I guess this is my official hello I've been a member here for a few years and a lurker as well, mainly finding info for my wife's '09 Clubman, but as of this week I'm a Mini owner myself btw, I'm Jon and from the east end of Long Island, NY, I've actually been to the Mini's to the Point cruise last year and a Mini show at Bethpage park as well (I have a few pics from the Bethpage show on my Flickr page which is linked in my signature).

I recently had an accident in my Audi avant, pretty minor in reality but they declared it totaled since the grill pushed into the radiator and pulleys and broke some pulleys. I looked at it as an opportunity to improve my gas mileage (I do 600+ miles a week) and regain some fun that I enjoyed the cars I had before the Audi (a 2007 GTI, and a 97 vr6 Jetta before that).
I found a pretty clean 06 MCS in pepper white at a local used car dealer with just 1 owner and 40k on the clock, I jumped on it. I love the handling (even compared to the Clubman), and the 6 speed is great in it as well. I already have a set of R90's waiting to be refinished (originally bought them for my wife's clubman but plans change they'll have gold faces like I've had on all my previous cars... I love golllld). I'm hoping to have coilovers on by spring (I had them on within the first week on my last Audi, this time I'll wait a little longer) and have a number of other little mods in my mind as well, can't wait to get started on it. My first impressions are that it's everything I loved about my GTI and then some; most noticeably it is lighter, quicker, and more nimble which makes it even more fun to drive than the GTI (the Audi was like a boat even with a flashed ecu and intake, it was just so slow and boring).

Unfortunately the bad news about my car is within the first day I found the thermostat was leaking badly and the coolant tank cap was as well (the car hasn't been driven more than 10miles at a time in a few months and I did 70 just to get home from the dealer, luckily they're going to fix it for me).

Anyways, here's a quick shot I took the evening I took it home (and right before I found the temp gauge running real hot as the car idled). Oh and don't worry, my daughter wasn't in the backseat alone, my wife was up front ducking out of the way of the shot

 

VW convert here (still have the TDI Sportwagen)

She is a Beauty and is my favorite color combo

 

Thanks it's funny b/c when we were shopping for my wife's Clubman I was totally against Pepper White, I couldn't stand it compared to the Candy White I had on my GTI at the time. I do still prefer that bright clean Candy White over the PW but the PW has definitely grown on me a lot and has become my favorite Mini color.

I'm jealous of that TDi Sportwagen of yours, I priced them out when I was shopping for my Audi wagon but just couldn't afford it (I bought a used Audi which was about half the price of the sportwagen outfitted the way I'd want it). I could really use that TDi mileage with my 120 mile a day commute.

 

I almost purchased a Pepper White "Non-S" but I pilled the mistake of test driving the one with the SC and that was the end of it....

The Sportwagen is Toffee Brown with the cornsilk interior, she picked the color to match my 911 which is Rosewood.

It's nice getting 45 MPG on a long trip fully loaded cruising at 80 MPH