I need a place to express and share the extent to which MINI has a grip on my soul, and I could think of no better place to do so than here. My wife certainly does not enjoy hearing about it.

I dream of MINIs (really), whenever I see a MINI I secretly hate myself for selling the two r53's I have owned. I hate myself for having car attention deficit disorder. In the past 3 years I have owned 7 different cars, in the following order:

-2005 PW/B (MCS) stock. I loved the car, but always felt like I would have long term reliability issues, and was tired of paying for premium fuel, and getting less than great gas mileage... I was spoiled, so when the lease ran out and traded it in towards something a little more reliable, a little more economical, useful, yet "sporty," a...

-2009 Honda Civic LX (white, manual)... I missed my MINI dearly, but I nevertheless drove it for a year and after moving to Miami and feeling the need for a little more "flash," I decided to stop by a BMW dealership one night to test drive a...

-CPO 2007 BMW 335i (black with saddle brown interior, fully loaded). When I was driving it off the lot, I knew I had given into an irrational desire that was fueled by the torque, refinement, and smell of a beautiful BMW that would eventually be modified to 400 HP, an irrational desire that one day would be overcome by the feeling of being enslaved by a monthly car payment for a car that was depreciating faster than I would drive each morning on my 60 mile daily commute, a constant feeling that a high pressure fuel pump failure was just around the corner. After three visits to the bmw dealership to take care of "limp mode" issues (one which had my car in the dealer for a week), i decided to sell my bavarian beast and buy a something a little more reliable, a little more economical, useful, yet "sporty," a...

-2006 Scion XB (5 speed), which I packed full of belongings and shipped to Los Angeles (for work). I owned the car for a month - it was a good car, practical, fuel efficient, but SLOW... and after moving to LA, I once again felt the need for a little more "flash," and decided to stop by a used car dealership and saw the beautiful inanimate object my heart had always longed for since it had been gone a...

-2005 PW/PW MCS. This time it was different. I had been reunited with my long lost love. No longer restrained by a lease agreement, I was free to mod away, exhausts, pulleys, camber plates, intakes, sway bars, springs, control arms, et cetera... after a few months, I started to feel that "I need something a little more reliable, more economical, useful, yet sport; why oh why am I making car payments on a 6 year old car?" feeling, so (regretfully) I sold it and purchased a...

-2006 Kia Rio5 SX (5MT). Owning this car has fulfilled nearly all my desires for a vehicle - practical, fuel efficient, fun to drive with a short shifter, tossable, slow, but fun to rev up (unlike the MCS which was too fast to really stomp on the gas), but the siren call of the MINI is ever present, I tried to satisfy the call by purchasing a second car, a:

-1991 Limited Mazda Miata (BRG), which only had 58,000 miles, but that affair was short lived, as I had to move back to Miami from LA, and owning three cars (including my wife's) was not an option. So, I sold it only a few months after acquiring it.

So now I am back in Miami. Driving my Kia Rio5. I like it enough - kind of like a well worn pair of jeans that are comfortable, but not perfect for every occasion. It gets great gas mileage (average 32mpg), is peppy, tossable, useful (4dr wagon), and looks good enough (semi-euro VW/Ford Focus hybrid look) - save for the interior which looks like the cheap econocar that it is. However it just doesn't have that je ne sais quoi that MINIs have. I have fallen in love again with MINIs, this time the R50. Whenever I see one with that beautiful chrome grille, simple, classic, elegant design, no pretentiousness like the R53 sometimes had, the memories of how a MINI handled - I imagine that the R50 would satisfy my desires; useful, fuel efficient, more reliable than an R53, easy to maintain, but have all the fun, rev happiness, driveability, tossability and "fun to drive a slow car fast" feeling that the Kia Rio5 affords, but with so much more style and soul. After recently seeing a dark blue beautiful R50 (2005+) parked under the valet canopy at the Biltmore hotel in Coral Gables, FL (see pic: ), I could no longer repress my emotions and had to come here for some therapy.

I consider myself to be a spiritual person, with relatively few material attachments, but I can't shake the feeling this stirs up:



I would buy one if I didn't think I would be crazy for owning three different MINIs in the past three years. That and my wife would think I'm crazy as well since we are looking to buy a house soon. I need help.

How do former MINI owners cope with the separation?

 

Oh dear, I am now looking for a Hallmark Card to address this issue

Promise yourself when all the dust settles from all the stuff (Home Buying, etc) you need to do that you WILL reward yourself with a Mini!!

 

lol sounds good! let me know if you find that hallmark card

 

If you have read the OP, file it away in your deep memory bank. Then promise to recall it when you get the urge to sell your MINI. Time and time I have read about the reasons that cause people to sell their MINIs, and it seems a large majority of the time these reasons become instantly unimportant the moment they have handed over the title. Even if you are going from one MINI to the next, you'll probably pine away for your first one. We have a club member here who has seriously posted about going to the used car dealer where her first car ended up recently (traded in for a Coupe) and buying it back.

"Remember your first MINI- make it your only MINI"- It would make a great ad campaign, except for the fact that they would sell you only one car for the rest of your life.

Val

 

Miami - It's tough, I know. Believe me, I know.

Last August I sold my '10 MCS Laurel hardtop. I loved driving that car - every single mile, without exception. Since then I always thought back to the fun I had and wished I never sold it. While in Italy last week it only got worse as I was then surrounded by MC's and Countrymen.

Rather than continuing to mope and complain like I have over the last 7 months I traded in my pickup truck on a '12 MCS Hardtop 2 days ago. No regrets whatsoever. It feels absolutely great to be back into a MINI, I love it!

As Val indicated above, I still miss my Laurel. A lot. Notwithstanding that, having another MINI is still waaayyy better than always living with the regret of selling my Laurel. Although I can't have her back I can begin again with a new MINI. Over time I'll mod it and make it my own. I even gave it a name today - Bruno! This car is starting to grow on me already.

Everybody at work wanted to know about it and they were just all smiles when looking at it. Good times, good times. Just like before. I am a MINI owner again.

So I didn't cope well with the separation but did the next best thing. I bought another.

Chris

 

qft

 

[QUOTE


QUOTE]
The hood is open?

 

i am shocked that someone could go from an 07 335i to a scion XB. literally going from one of the best every day cars (if not the best), to one of the worst.

Just saying. Hope you join the mini club again one final time.

 

I took a break from MINIs for almost 5 years and I'm glad i'm back. Maybe go test drive a new one, order one to your liking. Or wait get the house and then the new MINI.

 

I actually do not miss the BMW at all. Believe it or not, I prefer the feel of a lightweight, high revving, and to some extent lower power, car. Surprisingly, my current car (06 Rio5) offers a fun driving experience. In contrast, the 335i, although it was a rocket ship that could keep up with my dad's '02 z06, it offered a very numb driving experience. Also, I could not justify making such a relatively high car payment with the majority of my law school loans outstanding.

The Scion XB was actually a fun car! It had some of the feeling of a MINI... almost felt like a combination of a MINI with a van (but not a minivan). Had a good time hauling people around, and with the move it served its purpose. I even made money on it when I traded it in.

I'm thinking an R50 for my next car, or even an r56 justa, since I recently learned that they do not have DI motors (vs the R56-S) and seem to be more reliable overall than the previous gen.

 

No, I believe it's just the camera angle.

 

Great story! Why did you sell the 2010, if you don't mind my asking?

 

I may just wait to get a house... after all, a MINI deserves a garage...

How did you like your R50? How did the R50/3 compare to your new 56?

 

I don't mind at all. We moved from NC to central Illinois. The closest MINI dealer was now 2 hours away and I didn't want to commute with it on the rural roads in winter. Given all that I regretfully traded it for a '11 Trail Teams FJ Cruiser. We had an FJ before and it was a total beast in snow.

As it turned out the country roads out here aren't too bad plus now we have the FJ for winter weather. We traded in the "farm" truck ('08 King Ranch 4x4 diesel, crew cab, 8' bed) for more money than we paid for our '12 MCS so I just couldn't pass up the deal.

The dealership is still 2 hours away but the drive isn't so bad. Besides, I will be driving the MINI!

 

I could not resist the call... picking up an R50 this week!

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post3492499

 

Thanks for sharing and for the quality writing:-)
Very entertaining and good for my car knowledge too.

 

Agreed. This is like a great love story. In spite of obstacles they end up back together in the end. You just knew they were right for each other all along! Who doesn't love a happy ending? [sniff!]

 

Congrats on finding a new MINI. And don't worry, those law school loans will eventually get paid off.

 

Thank you all for your kind words!

 

Easy answer. Sell the Kia, and replace it with a Mini, need something newer, try an R56, much easier to live with than the R50 suspension wise and more fuel efficient too.

 

Done and done I ended up with an R50 (see sig). Even though the drive train in the R56 is better, the classic styling and feel (and lower price) of the R50 won me over.