^Wow!!! Congrats!!! Very nice!!! I'm sure you don't need me to tell you to enjoy the heck out of that car!!!

BTW, my stomach has been in knots this whole week from the anxiety of getting mine so I will try to live through you guys for now.

 

WOW super nice midnight black is beautiful!

 

looks awesome!!! congrats!
I'll have my pics tomorrow night!

 

Yes, that would be my precious Golden Retriever Piper, thus the Piper in my screen name. Lacy comes from my now deceased cat. When Piper dies I will have to officially retire this screen name but until then... In that picture, Piper is maybe 2. She's now an old lady at 10 years old We call her the "Head of House Security." It's a Hank the Cowdog reference.

 

Oh geez, what a day! Sorry to be so slow posting but I wanted to be able to finish the story here.

My dealer is about 15 miles from my office, so I arranged for a friend to meet me for lunch and then take me over afterwards. We ate and drove on over. My MA is out on vacation but his partner is going to help me - but when I got there he was out with another customer, delivering a Mini-E. It turns out that my car was not prepped yesterday, as I had believed, but was being prepped right then. It was not ready and I had to apologize to my friend for making him drive me over there for nothing.



I told them I would be back after work. They assured me the car would be ready.

I finagled a ride with a different friend that lives in the same direction and all was well. I arrived at the dealer, was warmly greeted my MA for the day, and we started going through stuff.

Then we walked by the car as we went to the other building to deal with the money side of the equation.

"Leon, those are the wrong wheels."

The car had sidewinders on it, I had ordered silver bridge-spokes.

He checked his paperwork and said "Yep, you ordered those, but we didn't get that info to the factory somehow. Let me see what I can do."

At this point I'm thinking "what you can do is get some silver bridge-spokes on there stat!"

I went into the finance office and he went off to find another car with bridge spoke wheels. The sales manager stopped by to assure me that they were going to take care of the wheels and I spent the next half hour or so with the finance guy.

When we finished, my new MA came back for me beaming "we found another car with bridge-spokes, we're just finishing the swap now."



(No yelling required)

All went well from there. The drive home? Damn this car wants to RUN. I was cruising at about 75 and was amazed at how effortless it was to move it up to 90. I am going to have to watch it!

Now for the pictures. First, one of the car on the lift having the wheels swapped. Second, me in the car. Third, the car being pulled out of the service bay by the MA.

Happy Brad!

 

Congrats Brad! Really happy you were able to pick up your car today! She's a beauty!

 

Wow! Stressful day? But it ended very well I see. Congrats! Your car is awesome. I would love to see it in person some time.

I am really looking forward to my first "real" drive in an S. We're gonna get lost on the way home from the ddealer. Probably gonna go up PCH to Topanga Cyn and then, I'm not sure.

 

jimmishear, what was on the podium in front of the car?

 

A sign that read :

"Owner has a Smith and Wesson and knows how to use it .. stay the hell away from his car!!" Oh wait .. that was a different sign ..

The podium was a sign with a note that said :

"Congratulations on the Delivery of your 2009 Mini Cooper Hardtop. We hope your experience will continue to be EXCELLENT! Paul Fox Mini Motoring Advisor"

Kind of nice of them

 

Congrats Brad! Great looking car mate, glad they fixed up the problem with the wheel faux pas!

 

Thanks everybody - wow, it's strange to be sitting in the car, after staring at the picture for two months!

I stuck another couple pictures in my gallery if you're a glutton for that sort of thing. All of a sudden I'm looking forward to driving to work in the morning!

Brad

 

Well, getting ready to make the drive to Sacramento to pick up my S! Pray for traveling mercies (I have to make sure my trade in stays in good condition as well). Hope to post some photos tonight! (and to Lacynpiper--Goldens are definitely one of a kind. Our last one lived to be 13. Luke, our current boy is around 3--we are not exactly sure, as he was a pound-puppy). j.

 

Its strange I'm sure but it was well worth the wait right??

 

Jeremy1026 if I could ask in your signature what the team justacooper badge??

 

awesome stuff everyone....

(grew up with a golden and volunteer at a local shelter walking doggies! yayyyyy doggies!!) Nicoli (screen name) is the name of a samoyed we had with the golden many years...went everywhere with me and my friends as we grew up

This was an abandoned gal named Stella, who would let a girl like this go I just can't imagine, she was amazing- 9 yr old Chocolate lab lived with me two months last october or so: Who's in charge here? And ... oh there they are... lol

Anyway...today I'll try to manage through, have to keep busy or I'll go crazy..gonna drive down tonight, stay in a hotel overnight, pick Mondo up around 10am tomorrow and also hope my trade-in gets the 100 miles to the dealership ok!! heheee

love the pics everyone!!!!!! so many smiles. thanks for sharing...

....another rescue girl who was super awesome (have to admit they all are) but she was special to me: Sara..lost her to cancer a few years back. The world began and ended with her tennis ball (and tennis bone)!!

 

Hey--We can talk about dogs while waiting for our cars--cool! I volunteer at the SPCA as a groomer once a week. You have no idea how poorly people take care of their dogs . I showed Pomeranians for many years and decided that since I have the facilities and only down to one Pom, that I foster mommies and their puppies until the pups are old enough to go to new homes. My 10 year old goes with me and walks the doggies.

 

Dogs are fun im a lover, I have two miniature schnauzers affectionately named Odin and Charles, mini dogs for mini cars

 

ABSOLUTELY!

While we're discussing dogs, we have a 5-6 year old Lab mix that we got from a rescue group a couple years ago. I was dead-set against a dog but my wife was insistent, and I'm a big enough man to say that I was wrong!

She is such a sweet dog, I cannot for the life of me figure out how she got into a shelter. She knew basic obedience commands when we brought her home, and is a calm quiet doggie in the house. She doesn't dig in the back yard or destroy plants, and she really only barks when people approach the front door. She is very aggressive towards other dogs, though - so we have to watch her when we walk her. She's been known to grab a tuft or two of hair on the way by, if you know what I mean.

The thing that really makes me mad though was that when she first came home she would flinch every time I raised my hand above my waist, as if she thought I was going to hit her. Just thinking about it is getting my blood pressure up. What kind of worthless scum beats an animal?

Anyway, before I get my rant on too much, two years later she doesn't do that any more. So I'm happy to report that she's gotten used to better treatment.

BACK on topic, the drive in today was fun, even with traffic. I think I'm going to have to hit more freeway onramps, damn! Zip Zap ZOP! Now if I can just sort out the radio...

Brad

 

Congratulations, Brad!! I'm glad that everything worked out. Your car looks wonderful. Don't you love the color?

Back to the dogs: This is our first Golden, we had an Old English Sheepdog before her and now that I've had a Golden it's hard to imagine having anything else. We loved our sheepie, but nothing can beat our golden's personality and love. We spoil her but she takes care of us. I will always have dogs. Life isn't complete without them!

 

I do, it just looks fantastic. Yesterday morning I was running late and my dear wife offered to iron me a shirt - when I asked her to pull my dark blue one out of the closet she stopped and looked at me.

"You're wearing that to match your car, aren't you?"

Damn skippy I am!

Brad

 

That is HILARIOUS!!!! We are a weird bunch! So glad we all have each other to be weird with... Make it much more fun! Celebrate your minimania

 

I'm skipping psychology class today to get my trade-in ready. Going through the coffee drive-thru (never saw one before I moved to WA state in 2007, and they are everywhere here, like Starbucks on every corner back in NYC lol) this morning I was telling the girls how this would be the last day I'd drive through in the morning on the way to school with the Subaru. They were all cheering just for the fun of thinking about MINIs - everyone seems to LOVE them. Peoples faces just brighten up and they smile when talking about MINIs. Truly amazing.

 

I think a lot of us are like you. To be honest, I've been trying to decide for a week as to what I'm going to wear when I pick up my car.

 

I like that my Mini matches my eye color. We always coordinate!

The past two days I've been my 14 y.o. sister's chauffeur by taking her and various friends to lunch. I deserve an award

Oh and I finally had my first Mini wave! She didn't wave back but at least I finally got to wave at someone. I've only seen other Minis when I've been in our other cars.

 

I've been watching old episodes of The 1967 Brittish program The Avengers on Netflix and have been thinking I need to pick up a bowler hat to wear when we pick up our new Cabrio.