My LSW (long suffering wife) surprised me on xmas morning with a shiny new (to me) '06 Chili Red coupe. I had no idea it was coming. Nice little number with white bonnet stripes and nearly all of the features I would have selected myself. More to come on that topic...

Of course she has an hidden agenda... I'll get the coupe and she'll take over the '05 Chili Red cabrio. Still pondering what the new license plate(s) should read.

Anyway, I've been lurking on this forum for years and finally decided to make my first post. Thanks!

 

Welcome to NAM !

I'm thinking you're exaggerrating the LSW thing. I doubt a suffering wife would buy her husband a MINI.

Tell her I said, "wow... well done, LSW!!".

Looking forward to some pics.

 

WELCOME! and I love the color choice! Chili Red iZ the fastest

 

Well mabe it iZ next to Hyper Blu...

I joined this forum in 2003 & didn't post until late 2005 when I ordered the Blu Brit. Lurking here is quite common.

Sounds like a great MINI. What a great Christmas for you.

 

Please don't tell Nanco, she will be mad at us for not getting her one for Christmas. Congrats it sounds like the best Christmas ever.

 

So I've been driving the newest member of the family around Northern Mass all week and will finally be bringing her to Ohio on Sunday. I can't wait to pull the cabrio out of the garage and park both of them side by side in the driveway.

The kicker is that my last name happens to be Cooper so the neighbors already had a good chuckle when I pulled up with the first MC. This one will put them over the edge.

 

You need to bring them both to the next meeting. The more the merrier.

 

Don't give up the Cabrio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Actually I am all too happy to hand over the keys to the cabrio. It has a blind spot the size of Iowa, no rear wiper and the roll bars cover most of the back window. Great car in the summer but since summer in Cleveland lasts all of about 2 weeks I hardly got to go topless.

I noticed on my drive in this morning that my visibility in the coupe is a hundred times better.

 

Ah, the joys of cabrio ownership. Seeing all the cars around you is sooooooooooooo overrated!!!

The no rear wiper/build up excessive winter gunk on the rear window is one of my biggest issues with the car.

 

If you stay well ahead of anyone, you don't need to worry about seeing backwards.

You get used to using the mirrors and sloooooooowwwwwwwlllllllyyy merging into your blind spot on the passenger side of the car.

I ride a motorcycle and I think that actually helps me to be (more) aware of the vehicles around me and their position on the road in relation to me. Most of the time they are not paying attention to their surroundings so my awareness on the street (IMO) is higher in the car as well on the bike (just in case they don't see me at all).

Has anyone seen the video of the new 2009 Cabrio that has been posted? The hoops are much smaller and the rear window much bigger, so that should be an improvement for some.



From Car and Driver...
...
The previous convertible’s unsightly roll bar has been replaced by a deployable version that stays mostly hidden behind the rear headrests until a rollover sensor decides it’s time for the bar to spring into action. This new design frees up some extra space in the cargo hold, which is now accessed by a larger opening. The bigger aperture is also a result of a two-piece lid that features both a pickup-style tailgate—as featured on the old Mini droptop, although the new car loses the unsightly exterior-mounted hinges—and a section that opens upward. Maximum cargo capacity is achieved with the top up, and now stands at 23.1 cubic feet, almost 2 cubic feet more than before.
As for the automated top itself, it maintains the ability to open completely or partially, the latter forming a sunroof of sorts. In keeping with Mini’s tradition of customization, the top is available in a variety of colors; sadly, the hatch’s checkerboard and Union Jack themes still are not among the options.

The Answer to a Problem Nobody Had
Wondering how long you’ve been soaking up the sun’s rays in your droptop? Mini has—inexplicably—decided that information warrants its own gauge, adding what they call an Openometer onto the side of the tach. With a needle for minutes and a series of LEDs to count hours, the superfluous instrument has the ability to track your top-down, engine-on time for up to six hours and 59 minutes. Beyond that, total hours are logged in the trip computer, which tracks lifetime top-down use as well as interim use. The counter can be reset like a trip odometer, although we’re clueless as to why you would ever need to do that—or, indeed, have top-down time readily available. Happily, the gauge is optional, and not a necessary addition to an interior that is already a bit of an ergonomic nightmare.

 

I want one of those gauges to covert into a donutometer. That way I can keep track of how many donuts have been consumed in my MINI.

Mmm donuts....

 

I did the rear wiper delete and so I get the rear window gunk as well. It was a good idea in the summer.

 

Just put it back on.

Sometimes deleting things turn out to not be a smart move.

 

Hey I know someone who has extra room in the garage for a cabrio. This person may be moving south come 2011 and would have no problem with being tortured by having the roof open all the time