Forgot to ask...has anyone heard if MINI is going to extend the special financing beyond the end of March?

 

For all of you Topeka fans ...

I just found it waiting to enter the Panama Canal. It's getting closer, but the wait is KILLING me.

 

I can't think of a way to do it directly from the iPhone into NAM. Sure would be handy though

Stopped by work and got some pics with a real camera, but it was getting late and the weather was bad so they still aren't great. At least it's a semi-interesting setting. I'll edit this post when they've been uploaded (gotta shrink 'em down some).

Argh, I wish I'd thought to ask when I was out there. Though with the way dealerships work, they probably wouldn't have told me anyway.

[Edit] The pictures are up in my gallery. I can't wait for a nice day to grab some real shots!

 

cameroon...love that interior! Great interior/exterior combo!

I'm sure it was discussed at some point previously but what happened to the front end of the other MINI in your gallery? Was/is it yours?

 

Thanks! I love the interior. I'm really glad my MA convinced me to get the Anthracite headliner. Some might think it feels a little clausterphobic with all the black, but the sunroof really opens that up.

Are you talking about the pic from minicounter? It's definitely not mine and as far as I know, not in my gallery. I'd probably have gone into shock if that was mine

Unless you're talking about the front photo from my iPhone, in which case whatever looks goofy is just reflections.

 

Cameroon, the car looks AMAZING! Love that Laser Blue! Happy motoring

 

Rookie mistake on my part! Sorry. I'm still figuring out the "gallery" thing. Didn't realize I would move right out of yours into other pix.

Please do tell...what's the best part of actually being able to drive your new MINI?

 

Thanks Bogs Did you get a chance to go out motoring today?

Yeah, the way they handle going past the end of a member gallery is weird. At first I thought I'd somehow uploaded into some other gallery with my iPhone shots.

Hmm.... best part.... Wow that's a tough one. The power is great (coming up from a Hyundai Accent to a MCS) and the ride is better than the Accent, too. Even with the runflats I think my favorite part of being in the car right now is just the overall feel. It just feels ... good.

Of course, my heritage of cars is an 88 Chevy Celebrity, 03 Toyota Echo and an 07 Hyundai Accent. This is like stepping into luxury!

Honestly, I guess the best part of driving it is being in the car driving it. It just feels good to be in it driving. Like Bogs said before, I can't believe I'm not driving around in it right now

 

Hey OLarryR, I was looking for you! I didn't get out of the dealership until about 11:15, but I think I was still in the financial office at 10:45. Then once I got out, I had to take off pretty quickly to make the DCMM annual meeting. Put like 160 miles on my car today (159 more than it had!).

We'll need to meet up when your car gets here. And then I can try to convince you to join DCMM

 

I'm home! Delivery went perfectly, pics coming soon. Wait till you see this thing, it's so sharp looking with the black roof and wheels. I had several non-MINI drivers waving and giving the thumbs up on the way home!

 

Awesome Chimera! Pictures pictures pictures!

 

Cameroon - Definitely got some driving in today, it was gorgeous out! Not as many miles as you, though...she has about 100 now, started with 6. LOVE the sig!

clubbieRme - best part of driving is, as vague as this sounds, the "fun" of it. handles great, nice and zippy, and you get smiles & looks everywhere you go! friday night, I passed another chili red MINI and got a huge smile and wave. what a great family to be a part of

Chimera - congrats!! hope you're loving it! How does it compare to your '06?

Wonder how Atomic is doing...can't wait to see more pics of that OxyBlue!

Hope everyone else is hanging in there!

 

It really feels good just reading the above posts from the three of you enjoying your MINIs !

Cameroon, I was in the area next to the models on display talking to my MA probably for 20 minutes starting around...1045am. He wasn't busy at that moment and we were talkin about the MINIs, bike riding, jury duty (he's going this Wednesday) and assorted other things. The I went over to where they were cooking the mini-dogs. Too bad we did not hook up. Maybe in near future. DCMM - I have to check out the forum in more detail. I looked one day at the archives but not long enough to get motivated. As it is, I probably should be shedding some interests rather than taking more on. Well...you also picked up your MINI...and I...well I am still waiting...so I hope to get real excited very soon ! and I am curious..............all you guys have names for your MINIs ? (Or is "MINI" good enough) ?

 

So i finally get to get my tags made on Tuesday and hopefully those guys will get to it so i can pick up my car later that day.

Its going to be a busy day for me work wise but i don't care. It will be 58 days since order on Tuesday and im in Spain! Shipping should have taken like 3 days.

I dont know what took so long but its here now, so im content. Only a couple more days!!

 

Pics in the gallery, but here are the highlights Notice my t-shirt (for Top Gear fans). Tomorrow I'll be putting on the JCW scoop and reflector blackout. Excuse the paper floor mat, my dealer was out of rubber mats and will be fedex-ing them to me next week.

Bogs, for me the 09 feels quite different in steering and throttle response to the 06 until you put it in sport mode, then it feels very familiar. I put 180 miles on today with 3 people in the car and got 38mpg, that's VERY different to the 06 where I'd be lucky to get 25 with 2 people. Other things that are different - the shifter pushes left instead of right to go into manual mode - the turn signals are strange and will take some getting used to - same with the lights, when I turn the stalk all the way on (3 clicks forward I think), all my lights go off - on the 06 that was the headlight on position.

I absolutely LOVE the ipod integration, it's so simple to use and worked with both the ipod touch and 30gb 5th generation. Tomorrow we'll see how it works with the iPhone 3g when my wife picks hers up.

I don't like the look of the rear grill without the rear fogs, but I don't mind the missing toggle half as much as I thought I would. I might just add the lights and not put in the switch, it's only $50 or so and would just look better.

Comfort access is cool, I can't figure out how the car knows whether the fob is actually inside the car...my MA was standing beside me, with the door open and the fob in her hand and the car wouldn't start until the key crossed the threshold. Must be some kind of electronic field - the techie in me wants to know.

BTW, anyone with the standard stereo (not hifi) who notices the bass is lacking should try this : put the bass up to 4, and fade half way to the back speakers - it made a huge difference to the sound and the bass response was far better than the stock settings where there was very little bass at all.

I've been up since 5am, drove 7 hours today and even though it's 1:30am right now I'm WIRED! I feel like going driving....maybe my wife is up for a late-night food run Here are the pics - more tomorrow when the black scoop is in to complete the look.

 

Sweet pics all, thx for posting them.

 

chimera, great pics!! Love the interior, too. You and cameroon are making me think I should have spentsome money on mine and thanks for the stereo tips! I knew the standard stereo was going to be junk, but I didn't realize how junky! Do you gave any plans to upgrade yours?

 

bogs, the only plans I had for the stereo was to do the "wire swap" that's documented in the Navigation/Audio forum - basically just swapping the front and rear channels because the rear handles the bass better but the MINI head unit for some reason reduces the bass sent to the rear. By swapping the front and rear channels, the bass in sent to the more capable rear speakers. However, after the tweaking yesterday I'm not sure that's going to be necessary, it really did sound a lot better on the tracks I tried it on (metal, rap etc).

 

Chimera...your car is great! It reinforces how cool the "you-ify" options MINI offers are. Where else could you buy a car and have it be so much a reflection of you when you go to the dealership to get it?

 

Chimera,

I like those wheels and the color match w/stripes and roof. Nice going !

I am getting a kick out of your excitement and...you already have another MINI that's just 3 yrs older !

Your mentioning of shifting into manual by pushing shifter left instead of right....well that is a difference if they switched it from years past. But get a load of what I have to break the habit with: Pushing the shifter over is the same as with my '98 Honda Prelude - push it to the left to get into manual mode. But for the past 11 years of driving my Prelude to shift up...you push forward and downshifitng, you push back. The MINI has it just the opposite. During the two times I test drove the MINI, by habit I wound up downshifting when I should have been shifting up a gear. I'm a little bit concerned of instinctively shifting as though I was in my Prelude.

 

Everybody in Virginia better look out! OLarryR will be backing up when he wanted to go forward and slowing down when he wanted to go faster!

 

Chimera, our cars are like fraternal twins

Love the black wheels, glad Mini finally started offering the Bridgespokes in black. The other black wheel options from them were way, way overpriced (imo anyway). That's one area I'm going to suffer, white wheels pick up the MINIs (somewhat excessive) brake dust.

That's weird about your lights - turning the light stalk forward turns on my lights. I think the first click forward is parking lights, 2 is low beams. [Edit] Found #3 in the manual
High/low is push/pull and daytime running lamps aren't recommended with the Xenons. They last a long time, except that a lot of on/off will wear them out much more quickly.

For everyone still waiting, it is soooo worth it. I'm wishing all your ships speedy transits and a quick trip through the VDC.

 

Sweet looking ride! Love the shirt.

I've always had the same problem with sequential shifters. In all of the racing I've done, you pull back to go up a gear and push forward to go down a gear. This is typical on the non-paddle style shifter rally cars and such. When I test drove some road cars with sequential shifters back in the day, the backwards operation really threw me and ultimately I passed on some great cars because I couldn't come to accept the shifter sequence.

On another note, we got 10 inches of snow this morning...maybe better off that the MINI isn't here yet.

 

Glad to see you week 11ers are receiving your rides. For those still waiting, it won't be long now. As a week 7 interloper who has been enjoying the infectious enthusiasm of this thread, I only received mine two days ago, and present a couple of pics of the introduction of the brothers.
P.S. - Perihelion, PM your VIN if you still want CN Rail updates!

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co.../IMG_04224.JPG
...steep learning curve on attaching pics...

 

Welcome mansize, and congrats on the new ride

How long before the snow finally stops falling up there? Though, I guess Alberta's large enough that there's a variety of answers to that question.