Well after much anticipation and after some careful thought I decided NOT to take delivery of my JCW on Monday. This will be my second JCW MINI that I have ordered and not taken delivery of the first refusal was due to an interior spec color mistake and an accident by a VDC employee. I was initially hesitant to order another JCW knowing the R57 was coming but figured what the heck it's 500 bucks and if the R57 isn't my cup of tea then I'll have this JCW. I felt pretty guilty when I called my MA and told him the news. Much to my surprise he called me a few hours later saying he had a potential buyer which was shocking knowing they have over a 100 MINI's on the lot including 4 JCW's. My plan now is to wait until April when the R57 JCW is available and place my order. I do still have my trusty '07 Cooper who's pushing 65k without any problem to speak of. Congrats to all you week 49's who have your new MINI's and to the few who are still waiting don't worry it won't be much longer.

 

That's no good.... What exactly were the problems?

Good luck w/ the next one.


I had been meaning to ask if you'd picked up your JCW yet.

I guess this answers that question

So, what's your R57 JCW order going to look like?

 

The interior color was incorrect and some other smaller issues.

I'm on the waiting train again.

Pat

 

Can't they replace color-line parts after delivery?

 

I'm waiting on the new colors to arrive but I'm pretty much dead set on Midnight Black.

 

Well... I was going to swap the S-Winders for the Bridge Spokes that were supposed to be on the car..but some dirtbag HAD to hop the 6' fence in my backyard and STEAL them.

So now I'm out a set of wheels. :(

 

I was going to wait until the side stripes were on, but MINI got washed at work yesterday so I figured I should take some pictures while clean.

 

Outback at Flamin' Joes in Spokane after a 500 mile trip home...


Oh, look at the little baby turbo!


So many shades of Grey, goes with my hair!


My MA at Rasmussen Mini in Portland OR. Dan Clarke is the man!


'Nuff said!

 

Nice! Glag you all are finally getting your cars in! May your driving be trouble free!

 

How is Donkey doing?

 

Doing great!
I have started to control my speed (hard to do with an hour 1 way commute on the autobahn) and have been getting great gas mileage (trying to keep it around 70MPH) I am averaging about 36-37mpg. We are expecting snow again so I am going to put on the snow tires today.
I really can't understand all the complaints with the stock runflats as they are really great riding tires!

How is yours doing?

 

Doing great as well; it's tough keeping him to around 70 (+ ? ) on the motorways. There are all these beemers, merc's, etc., that scream by and he can do that too but I don't want the traffic tickets. The daily drive is about 30 miles each way on the A & B roads here and the sport button is well worth the extra $!
It's not even possible keeping him clean with the weather the past couple of weeks; there has been a bit of snow here in the UK as you might have seen on the news. Getting splashed by the lorries & semi's (Heavy Good Vehicles or HGVs as they are known here) as we pass by means 360 degrees of road grime; the first day it gets to 40, he gets a B-A-T-H.

 

I know what you mean.. Soo much salt grime from the trucks...
Dark Silver looks like flat grey from the rear! Can't wash him that often and I actually have salt crystals building on the door edges...

 

I can't either. My wifes car rides just fine with the stock runflats.

Pat

 

Driving MINI-Fred, I seem to really feel the road, espcially the less well maintained ones, but not sure how much of that can be attributed to the run-flats and how much is the Sport package. Probably should get another set of wheels with good all-season radials, then make the same runs with each; something to do when the weather gets nicer.

 

Ok how are all of your cars? Donkey is over 10,000 kilometers (over 6000 miles) now and no longer that much of a baby. He drives great and if i try I can get around 36mpg (I have to try hard not to drive fast though)

 

Mine's been in the shop for a week. Windows roll down and doors unlock by themselves overnight.

Overall though, not too bad. It's still a BLAST to drive!

Just at 7k miles. 7 weeks old.

 

I can't remember now if I was a week 49 or 50, but I love the car. Only have about 1,700 miles on it.
The windows stopped doing the 1/4" rolldown with the door opening, but this morning they wouldn't open at all and the little window alarm thing went off. I could hear the motor "thumping" a bit when I tried to open them. Got to work, shut it off and fiddled with the windows button and got them to roll down again, but now they don't move at all when I open the door.
I hate to have to drive the 100 miles for the windows on a service visit, but I guess it's time.

 

I'm only at 1700 miles also (weather has been awful this year... snow snow and more snow), but at 1250 I had the pleasure of racing at my 1st Autocross event of the season. It was a preseason event and the temperature was between 32f-42f all day so I wasn't able to use my race wheels/tires. I ran the event on my factory wheels and run flats.

The 1st run of the day gave me FTD (Fast Time of Day) until a Lotus Elise running on race tires with multiple co-drivers (to keep the tires warm) finally beat me on his last run of the day.

I ended up with the 2nd fastest adjusted time of the day out of 69 entries. So it looks like the combo of the LSD and DSC (EDLC), that is offered for the 1st time in the 2009 Cooper S, makes for a great Autocross setup.

I'm going to my 2nd preseason event in 2 weeks and here's hoping for some warmer weather so I can run my full autocross setup and whoop some serious A$$!

 

MINI is doing great, 3K miles of rain/snow/ice and some sun have added up to some great driving. MINI also got some side stripes: