Hey all, MININurse made it home from work. As some of you know, she works at night and drove SF to work yesterday evening. I was on the phone with her as she was driving home from work this morning and everything went well.

We put the snow tires on over the weekend and am glad that we did .
The only issues she had was bottoming out driving through the tire tracks and comming into our community where she needed some assistance getting into a parkig spot. Overall, I am amazed that a MINI can get through snow so well being so small.

I was watching some people trying to get out of our community and getting stuck.

 

I just made a quick 2mile round trip to the local auto parts store. My MINI handled great! Only problem I had was making the turn out of my street onto the more main street, I started to fishtail around, but DSC stopped that almost instantly. HOORAY FOR MINIs!

 

Glad to hear that, Jay. It is truly nasty out there today. I heard the freezing rain and sleet hitting the bedroom window ALL night. Here in Carroll County, we have about three inches of snow/ice accumulation and most of that is ice.

If you go out, watch out for the idiots !

 

I am actually supposed to be at work already, but will go in a bit later. I am not sure how much we got, but the news said that Montgomery Co., where I am, got most of that sleet crap.

 

Exactly! Watch out for me! I'm going to miss the Jeep.

 

I am putting my slippers on and walk to my office ...


I have installed the runflat on Streghina but I will prefer to leave her under the iced blanket (will deal w/ her tonight or tomorrow) like her sister Stella...
GyPsy - the luck one - is nice and warm (well kinda of) in the garage and will not move for another few weeks...

In DC the streets (beside the major ones) are pretty bad and it's silly to take a chance to fishtail and hit a parked car..

Everyone be safe and keep warm..

 

At least my office made the decision to close today. But coming home yesterday afternoon, I'm very happy I opted for the DSC. I thought it might be a waste of money, and then of course, had the cons of "I know how to drive in bad weather, I don't want something trying to correct it for me", but I went ahead with it anyway (or I would have had an empty toggle switch!).

I'm glad I did - I have to take some back roads here in Reston to get home and DSC was kicking in a lot. The only time I had a scare was when I was pulling up to a stop light after several miles of not hitting my brakes, and when I did, they made this horrible grinding noise. I guess the snow/ice had built up on them? I kept tapping the brakes and whatever it was went away, and I managed to stop in plenty of time. *whew*

 

Glad to hear that.
No work today as well, but then I have to deal with my 2 little monkeys.
Try to get my Maxi out this afternoon to try out,......if possible. We have at least 5 inches of sleet here.

 

Aren't they awesome? Unlike most people yesterday who left work really early, I didn't leave until 6:30pm, and then I drove all the way down to Ft. Belvoir... and back to Annandale at 8pm. No issues...

Not to mention I'm one of only about 10% who made it in to the office today. I love my MINI and I love my freakin' snow tires! Nice to see more believers! ... but just wait until you really feel it, where it corrects you from a slide or a spin. It's amazing. Seems Jeremy found that out since it recovered from his fishtail. DSC rocks!

 

It was fun driving yesterday from Rockville to Laurel on 108 and 216 .. the roads were starting to get bad..
then non stop sleet and snow, woke up this morning, cleared off the driveway and melted the Ice off my Gianna..

Picked up my GF and drove her to work (I don't trust her nissan in the snow) and took gorman to murray hill, to the back roads to broken land parkway, was plowing some snow a bit, and was so exicted to be the only on on those roads.. no foolish moves, but got to feel DSC in action before any plows were out..

On the way back, the roads were already clearing some.. but i decided to work from home anyways.. the boss is, I might as well too.. gives me more time to drive around and be "working" while on a teleconference (not that i am listening cause I am concentrating on driving) hahaha.

Be safe out there everyone, there are some slippery spots, and altough our trusty little MINIs do so well, many idiots are out there speeding and crashing..

 

glad she made it home safe and sound...did you guys get ice? we have a quarter inch of it everywhere. tree branches are down all over the back yard, power's out ( except for us and our generator) and the roads look like skating rinks. I'm not budging...gonna stay here at home, and hope tomorrow's a little better.
Happy Valentine's Day...

 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. We got about 2-3 inches of snow and sleet out here in western Prince William county. Main roads look okay but our side roads are almost impassable. Should be interesting tonight with temps getting down to the mid-teens and 40 mph wind gusts.

I was hoping to pick up our MCS from the body shop today after its close encounter with a Toyota pickup truck during the January snow event. Decided against that - didn't want to take a chance on driving home and having another clown hit me.

Stay safe out there and watch out for the other guy!

 

We got ice, on top of snow, on top of ice, on top of rain. YUCK. Now, I have gotten SF into a parking spot...of course the snow plow has put 3...yes I said 3 feet of snow bank all around my little baby. I think he must of thought it funny to do that to a little car.... I have NO way of getting out now!
And to top it off, I am awake. I should be waking up in about 3 more hours, but since I keep hearing the f$%#$%g snow plow and people squeeling wheels, I am awake....I am going to really HATE that later tonight.

So I guess I will get the one shovel we have and attempt to dig out my little baby...

Let me tell you, this AM was a BLAST (very sarcastic there people) driving on 495. NO PLOWING what so ever! I got stuck merging on from the GW PKY through no more the a foot of snow...Got stuck, bottomed out, had to have another truck make tracks for me so I could merge. It was HORRIBLE
If I didn't need shocks before, just the drive home would have made me need them...not good for bladders

Oh well, off to dig out.

 

Worked from home yesterday and today even though I learned how to drive from many winters spent in Maine. I can do this stuff in a 2wd pickup without any issue...its all about the skill of the driver. My MINI is protected under its winter blanket and wont see the light of the sun until sometime next week. IF I do need to go out...then my pickup will do the deed.

 

Anyone else wake up this morning with a candy shell on their Mini?

 

I would bet a billion dollars you won't have to deal with any of that on Guam.

Nope, no MINIsicles there.

 

Will, great pic I wonder what the Feb. topic for pic of the month is.

 

You went to work today Snow Day today

BTW ... I'm glad everyone is OK. Sound like the snow tires worked well

I took the RAV4 out about 9 AM, up our hill, Side streets an absolute mess, They never did plow until about 5PM.

All those new electronic widgets work very well. Locking the hubs electronically but very cool was Down Hill Assist (there is also Uphill Assist). You just flip the switch ... and the car does the rest ... just goes down the icy hill straight and true until you flip it off.

Now if they can only invent something to parallel park (oh wait, they have)

At 6AM this morning, when I went to check things out, a Pickup truck went around our cul-de-sac at the bottom of a hill. He could NOT make it back up time after time kept sliding back. AND ... he had a salt thrower in the back. I think a private hire who might have got lost. It took him 30 minutes to get out after BACKING UP onto the center circle and taking a running start. I was just waiting for him to slide ALL the way back, over the center circle, around the little trees, across the street into my driveway!

 

Bottomed out? What do you mean? Were you scraping the undercarriage with ice and snow? Or just the shocks bottoming out.

If your undercarriage has struck ice or hardpacked snow, you better take a look under the car because who knows what damage has been done? Something to look at to be safe

What happened to MINIs vaunted snow ability

Just kidding for Edge's sake

Sounds like you had a miserable time .... sorry. There are 76,000 ppl without power so its miserable all over.

 

The MINI is going to the dealer on Monday to get some work done, so I will have them look at it while it is there. SF is totally blocked in my snow from a plow and I can't get her burried out, so she will be taking a rest for a bit.

The MINI works great as a snow plow and am glad we didn't get the H-Sport springs in or it could've been much worse

 

The Red MINI is staying in the garage till things get nicer... And for those newer NAM folks who haven't had the pleasure, heres my other MINI which took care of my and a few neighbors driveways today. (Pic from last year, not this storm) Hard to see the MINI logo on the 'bonnett' and JCW on the sides in this shot.

 

I would particularly watch out the next week while temps are still in low teens or lower. Ice ruts WILL rip stuff up very easily They even mentioned that this morning on the local news. Side streets still a mess in many places.

 

Mark, that is to funny
Now if you could please bring that fake MINI over here and dig out Soulfire!
I am going to go see if my neighbor is home who has a big truck to see if he can tow me out...Somehow I think I will be stuck in there for a while...Good thing I don't have to go back to work till next Tuesday!


As for me bottoming out. Maybe that is not the word I was looking for, but what I meant was that, the snow was so high in the buldup between the ruts I was becoming an ice scraper because I was shaving about 4 inches off with the bottom of my car! In the merge lane on the beltway, I was totally stuck untill somone came and was able to 'track' me out, even there I was a snowplow.

 

Bat--

It looks like your car is gritting its' teeth and shaking from the cold.

 

Ok, so lets see if this MINI roadside assistance is anything worth the salt on the road...I am on hold with them to see if they can tow me out! Somehow I have a feeling that they will come on the line and tell me that I MUST be joking!:impatient Guess I may have SF out by the Dragon!