I drove appoximately 300 miles today bringing my boy cub back to school. Passed alot of cars on I95. Couldn't believe what I saw. A Suberu Forester, a Honda Accord, and a VW. They all looked pretty cool, but based on their name plates, I think they were all on steroids. The Forester reminded me of early Ford Explorers, the Accord looked like a Chevy Impala, but maybe even bigger, the VW, really looked like a full seized Benz. Three different car manufactures, that originally tried to make a statement that "small is better", are now building large cars. I'm not knocking these cars, because I know nothing about them, but I guess the market has changed. It kinda of made me think, yeah my sunroof rattles, lots of road noise, there's no bass to my sound system, quirky little control switches, it needs high test, I don't have a one touch window raiser, I can't really have 4 adults in the car, but I do have great performance, and didn't pay the price of a Porche.

 

Your car should still be under warranty so dealer Should be able to fix your Sunroof rattle, road noise can be improved with non-runflats, you can get bass to your sound system for free by doing the front/rear swap and you can upgrade the speakers for a few bucks extra to get pretty good sound, the control switches are actually functional and well organized if you ask me, except the drivers window switch when you have a drink in the cup holder, can't help you with the Premium gas .

 

Thanks for the reply. Yup, yup, and yup. I already ditched the RF's, and I'm fully warrantied to April, 2014, but I just love the lil guy as he is.

 

Yes what was once small is getting bigger, names that once identified the micro cars in the 50's now have grown up and in some cases have become large cars. VW, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Fiat, Renault, Morris and others once produced cars that Americans dismissed as toys. Now Chevrolet, Ford, and Chrysler make cars that are smaller than some of the original little car people. Even our MINI is taking "growing" steps with the new Countryman 4 door. Will the bigger is better continue in MINI LAND, I hope not, but time will tell.