Yep, since our daughter got her license this summer and is now driving my wife's former beloved daily (a '95 BMW 318i/5) we've been in the market for a replacement and have decided on a MINI as her next car...even though her first real experience with the marque was about 20 years ago when she came with me to a vintage race that we were servicing at Willow Springs and witnessed two original MINI's get upside down coming out of turn 9 during the weekend...but I digress!

In any event unless there is a last minute cockup on the dealer's part we should be the proud owners of a 2009 Cooper S which hopefully will be delivered later this week. She is really looking forward to it as driving our '92 BMW 525i Touring with an automatic doesn't exactly "float her boat".

We hope to learn a lot from you folks and expect to be fairly active on the forum...Thanks.

 

Welcome to NAM! I hope delivery goes well and please remember to post some pics soon!

 

Good luck to your daughter with her 'new' MINI. Be sure to instruct her to wave at other MINI drivers!

 

Congrats on joining the MINI family! Hope you enjoy your new-to-you Cooper S, and stay active on the NAM forums!

 

Welcome to NAM, TJC1 and it looks like congrats are in order to you, a future MINI owner. We MINIacs can't wait to see pics, we love pics here at NAM.

 

Thanks for the welcome.

The paperwork was finished today and we should see the car next week, perhaps as soon as Monday!

Hope these pictures work!






My wife is somewhat patiently waiting!

 

They work alright TJC1. Your MINI looks fantastic!

 

I'm not usually a yellow fan but that looks nice congrats :D

 

Yellow looks nice on a MINI. They should bring it back soon.

 

Funny thing regarding the color, when the new MINI first came out my mom decided to buy me a "new car" and I got a model of a MINI...you guessed it yellow with a white top!

Well, Mom passed away earlier this year at the grand old age of 92 so maybe when we decided to get a MINI she was looking out for us and this one turned up.

Thanks, Mom!

 

I'm not one of the MINIacs who name their car, but I'm sure your mom would be smiling if you named it after her...

 

Are you trying to tell me that you would consider a yellow MINI Roadster, Dave?

 

Welcome to the NAMily TJC1 and grats on that great looking yellow MCS!

Thanks for sharing pics with your brothers and sisters here on NAM by posting-up pics of your MINI cause we love pics... yes we do!


I have to say that is truly an exciting way to get introduced to the marque!

Those Mini's must have been really on the edge to end up on their respective roofs as they have such a low center of gravity but then again an off course excursion (agricultural racing ) can allow this to occur.

Where you there crewing/racing or in some other capacity?

Anyway, I digress... welcome again to the NAMily and I invite you to join your fellow MINIacs and help Save the Wave by joining The League of Extraordinary MINIacs at:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/general-mini-talk/256292-want-to-join-the-league-of-extraordinary-miniacs.html

If you are a Facebook user, you can join us here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1404114396479123/

No big commitment, except your oath to help us in our endeavor to Save the Wave!

Motor On!

 

As the title states our little MINI was loaded up today and we should see her tomorrow afternoon and boy won't my wife be happy about that...no more 525i touring with an automatic to suffer with!

 

As to our being at Willow and her introduction to MINI's, my business was Sports and Race car restoration and service as well as providing supplies at the track for race weekends...anything from tires, lubricants, lines and fittings, helmets, driver's suits, etc.

As far as the MINI's getting off in turn 9, well back then given that they still used a 10" wheel, if you hit a curb wrong or dropped a wheel off the inside of an apex one can imagine what happens when the chassis and frame bottoms out at speed while trying to negotiate a turn.

I get a kick out of the wave! Many, many years ago...back in the '70's...I was a young buck and purchased my first "Sports Car" after a stint working as a mechanic for a BMW, (yes BMW was around back then!!!), dealership. That car was a 1964 Corvette roadster, red (of course) with both tops, 4 speed and the 365 HP, 327 engine. Being young and dumb I didn't know about "the wave", but quickly learned after a few weeks of driving her!

I know my wife will uphold the wave tradition and go so far as instructing other MINI owners in this area of what they are required to do...she is a teacher afterall and a stickler for protocol !

 

Tell us more about your MCS. Miles? Options?

 

The car has just under 58,000 miles and has been an Arizona car since new. We are the third owner. As for options and mods, I have an idea but won't know for sure until the car gets here tomorow.

The car was just into MINI of North Scottsdale last Friday for the turbo water pump recall and also had a cursory inspection performed so I know what to expect.

And speaking of MINI of North Scottsdale, let me just say that working with their service department has been an absolute joy!!! We bought this car sight unseen from an independent dealer in Scottsdale and then the car was serviced expediantly by MINI of Scottsdale...without question!!!

AJ, the service manager who doesn't know me from Adam, spent a good deal of time with me over the phone and provided me with the service records that they had for this car. He truly went over and above what anybody should expect...Kudos to him!!! Although I am a "PDM" (poor dumb mechanic...referencing an old Indy Car team), I'm getting a bit too old to perform all of the tasks that I would normally do, but I wouldn't hesitate to have AJ and his team do them and that's saying alot since I don't really trust other folks working on my cars!

Please realize that this entire transaction has taken place by long distance...the finding and purchasing of the car, the coordination between the selling dealer Scottsdale Motor Company and MINI of North Scottsdale, etc.
We live about 150 miles from where we bought the car and tomorrow will be the first time we see it in the flesh so we appreciate what our selling dealer and MINI of North Scottsdale have done for us.

Can't wait 'til tomorrow comes .

 

58k miles for an' 09 is normal. For the most part, I've had good experience at Mini of North Scottsdale. I bought my wife's '12 at a dealer in north Tempe, has turned out to be a good experience. Since Mini North Scottsdale checked it out, am sure you'll be fine. If you don't get a full list of options at delivery, just email Mini North Scottsdale with the VIN, they will email you a list of options in your Mini. Is what I did.

I see you're in NW AZ, I assume the Kingman area? Look around for an independent that does Mini repairs. I know what you mean about old, I don't do any service on it, gave up those days long ago. These cars are finicky, really need to keep up on maintenance. You can't take it to Firestone and expect good results. For example, oil changes. Might want to order online a case of OEM oil filters and full synthetic oil to give to the oil change shop. I believe the manual calls for a change every 10k miles, have seen most members recommend 5k. And welcome to the club, we've enjoyed ours a lot and recently completed a cross country trip.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-and-back.html

NAM has been a useful forum, lots of helpful folks. Happy motoring..

 

No. I admire them, but I would never drive a yellow or red car, MINI or not. They are very attractive colors, but I'm not that bold.

 

Just outside of Kingman in a little community called SoHi, just off of Hwy 93. Moved up here from the valley about 14 years ago to make our business travels more efficient. It's been nice, but some day we'll get back to culture and reality!!!

Your trip looks great, did you experience any major problems? How comfortable was the car?

 

Thanks, it was a lot of fun. Did get a bit tired of hotels, I'm not the camping type. Zero problems, car is a hoot to drive. As I mentioned in my travel post, those seats are hard. No problem around town, but you'll feel 6 hours in the saddle. We have the sports package, not sure if that meant different seats. Do you know if your mini has run flat tires? At 58k miles, it won't come with the original tires. They are stiff and noisey. Lot of threads on here about swapping them out, which is what I'll do. My tire changing days are over, is why we belong to AAA.

You'll love the power of an S. At highway speeds, mash the pedal and these cars GO. Came in handy a few times during the trip. And oh boy, with that many highway miles I saw some real bone headed moves. Be sure to report back after you take delivery and post a few more pics. Members here love it..

 

Thanks for the feedback.

First a few more photos, the Cooper S decal is no longer on the windshield, seems the dealer decided to take it off.












The car has the "comfort" option as I gather from ordering the spare key fob.

As you can see it has a set of OZ Alleggerita wheels (16") with Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sport tires...205/55R16...Geez, same size as the front tires on my '80 BMW 635 CSi!!!! It also has a Borla exhaust system and a K&N Typhoon induction system. A nice touch to match the Carbon Black Checkered interior are a set of JCW Checkered front floor mats.

One thing I discovered after receiving the car and not being told about was a square cutout in the rear valance/grill and upon further observation found that the car is equipped with a receiver type trailer hitch! Now we're thinking how cool it would be to take a road trip with one of those U-Haul type swoopy trailers (painted White over Mellow Yellow with Black stripes of course) with all of our kit in it.

Well, the wife took off about an hour ago for her first test drive and I need to make dinner so we'll catch you all later...this is going to be fun, I can tell already .

 

Congratulations, good looking mini. I like the mods. One thought on the hitch, do you ride bikes? While on our trip, my wife and I met another retired couple doing a trip in a MCS. They had a bike rack attached to the hitch and two bikes. Pretty cool..

 

Uhm, Mrs. TJC here, just got back from my drive...
Had to take it into town, so that I could test it out a bit more than the straight highway.
She was very responsive. I only took through 5 gears, as there is not much opportunity to go faster than 80 mpg on our highways. Lots of law enforcement on a Sunday evening. I was pushing my luck as it was. The steering and shifting were very precise, but I may have noticed that because I am used to driving older cars. I told my husband that this was as much fun as the Lotus X180R that I once had the opportunity to drive.

Anyway, I will be looking for excuses to take it out and have fun. (Yes, honey; I have to be at work early today)

Hmm, I can hardley wait to take it up the mountain road that is in our vicinity....