Some more great stories.

 

Nice thread

Three MINIs later and the memories are still fresh in our minds...this could be a really long, so only one story. This one starts somewhere around 1970, me being a car nut and just meeting the young woman I would marry later in 1974. My first car was a 1959 MGA; now that was a drive-and-fix-and-drive type of car if there ever was one. It should have put me off cars altogether, but it didn't. After that came a 1972 Fiat 124 Spyder...a fantastic sports car in its day and in my mind the predecessor of many of the fine affordable sports cars of today. This was that young woman's intoduction to small cars.

Fast forward to some time late in 2002 and my wife saw a MINI and secretly fell in love with it but didn't say much about it. However, that didn't prevent me from noticing (I had gotten to know her quite well by that time ) and I bought her a die cast model of one as a Christmas presents that year with a promise to save for a real one for her. Up to that point in time we had been driving the likes of a 1985 9 passenger Chevy station wagon and a Jeep Grand Cherokee and I think the idea of a small car was a little frighting to her which was why she was reluctant to say much about them. The sad part was that at the same time her Mom passed away, leaving her with a small inheritance that she was uncomfortable about receiving. However, I reminded her about how her Mother love the little car that she had bought when she retired and how much fun she had driving it. I also suggested that she look at buying the MINI that she had been thinking about in honor of her Mom and that small car she had. With that she reluctantly acquiesced to looking at some small cars. All it took was to open the door, sit in the car and close the door to convince her that it was a MINI that she wanted and it was off to MINIUSA to build her one. It was all hers to build except for the sports seats which were my suggestion. She created a beautiful MINI that is Indi Blue with a white top and mirrors and has the sun roof, auto and cold weather package. After what seemed forrrrrevvvver it arrived just before her birthday in late 2003. What she didn't know was that, for her birthday, I added white stripes to the order. When we went to pick it up the dealer had it under a MINI cover that she had to take off to see it. She was like a kid at Christmas.

She was so nervous about driving a small car, she want me to drive it home. She was afraid that no one would see her and would maybe run into it. I refused; it was her car and the first drive experience was her right to have. I assured her everything would be OK...we only live 8 miles away from the dealer and I would be driving right behind her. When she got home she was grinning from ear to ear. "It is so easy to drive. I don't have to worry about the other cars" she said.

That was almost 10 years ago and she still says how much she loves driving the car. And still, to this day, she gets compliments on the car she built.

 

Now that is an awesome story and a great memory!

 

I bought my Mini from Westchester NY mini and had it shipped by Intercity morots to Ca. It was a husband and wife driving team and they would call each day to let me know where they were . I was working on CSI at the time and had them deleiver the car to the set. They were big fans of the show and i had them stay for diner with the crew and get on set to watch some of the filming and meet the cast. Marg Helgenburger was the first person to sit in the car

Randy

 

By early in 2007 my 1984 Renault Encore had 200k+ on it and was getting pretty tired. I had needed a new car for quite a while, actually but I hate car buying and nothing out there appealed to me, really. When the MINI first came out I was interested but put off by the price- I've never bought a new car and couldn't imagine payments like that. I had started looking seriously by '07 and had circled a newspaper ad for a first generation Prius for about $9,000 or so but failed to make a call about it. Gas then shot through the roof and used Prius went way up in value, so I started looking around. Used MINIs were coming down in price so I test drove one and liked it, and then started looking around on the internet for a good deal.

In doing the research I became very particular about what I wanted- BRG with a white top, no sunroof, 5 speed, base model, white wheels. MINI of Honolulu had what I was looking for and for a nice price, probably because it didn't have a sunroof- it was in Hawaii after all. It had the Panther Black and Cordoba Beige interior but not the white wheels, and I was willing to compromise on that. Turns out I like the silver holies better! I ordered an inspection, sent them a large check and had it put on a boat to Seattle!

My wife and son and I took the bus down to Terminal 25 to pick up the car in June of 2007. That was a very fun day- gassed it up, washed the sea spray off and went to Spud on Alki Beach here in Seattle for lunch and a bit of cruising.


Picking up Napoleon II at the Matson Dock

My wife didn't like the MINI too much at first, but after driving to AMVIV 6 and back, she decided she needed one too! She found one on autotrader.com too, and flew down to California to pick hers up. I'll post that story soon.

Val

 

So Mini Coopers must be rare in Seattle to have to get them from such far distances...........hahahaha.

 

If nothing else, this picture is a keeper

It was nice to treat the driving team to that experience. However, were they reluctant to turn over the keys to you when they got there?

 

Hey, mini coop, would "Real Upstate NY" be anywhere near Albany?

 

It was all a pricing thing- plus the internet allowed my wife and I to find exactly the color/color/wheels/interior/etc. combination we wanted. I saved about $3k on my car, even with the shipping as compared to prices locally and got the car I wanted. My wife saved even more on hers, but spent a few extra dollars getting it back- we did however, turn that into an enjoyable family trip to California and back.

Val

 

Lots of new owners again out there. Share your story.

 

Any more stories out there? How about you new owners?

 

I guess I'll do one. Well let me start off by saying that I am gonna be honest, the MINI Cooper wasn't my first choice when deciding to get my first car. My parents wanted to give me my first car on my 18th birthday and they said I could get whatever car I want as long as so the first dealer I went to was a FORD dealer. I used to be very fond of Mustangs especially the GT500! So I test drove a 2012 Mustang Shelby GT500 that day and damn it was fun. When I thought about it, it definitely wasn't a good daily driver and my mom was scared and talked to me that it was just too powerful especially I am only 18 years old. So the next was the 2012 Jeep Wrangler. When I test drove it, I really did not like it. I mean the car itself is nice and pretty fun because it was manual transmission, had a hardtop, etc... but it was just a bad daily driver and felt heavy for a daily driver plus my dad didn't approve of it (my dad hates "american" cars idk why, i guess because hes from Switzerland). Anyway the next was the MINI Cooper. I test drove this brownish 2012 Mini Cooper Hardtop, manual transmission, etc... At first I thought I wasn't gonna fit but damn I was wrong. LOL! I am about 6'1, 190lbs so you picture it! So I test drove it and I never had so much fun in a car since this MINI. The same day I test drove it was the same day I ordered my MINI. I mean it was FUN, FUEL EFFICIENT, PLUS IT LOOKS AWESOME, PLUS YOU CAN ZIP AROUND CORNERS LIKE A ROCKET, i mean I can go on forever but it was love at first sight. hehe. My mom approved of it too so when I was ordering it I really did not know much about MINI Coopers. I was gonna order the "S" which is the turbocharged version but my mom was scared that it might be "too powerful" for my first car. So I order the Justa. I recently crashed it but I am getting it back soon. Definitely don't regret my Cooper and I love it and forever.

 

Great story, thx for sharing.

 

December 2001. Maybe the first Left hand drive MINI in the country.

We bought a Cooper sight-unseen from MINI of Göteborg Sweden and shipped it to the Dundalk Marine Terminal in Baltimore. It was a huge hassle getting permission from various government agencies to import a non-DOT certified car, but we got it done, on the proviso that we not drive it on the street, and that we eventually ship it back. So here it is, caged and tracked. We did return the car to stock and sent it back to Sweden. Now it's my cousin's daily driver in Stockholm. After it's stint in the U.S. (a place my cousin loves to poke fun at) he calls the car Billy Bob.

 

helix, thanks for sharing another great story. It amazes me what we will do to get our MINI's.

 

Lots of new MINIacs. How about your story?

 

The photo with Marg Helgenburger took me a little by surprise. Great moment!

I remember both MINIs so far very well. The thing that made the first hardtop so special was that it was ultimately unexpected. I wanted a MINI since the 02 Auto Show but was driving a GTI, which was more affordable at the time to me, and had replaced my beloved, dearly departed Karmann Ghia (I needed a safer daily driver once I started working far enough from home that cycling in winter/rain would be brutal and driving it would be dangerous in the Ghia)... which never really appealed to me. I had configured a PW/W MCS and shopped it around with the dealers in the SF Bay Area, but at the time (2005) it was still a pretty hot commodity car merket and all the dealers wanted several grand over MSRP or had long production delays. I talked with a MA about the car but ultimately found that trade-in on my GTO was unsavory, and left it there. That MA was clever, and it wasn't his first rodeo: he built my car to spec as one of his monthly allotted builds, then called me some months later when it arrived and said 'you know, just saying, but your car is in my showroom.' Well, that was a successful maneuver. I drove down, traded the GTI, and started at this glorious brand new totally-me MINI in the center of the showroom with some yahoos sitting in it. Best part: they opened the double-doors to the showroom and I drove it right out. Pretty fabulous.

The Clubman was a configured and ordered MINI from a closer dealer, and one thing I recall was the choice to go Countryman, which wasn't out yet but the MA's were just back from training on them. I declined, feeling like I wanted to minimize the enlargement of the MINI (we were upsizing to the Clubman after having some back and arm injury issues exacerbated by getting my 4 month old daughter in and out of the hardtop).The other thing I recall was that they took possession of their first 2011 Clubman that same day, and it was in the loading bay. I took a look at it and it was the new White Silver, which is actually an extraordinary color, but looks very different indoors than it does in sunlight. I had the option to take it, but passed.

Later, I really grew to love that White Silver whenever I saw it on the road, and ultimately, well, here we are, waiting for a Countryman to be delivered.

But anyway, Clubman arrival day, different experience once you know the drill, but no less thrilling. I remember driving off the lot, pleasantly surprised that this time, I had bluetooth cell and ipod integration set up before I left and was driving away feeling very at home in the new MINI, whereas with the first one the BT was my own third party install and the iPod integration was always dodgy. So, it just felt, in many respect, more put together and luxurious, in fit and finish to technology to ride quality, than my old hardtop (which I still missed, and continue to miss, for the true go-cart feel)...

Looking forward to seeing what the Countryman drive-off experience will be... this time with two pipsqueaks in the back singing, no doubt.

 

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing. I never stop enjoying hearing about the day people get them.

 

There are some great stories in this thread. My MINI is currently somewhere in the North Atlantic, so I'll have to add my story once it gets here!

 

Why wait. Lets here why you chose a MINI and what you went thru to order it.

 

Well in that case...

I remember seeing my first new MINI on TV back when they were first being introduced, and thinking how cool they were. I've been a car nut my whole life, and always had a special place for British cars. Over the years my desire for a MINI and my ability to get one have never seemed to line up. This didn't stop me from sitting in them at every auto show, making many dealer visits, and even getting the wife's approval for "someday". Since last fall I'd been driving a company car, and the more we (Wife and I) shared our personal vehicle, the more we felt we didn't want to share. I began searching for a used MINI and found many that were close to what I was looking for, but in many cases the listings were old and the MINI was already gone. Being the awesome wife that she is, I was eventually told that I should just order new and get "exactly what I'd been wanting". No argument here!!! I placed my order for my BRG MCS on the 2nd and have been obsessively following it's progress since. I'm excited that this long dream is finally coming to fruition!!

 

Now I can not wait to hear after you have yours how your story changes to reflect the day you actually picked it up and drove it home.

 

My wife and I decided it was time to buy a fullsize truck. We went up to the dealership to talk about buying a truck, and sadly, financing didnt work out on a $40k truck. boris, which is now my mini, was still sitting there. I had driven it several months before hand on a test drive, but they wanted a little much for it. Well, they pulled up the used site, and there it was. First thing on the list, for $12000.


I had always wanted a mini since I graduated high school.

SOLD. We signed the paperwork, and left. 2009 Mini Cooper with 39k on it. Pretty much stock, but its what I wanted for a first mini.

Now, 3 weeks later, it was towed to the Mini dealership because the electronics just shot craps on it. Wont start. Wont respond to the key. Nothing.

Damn BMW.

 

Sorry to hear this. I hope it all works out. Good luck

 

Heidelberg, Germany. June 2002. I ordered it in December 2001 from pictures on the MINI web site. I picked it up from the BMW dealer, it was parked in the middle of a bunch of new 3 series. I remember taking the long way home so I could get it on the autobahn. It was a rare site in those days, even in Europe. There were a few Cooper's but no S's.

My second (current - 2006) MINI was much less exciting, just drove it off the used car lot here in San Antonio!