Mini stuff - stories, photos, news, events, etc.

Get Out and Motor if you can!

 

We'll say Hi to JohhnyO for you when we se him at Sebring in a couple months. We'll see the GT1 'vettes for the last time. Sadly, Aston-Martin is not planning a GT1 program for Le Mans, so we won't get to see a last great Corvette-Aston battle for dominance.

Happy B-Day to you...

 

Happy Birthday, RoadTrip2! 60 - another milestone. Congratulations. Assuming you meant Jan 9 by "last Friday", that is also my brother's birthday. And my wife's birthday was the previous Friday.

I will PM you with my email. The newsletter sounds like fun. Thanks for sharing with us Week 32ers.

Not much happening here. Just daily driving, usually in bad weather. Off to VA this weekend, but Phantom will be resting in the garage while we are gone. We will be celebrating my mother's 80th birthday. Party time!

Almost to 3000 miles on the odometer now. Phantom is still performing perfectly in every way (knock on wood).

 

Nice hearing from you again, RoadTrip! and Happy Birthday to you!
I enjoyed your newsletter - very nice! I'd like to subscribe, but not sure if I have time to read it on a regular basis. I like the layout, though. Good job.