The Mini is simply an amazing drive. For years I've taken trips down to the San Diego area. It's about a 7-8 hour drive depending on LA traffic from here. I've had my Mini for 10 months now. The longest drive I've taken in it has been about 3.5 hours. Last weekend I had to leave on short notice to go down to San Diego. I only had 2 days to do the whole trip, including what I needed to do once I got down there. I packed up my Mini, with 3 adults and luggage, including a queen size air bed. It was very loaded, with half of the rear seat folded down and stuff stacked up to the window level on that side.

Usually when I take this drive, I arrive slightly agitated, probably mostly due to LA traffic. You drive for 5+ hours, get to LA traffic and spend another 2 crawling along before you feel like you can get up to freeway speeds again. This time it was a completely different experience. The Mini is so comfortable, even with only a stop for fuel, we arrived in good spirits and enjoyed every minute of the drive. That has simply not happened before. The drive always wears me down, but not this time.

The Sirius radio was enjoyable. Plenty of options to jump around between to keep everyone happy. The navigation system worked great. I knew the route, but having "options" while making our way through the maze in LA to avoid traffic was just uber-cool. No cords hanging around, entertainment, traffic, navigation, all with one interface. The oem Nav was worth every penny.

For those of you who don't use a GPS, they really seem to shorten the driving the experience. Any one will do, not just a built in one. Being able to look down and see I'm only x miles from that next turn, or x minutes from a stop really makes those long drives seem much shorter. I guess it's just the fact that it keeps you entertained.

We were quite surprised to see how much room there is in the Mini. The 3 adults, 2 are 5' 8" and 1 5'5". We used the Stratmosphere sunroof shade on the rear sunroof to keep the 5'5" passenger from being in the sun. It worked out really well.

I've done this trip dozens of times before. This time it was completely different. The Mini is just an amazing car.

Bad cell phone picture of the trip south. As you can see from the average speed, we spent most of the time between 70-75 mph. The hand calculated mpg was the same as what the OBC determined as well. You're almost driving backwards at 70 mph on LA freeways! Those folks really like to move.


The return trip was equally un-eventful. Nothing but smiles. Even though we left at 5 pm, right into rush hour, the traffic wasn't too bad and the carpool lanes got us through most of it without a delay. The mpg was 35.9 on the way back with a slightly lower average speed. Xenon headlights and driving lights really light up the night on those dark empty roads in the middle of no where.

I think I'm ready for that cross country trip!

 

That's one of the most awesome parts of being a MINI owner...the love doesn't fade. Great trip story!

 

Nice story I waved at you guys but you guys just gave me a blank stare and drove off.

 

Where?