Hello from Montreal!
Hello from Montreal!
Hi,
I'm Mike I live in smack in the middle of the Montreal where my R53 fits into parking spaces those giant SUVs can only dream about.
Anyway I picked mine up on the MINI Next program at Trois-Rivieres (they undercut Montreal dealers by 2-3 g's at least!) in Dec 2008. I was underimpressed by the Next inspection, notably the lack of tick marks next to all the inspection items and the fact that driving home in the snow was a pain in the *** because the wiper blades were finished, which was supposed to be part of the inspection lol. Anyway I christened her Holly Starfighter (Holly was my long gone dog, Starfighter after the legendary F-104 fighter jet) when I got her at 77000 km.
The warranty expired in April, but I had one inspection prior to that and I chose to go to MINI Mont-Royal to get it serviced only for them to forget about my appointment and not even apologize for it, in fact almost making me feel guilty for burdening them with my presence! Unreal when you consider the hourly rate.
So while MINI service has been kinda crap, the car itself is amazing, British Racing Green, white roof, sun roof, white bonnet stripes, heated seats and x-lites fitted with Hankook V4 ES H105's, although I was more satisfied with the Toyo Proxes T1Rs that came with her. They even looked better, especially with the x-lites, which are of course the nicest R53 rims! I have CAA and they serve as my no-run-flat insurance
.
So no mods yet, but I've recently replaced the front axles, control arm bushings and ball bearings and aligned her so she's drives straight as new (not at MINI, but Auto Elite on Sources, great job!). What a difference that made since she's just shy of 100,000 km. Also got new rotors and brakes at the same time. Got the calipers painted black and rotors zinc-coated so they look nice for a long time!
For her 100,000th I plan on getting her detailed and touched up as she has a lot of little scratches from being parked downtown. It also looks like my passenger door was shot at with a gravel gun and I have all these whitish spots that need to be touched up or even the whole door repainted! :S
So that's her history so far and I loved every moment of it,... my wallet, not so much lol.
Now that the warranty is out, I joined this forum to find out more and maybe learn to take care of some jobs myself. Also, I can't figure out why but I have this insatiable urge to modify her. I'm guessing from this board, this is totally normal!
Take care everyone and hope to hear from you all soon!
Mike
PS And yes I have almost every Auto-Glym product in my boot.
I'm Mike I live in smack in the middle of the Montreal where my R53 fits into parking spaces those giant SUVs can only dream about.
Anyway I picked mine up on the MINI Next program at Trois-Rivieres (they undercut Montreal dealers by 2-3 g's at least!) in Dec 2008. I was underimpressed by the Next inspection, notably the lack of tick marks next to all the inspection items and the fact that driving home in the snow was a pain in the *** because the wiper blades were finished, which was supposed to be part of the inspection lol. Anyway I christened her Holly Starfighter (Holly was my long gone dog, Starfighter after the legendary F-104 fighter jet) when I got her at 77000 km.
The warranty expired in April, but I had one inspection prior to that and I chose to go to MINI Mont-Royal to get it serviced only for them to forget about my appointment and not even apologize for it, in fact almost making me feel guilty for burdening them with my presence! Unreal when you consider the hourly rate.
So while MINI service has been kinda crap, the car itself is amazing, British Racing Green, white roof, sun roof, white bonnet stripes, heated seats and x-lites fitted with Hankook V4 ES H105's, although I was more satisfied with the Toyo Proxes T1Rs that came with her. They even looked better, especially with the x-lites, which are of course the nicest R53 rims! I have CAA and they serve as my no-run-flat insurance
. So no mods yet, but I've recently replaced the front axles, control arm bushings and ball bearings and aligned her so she's drives straight as new (not at MINI, but Auto Elite on Sources, great job!). What a difference that made since she's just shy of 100,000 km. Also got new rotors and brakes at the same time. Got the calipers painted black and rotors zinc-coated so they look nice for a long time!
For her 100,000th I plan on getting her detailed and touched up as she has a lot of little scratches from being parked downtown. It also looks like my passenger door was shot at with a gravel gun and I have all these whitish spots that need to be touched up or even the whole door repainted! :S
So that's her history so far and I loved every moment of it,... my wallet, not so much lol.
Now that the warranty is out, I joined this forum to find out more and maybe learn to take care of some jobs myself. Also, I can't figure out why but I have this insatiable urge to modify her. I'm guessing from this board, this is totally normal!
Take care everyone and hope to hear from you all soon!
Mike
PS And yes I have almost every Auto-Glym product in my boot.
Well congrats on the car and hopefully the modding experience will be better than your warranty work 
If the door has a lot of spots and slight nicks, you may want to try some polishing compound first and see what you can do for it yourself. Post some picks and we may be able to help assess it that way.
On another note, I absolutely love Montreal. Great city. I head up there every year for the F1 race. Its a great drive and I can't wait till next year's when I can take the ride up there in my Mini.
If the door has a lot of spots and slight nicks, you may want to try some polishing compound first and see what you can do for it yourself. Post some picks and we may be able to help assess it that way.
On another note, I absolutely love Montreal. Great city. I head up there every year for the F1 race. Its a great drive and I can't wait till next year's when I can take the ride up there in my Mini.
Thanks man!
I went to qualifying at F1 and it was awesome, hopefully I'll see the race next year, too!
Anyway I went to my friend who has a detailing shop today to take a look and he's gonna fix her up good. He won't be able to get everything out, but we'll do some touchup paintwork as well to at least seal the holes so they don't get worse. I'll post pics when she's nice and clean!
This car is awesome and after a year and a half I still look forward to driving her everyday, pock marks or not!
I still have yet to figure out whether she came with an LSD or not, maybe when I get the sensor changed they can do that test where you rotate one drive wheel in gear and see if the other rotates the same way. It's a bit too hard to tell just by driving on public roads hehe.
Cheers,
Mike
I went to qualifying at F1 and it was awesome, hopefully I'll see the race next year, too!
Anyway I went to my friend who has a detailing shop today to take a look and he's gonna fix her up good. He won't be able to get everything out, but we'll do some touchup paintwork as well to at least seal the holes so they don't get worse. I'll post pics when she's nice and clean!
This car is awesome and after a year and a half I still look forward to driving her everyday, pock marks or not!
I still have yet to figure out whether she came with an LSD or not, maybe when I get the sensor changed they can do that test where you rotate one drive wheel in gear and see if the other rotates the same way. It's a bit too hard to tell just by driving on public roads hehe.
Cheers,
Mike
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