I've had more than one person ask me if my Z3 Coupe is a new BMW model. One guy asked what the price was and guessed around $80k.

 

Maybe a little off the subject but my dad has a saying "its better to live in the basment of the Ritz than the penthouse of the Holiday Inn if the price is the same." Then i say it is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

Well the point is for probably the same money, your with a better class of people, or at least a richer class.

Ps nice mini Ravenofskys, very rich looking.

 

Ahhhh......MacBooks and MINI's. A common thread seems to be developing. I'm waiting on my 06 (Mac lappie, not my MINI) to croak so I can get that new aluminum beauty with which I can sync my iPhone.
I'm not well off. No debt, no kids, no house (I rent...seems like a good move these days) but I don't go hog wild for every new gadget. I just try to get the best so I don't have to replace stuff a lot. I'm about to retire and my JCW is hopefully my last car. I do get that well off comment from time to time. I just tell them, it beats buying a (name your disposable make/model) every 2-3 years.

 

You crack me up!!!

 

I seem to be practicing downward mobility compared to everyone else.

In my younger days before I was married I owned a 2003 Mini Cooper which I bought new before moving on to a 2005 Cooper S. I was solid middle class, but had no extra money after car payments, insurance, and the usual bills one receives when trying to live a normal life. I was bearly keeping my head above water.

I am a late bloomer. I spent to much time in school getting a degree and was surprised as much as anyone when a degree was slapped into my hand. I stumbled out of school with a degree in Chemistry. Then because of the Mini, I met my wife. Well, she wasn't my wife yet, but just a woman who wanted to go out with me. Turned out she was more into me than the Mini.

I met a women who paid all her bills on time, she had no balances on her credit cards, and thought I was spending way to much money on a car like the the Mini. So to help clear up my balance sheet I sold the Mini. All my bills are paid up, my credit cards are paid off, and we are buying a Toyota Yaris S.

I miss my Mini, and I want it back. It's in south Florida now. I wonder how hard it would be to find?

By the way ravenofskys, you should join PhillyMini. I hung out with them in their early days before they went to a dues paying club. They actually want me to come back to their group even without a Mini. Let's Motor!

 

I can understand paying off the bills, I can almost understand the woman, (almost mind you.) but the Yaris???

You do realize that the man has one less rib than the woman??

Wow

 

It seems to me that Oilman is a bit of a misnomer at this point

I was more frugal in my younger days (when I owned a '79 Plymouth Horizon, probably the equivalent then of the Yarris now) but have learned that it is great to be responsible with your $$$ but life is to be lived and enjoyed.

I look at the way one lives as a reflection of their personality. IUf you are a Yaris-type guy, then you should drive one; if you are a MINI-type, well then I hope you can convince her you deserve the MINI.

 

I agree, well put!

 

It was my idea to sell the Mini, but it sure wasn't mine to buy a Yaris.

My wide see's cars completely differently than I do. For her, they are something to get you from some place where you started to some place where you end up stopping. Fun it not involved. A car is just something to get you wherever you have to go. Until I came into the picture, she didn't own a car for over ten years. The Mini to her was just an over priced appliance. She does however know how hard for me it was to sell the Mini. She actually feels very bad about it now.

As for the Yaris, she saw it in a magazine and thinks the car is very cute. At first she just wanted the basic version. No power options at all, no radio, Air-con is standard in the US. She is not happy about me wanting to get the Yaris S (think Mini Cooper then upgrade to a Cooper S and you have the idea of the Yaris upgrade) because the cost for the car shot way up.

I will try to improve it as best I can, but there is only so much I can do. But it will be better than the Buick LeSabre Limited that I am driving now. My wife's mother gave up driving, and guess who got her car??

You can laugh it up but, I've got that Buick running great.

I've owned various British cars for 30 years, I will have another again.

 

I bet it was extremely hard to give up!!

I'm older now and my kids are grown and have their own lives so I guess the comparison may not be completely fair. I know I gave up my 69 Roadrunner, mainly because in those days I didn't have much money and couldn't afford the hot rod and the practical car. Once I started making more money the hot rods came back. My wife and I both enjoy driving high performance cars and so the transition was easy. We go to the drags every year and really enjoy the couple of dirt tracks that are in our area.

(But a Yaris, even an S??)

 

just thought i'd chime in. i'm 29 and i'm poor as dirt, but i somehow still have my mini. i bought it 4 years ago when i was working 10-12 hours a day at a decent job in San Francisco, so i could afford it. A few years ago i got sick, lost my job, lost my health insurance, and got more sick. I haven't worked in almost 3 years now. After 2 years of pure physical and mental hell, my doctors diagnosed me with crohn's disease. Before I was diagnosed, I had to spend 2 weeks in the hospital. When I got out I was informed by my insurance company that they didn't feel like paying for my stay. When I complained, they canceled my policy. My hopital bill was more than my car was brand new.

Say what you want about people living beyond their means, but this car is all I have. I guess I could sell it and pay off a lot of my bills(i'm too sick to drive it very much anyway), but i worked too damn hard for this thing and I've been through too much to give it up because some doctor was trying to milk my insurance. for now though, i'm just going to keep hoping that I'll get well enough to start working again soon, or be lucky enough to find an employer that will accomodate me in my current condition (not likely in today's economy, i know)...

 

My thoughts and prayers to you. Doctors can be so unkind and hospitals so unforgiving. They will kill you if you don't watch them like a hawk.

Can ypu apply for grants. Lots of hospitals will forgive the bill but you have to apply for the grants. My mom was in that situation, she has alzhimers, and was in the hospital for almost 2 weeks and no way to pay. I applied on her behalf for help from the hospital and they paid all the bills.

You may have already exhausted these avenues but I thought I would mention it.

Good luck to you. Now that the correct diagnosis has been made I hope you health (and the economy) improves enough to help your situation.

Regards,

Pat

 

thanks a lot. i've already been through disability, PAP programs, medicaid, charity hospitals, and a few different lawyers, but I've never heard of those grants. I'll check up on it as soon as possible.

 

the process was easy for my mom.

Most people think the paperwork is daunting but actually it was not very difficult. All I had to show was income for my mom, (or lack thereof as the case was.) SS checks etc. She actually had some retirement money but I used a good portion of that to make prearrangements for her passing etc. I didn't want to hospital etc to get it all.

Not all hospitals offer these programs, some do. If you belong to a church of any significant size they also sometimes offer grants and help with medical expenses. Typically this is only available if you are a member but sometimes there are exceptions. You also might use the Internet and do some googles to find additional sources of help.

 

OMG! I would never let a lover tear me away from my MINI

 

That really sucks! Just know there are many in your situation. I work with people who are going through this and it is terrible but there is hope! Our healthcare system is a joke and needs a revamp!

 

I've seen a few of your posts here and at GSM, but I had no idea - you are in my prayers. What kind of work were you doing before this started?

 

I hope your health improves in 2009, but for now try to have a safe and enjoyable holiday season. And what ever you do, don't sell the Mini.

 

I definitely wouldn't consider myself "well-off" but I have no other debts besides my new car loan, and I have savings. I'm 19, renting an apartment, and going to college. I work around my school schedule. I needed a reliable car and found a great deal on the mini I wanted. I also want to use the loan to build credit. I've only had it since Thursday and I see what the thread-starter was talking about. Everyone asks me what I spent on it, and heres a specific example: there were some guys standing behind me on an incline and I told them I didn't want to roll back into them (just getting used to the stick), they said "It's ok, you have a nice car, I'm sure you could afford it". I like the fact that people think I have a nice car, and I think it's nice too. It just shows that I got lucky with the deal I got and where I'm at with my finances.

 

thanks for all the kind words everyone. it really means a lot.


i actually used to work for a patient assistance program for a drug company. we gave away free medicine to people who couldn't afford it and didn't have any insurance. after I got sick, i had to apply to many of these programs myself (including the program for a drug called remicade that was administered through my old company. thankfully the free hospital i go to handled the paperwork and i didn't have to talk to any of my former co-workers).

if anyone ever finds themselves in need of one of these PAP programs, go to needymeds.com, search under the drug name, and it will tell you what you need to do and who to contact to apply.

thanks again everyone, and i hope you all have a safe and happy holiday

 

Yeah, I'm a 24 y/o grad student on my second MINI and I get the same stuff about being a "rich kid". I also get similar comments because I'm an avid Apple user (I have 3 Macs, two iPods, and an iPhone), and I have lots of nice outdoor sports gear (i.e., climbing, MTB, etc.), but the truth of it is that I manage my finances well, and save and budget money for my hobbies and the things I really want. I'm on a grad assistant's salary (which isn't much) and pay my own bills, far from "well off."

(On the flip side my parents still are still helping out a bit with insurance and car payments until I finally get out of school, but I'm still responsible for the majority of that.)

 

I've never thought of mini drivers as a bunch of rich people, just a bunch of people with sweet cars! I'm sure when I get one I'll get the same comments about just another rich kid or something, but in fact I am just smart with my money.

When I turned 17 a year ago, I really wanted a Jeep. I would up buying one from a guy I knew for $5,500!! with 60,000 miles on it. KBB was like $9.5k but the going prices were around $12k. Now I've decided that its not all that sensible of a car for all my outdoor hobbies so I am selling it to buy a mini. I should be able to sell it for $12k and get in a 2004-05 MC with 60k+ miles on it and be set.

So because of getting a great deal on my first car I can make money and buy a very budget friendly performance car and drive around with everyone thinking my parents bought it for me.

 

I think this car appeals to the entire spectrum of socio-economic classes. This is definitely not a wealthy-only car. In my opinion, most that buy these cars are 1) making a statement that big cars suck, & 2) saving fuel with decent mpgs.. this is one of the better looking fuel efficient cars out there.

 

Yep I decided that my Jeep is not something good to have on a big urban college campus so I started searching through all different cars. Mini has the best gas mileage and best looks by far! As well as handling.. I was leaning towards the new body style Subaru Outback until I saw the Mini. Mini's are just so much nicer. It's crazy how you can get such a nice car for less money. I felt that it was perfect for me the first one I went and sat in.

 

In the summer of 2005 I took a job in a resort area which has a lot of wealthy people living here. We parked our old Chevy Blazer at the grocery store between a brand new Mercedes and a Porsche turbo. My wife asked me if we should lock the car. I said, "What are they going to do, take the Blazer and leave their Mercedes!"



Now that I have a new MINI, I lock it...........just in case.