Hey guys,

I'm Josh Lewis, and I am addicted to cars (hi, Josh). Anyway, I bought my first Mini on Friday in the form of a 2005 Mini Cooper S from Flow Mini of Raleigh, NC. I bought her to sit next to my 2008 Bullitt Mustang to save on the mileage and gas... The Bullitt I've had since August of 2008 and have put 33,xxx miles on Jacqi (named after Jacqueline Bisset, Steve McQueen's girlfriend in Bullitt). I love the Bullitt... It's my first Ford, and not the last. But, adding the Mini (another favorite of McQueen's) was an easy decision.

You see, I've wanted one for years, but just didn't have the resources to get another car. But now I do, haha.

She's a 2005 Pepper White with black leather Cooper S. It has the chrome package -which is soon to be gotten rid of- and only had 36,xxx miles. I'm loving the driving experience. I have always loved driving friends' Minis, and now I have one of my own.

A little background of myself: I'm 24, and live in North Carolina. I also own and operate RawAutos.com, an automotive column blog. I also write for BMWBLOG.com and for Bob Long, the host of Motor Trend Radio, on TheLongDrive.com. I've been a featured guest on MT Radio, and have also produced the show. I've done a live webcast with Jack Pitney, BMW NA's VP of Marketing, and the guy who also created the Mini advertising and all for the American market when BMW took ownership. We did it on the show floor at the 2010 NY Auto Show talking about the Joy campaign, the new F10 5-Series, and the new S 1000 RR. If you go to RawAutos at the moment, you'll see it hasn't been updated in a little while because I've recently lost my best friend, my 2.5 year old German Shepherd puppy to a horrible disease... so I've been grieving.

Okay, enough with my horn tooting. I'm a huge BMW guy, and have had a 1996 328iS and a 2005 330i ZSP, as well as a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox (don't ask...), a 2007 Mazda CX-7 and a 2006 Mazda Mazdaspeed 6.

I just purchased CF mirror covers and black JCW style grilles today, and I can't wait to get them and put them all on.

I almost forgot to mention that it has sport, premium and cold weather packages. Oh, and she's obviously a 6-spd manual. Wouldn't have anything but.

Here are the pictures:

 

Welcome to the forum, yeah I would say you are a car guy. Sorry about your dog, know what a long term disease can do to you mentally, it takes a long time if ever for the hurt to go away.

 

Congrats, welcome to the club.

 

Hi, Josh! ...from the other side of NC!

So sorry to hear about the loss of your German Shepherd pup. Time heals all, and hopefully you'll be able to get a new friend down the road. As a dog person, I know it's very hard, though. Sending good thoughts your way.

You mention the name of your Mustang, and you're calling the MINI a "she"...what's her name? We need to know these details, y'know. She's a good lookin' girl!

 

Congrats and welcome.

 

Thanks for the support. I'm a huge animal lover, but especially dogs.

I forgot to say, her name is Lola. I thought about the Kinks song... Where Lola is a man dressed as a woman. And it made me laugh, because everyone says that MINIs are chick cars. But underneath, as Austin Powers would say, "It's a man, baby..."