Hello everyone, I'm Herman and I just got my first Mini this weekend. It's a 2013 Hardtop Cooper S. I grew up with Honda vehicles all my life. Had several CRX's, a Civic HB, couple CBR 600RR motorcycles, to my baby an Acura NSX. Always had small cars, so when I moved up to a Ridgeline it was a huge difference. It was time for something smaller again.

I'm a veteran of USMC and USAF, and now a full time film student. The Ridgeline was just killing me with how much gas it was consuming, so I decided to trade her in.

Honestly, I had no idea what exactly I wanted, just knew that it had to be good on gas and a 4 cyl preferably. I was leaning towards staying with Honda and maybe get a CRZ.

My friend was in sales and financing so I took her car shopping with me. I was open to other makes, except anything American. After checking out the CRZ, my friend and I agreed it was just too small. The new Accord left me very impressed though, so it was at the top of my list.

Next up was Toyota. What a boring lineup. NOTHING in their lot caught my attention. The salesman tried to sell me on a Prius. I sat in one for S&G, but I would not be caught in one. Not because it's a hybrid, I did like the CRZ, but it's just so uninspiring.

Then we went to Nissan. That Altima's interior is FUGLY. One look and I knew I didn't even want to test drive it. Test drove a Mercedes C250, very nice. Also a BMW 328i, very nice as well, but both those cars were out of my price range.

Mini was right next door to BMW, and I said WTF, lets go check it out. Almost right from the get go, an Eclipse Gray caught my eyes. My friend and I knew we had found the one, and the sales guy realized it too. Of course he wanted to run the numbers right away, but I was still shopping. My friend having been in the business knew what was going on, so I left it all up to her to do the talking. She has mutual friends with the general manager at the dealership, so I didn't even have to negotiate at all. She set up an appointment, we showed up, did the required paperwork, and happily drove off.

I hope to learn as much as I can about these cars and contribute to this community!

 

Welcome ! Enjoy your new ride.

 

Welcome. Excellent ride. Enjoy it!

 

Welcome, I like Eclipse Grey since they got rid of dark silver.

 

Very sweet ride there!

 

First of all....Thank you for serving our country and for protecting our freedom and liberties. It is greatly appreciated.

Congratulations on your new Mini. You'll enjoy it here immensely.

Welcome to the community.

 

Thank you for your service and great MINI, you'll love it more and more everyday you drive it.

 

Welcome, and nice MINI!

PS: some of the new small American cars are pretty neat.

 

Welcome! I sold a BMW 323 convertible to buy my MINI 4 years ago. My wife thought I was crazy, but I enjoy the MINI more than any car I have ever owned. Thanks for your service (in two branches!) and enjoy your MINI!

 

Thanks all! I actually started off in the Marine Corps, then went off to the wild blue yonder, before coming back to the Corps!

 

Agree 100%

Welcome