Well that had to be exciting on the Autobahn. More details please.

 

Hey butson...Vermont?

Close enough to Albany NY to make it so a monthly MINI get together and other fun MINI/BMW activities? You can even come before your MINI officially arrives...

http://www.mpgminis.com/

 

The story begins last summer when I'd had Silver Slug (2008 Prius) for over a year and a half. Why I had a Prius relates to a long and sad story of the death of a great truck... But anyway, I just couldn't take that Prius anymore and was wondering what to do because I figured I owed more than it was worth and I'm not the kind who has enough money to throw any away. But I know what I like and eventually I pulled into the MINI dealership. I drove the only hatch S manual they had and was smitten. Crap! You have to order these things new and wait months? WTF! That's not American...I want it now! What to do about the slug? After driving the MINI I knew I had to have one.

Had to work it out. Huge hassle to sell the slug to a private party without the title etc. and be without a car. A Toyota dealership offered to buy it - not for enough...And I still would have been without a car.

I suddenly turned into a gambler and ordered a '13 hatch S(lightning blue/white top) and put my $1000 down! Had seriously lost all touch with reality.

Frantically saving every penny, living on Top Ramen and obsessively checking the web site for production info. I was a crazed woman. So here is where a salesman Separates himself from the pack. He's giving me a pep talk on how Toyota of ------ will give me a good price for the slug etc. He's so sure which is funny because MINI offered me &@$% for it. I take the day off work and drive the slug to Toyota the day the MINI is due to arrive and I'm sweating bullets cause I NEED to get a certain price or I won't be able to afford the MINI. Like I said, I was gambling. YES! I was a winner that day. He was right. But then I had no car...I walked to the bank, got my down payment, the salesman drove to pick me up...but my car wasn't ready yet. So we went out to lunch and ate pizza and drank beer, and it still wasn't ready so I went with him while he ran an errand at Home Depot and we discussed interior lighting, and then I waited around some more. After all that and the paperwork it was about 4 hours since leaving the bank. I still couldn't believe it when I sat in the car and it was mine. Crap I worked hard for it and I feel sorry for whoever bought the slug. I drive a twisty, winding road to work every day and love it now! You can't win if you don't play...right?

 

Wow, now that a story. Thx for sharing.

 

Ah, the autobahn. Where people drive very fast and follow the rules. No left lane camping. If you're not passing you move over. It works very well.

That first drive home was between 80 and 90 mph for about 10 miles. Very stable. I was smiling. Didn't want to over-do it.

My job required me to drive a short stretch of autobahn between Heidelberg and Mannheim several times a week. Usually set the cruise at 100mph. Faster than most, but definitely not all.

Took many trips. Most memorable was through the Alps to Italy. This was a car that was good in the twisties, good autobahn cruiser and easy to park in those small European towns.

 

Pic....

 

One day I hope to get over there and drive it. Here in Florida on I95 I feel people think they are on the Autobahn. If you are in the left lane you had better be doing 90+ or get out of the way. The speed limit is 70mph. LOL. BTW nice looking MINI. Good luck and motor on.

 

One more.... Can't seem to do more than one at a time from my iPad.

 

They are very stable at speed aren't they Mike?

 

I wont say how fast I have had mine on the track of course. But triple digits are really stable.

 

This is really funny. I also replaced a 2008 Prius slug (it was gray) with a MINI. I didn't sell it; I gave it to my kids! Safe, economical, and not very fast.

 

Yes, they are. Very stable. There is a stretch of autobahn just south of the Frankfurt Flughafen that is 5 or 6 lanes each way. Early Sunday morning there isn't any traffic and a good time to check top speed. I wouldn't want to drive it that fast all the time but it was good to see what it would do. 100-110 was a good cruising speed.

I-10 north of San Antonio where I live has a speed limit of 75. Still seems slow.

I sold my 2002 DS R53 in 2009 (big mistake), the guy totaled it a month later. Last year I bought a 2006 CR/B R53. It's a work in progress!

 

That's my favorite story of the bunch, so far... not the least of the reasons being I know full well that anxiety of dealing with the one car before picking up the other.

 

In high school my plan to get a rice burner lol. 2000 honda civic em1 and spend about 9 grand in mods to make it nice, clean, and fast. I couldn't find anything that wasn't a POS. I decided no matter how nice i made it id still only have a honda. Then i became a valet after about a year of driving almost every car and saving up every check living off mom and dad i decided i wanted a 2004 subaru STI it was the fastest thing that seemed to b in the price range i wanted. Then something happened at work one day a small pepper white mini cooper s pulled up . I looked at it and got excited i got in and it was a stick i got even more excited. I took it around the block before parking it. I heard what sounded to be a supercharger at about 3k rpm i got even more excited. I fell in love and sat in the car for about 6 min before going back to my position. That night I did alot of research and 4 months later after months of searching and test driving r53s i found one in santa barbra
i got the cashers check for 12 grand and later that night my dad pulled up to the house in my new car Already paid for after 11 months of saving and car shopping thank god i bought this car never had as much fun in any car ive ever driven.

 

Jay- Thanks for another awesome story. I like how your emotions changed after a drive. Good luck.

 

How about story #2

After my wife got her MINI (see story above), I started to think about getting a sports car of some sort. Her's was nice but it wasn't mine. Should I fix up the '72 Fiat 124 spider I had in the garage for the last 20 something years, get a Corvette or other go-fast car? The MINI had a lot of appeal. The Fiat need more work than what I want to do. And after it would be all done, I could only drive it on a blue-bird-sky day. While fun with the top down, that would only happen about 3 times a year here in the NE. I wanted a car that I could drive any time and have fun.

I kept finding excuses to go back to the MINI dealer with my wife's MINI (there was nothing wrong with it, never has been) to see a really nice Mellow Yellow S w/white top and stripes. This is just what I wanted, a MINI that would stand out in a crowd (downside...Cop magnet). For several months I looked at one that was sitting on the lot. Finally, I pulled the trigger and went down to the dealer to buy it....

To my chagrin, it was gone. "MY MELLOW YELLOW" MINI was gone; sold to someone else. But, as you know, a really good sales person is really good and mine was the best..."here, come sit in this one...Want to take it for a drive?" Well, wouldn't you know that Astro Black became my new favorite color and an S, no less

Sorry, but the story doesn't end there...

My new Astro Black MINI, after a while, fell into a baaaadddddd crowd...the track crowd. Yes, he love showing off his skills and speed on one track after another, until, one day, the worst that you could imagine happened, Eddie was no more But I walked away with only a bruise on my arm. The car had sacrificed itself for me (these cars are built like a brick sh--house) and three days later Smokey was hatched and ordered; ordered with all of the "right" parts.

I would have no other, given my experience. Volvo can say what they want, but I have been through a personal demonstration of how safe these cars are.

Smokey has gone to the track, several in fact. But better prepared and with a more cautious attitude. Corvettes may be faster, but I always finish with the biggest smile on my face and more gas in my tank. Better yet, it works well for heading to the ski slopes in the winter.

Motor on.

 

WOW. I am glad to hear you walked away. The rest of your story was great. Thx and good luck

 

Thanks

It was as Bad MINI day that day - a friend also put his MINI into the tire wall and another had a battery failure.

The MINIs do a great job of protecting the NUT behind the wheel and any fool foolish enough to be in the passenger seat (my instructor in this case). They do this while still being the most fun car on the road. Go figure

 

Any more stories out there?

 

I used to drive a 1998 Jeep. It started to give me overheating problems and had severe bearing knock in the bottom end. It had a terrible miss and a fuel system issue with injector leakdown so it was a bear to start after sitting for a while. My brother lived with me and had a 1998 Dodge Neon, it had about 70000 miles on it and he bought a new PT Cruiser. He offered the Dodge Neon to me in lieu of two months room rent which totaled about 1200 USD. I put the Jeep on Criagslist and it sold within minutes. I drove the Neon for about three years and it too started to have a really bad miss and other issues. It was running really poorly one day and I was done with the car. I drove to the Mini dealer in Escondido. I told Steven the online sales rep that I wanted a Mini S without a sunroof and no graphics in any color but white. He searched the inventory for a while and came back out. He had to go to the back lot and move a few cars around to get the Chili Red Cooper S out, as it was the only car on the lot without a sunroof that day. He started to go over the particulars about the car and I asked him to stop right there. He said "lets take it for a drive" and I told him better yet lets go inside and get the paperwork going as I'd like to leave in twenty or thirty minutes with the car. He asked "are you intending to trade the Neon in?". I told him one way or the other the Neon would be staying there so if we could come up with some sort of trade in value that would be okay with me, otherwise I would just have to abandon it there. Well it took a little more than thirty minutes, more like forty five, but the paperwork was drawn up and signed and I drove off in my new Mini, and have not had a single regret or second thought since that day. I've shopped for cars a several times in the past at dealers and just have to say that Steven in Escondido was great to deal with and clearly understood I did not want to fool around with back and forth and just wanted to make the deal and drive the car off as painlessly as possible. Anyway that's the day I got my Mini.

 

Thats great that it worked for you the way you wanted. Thx for sharing the story.

 

my story is a more recent one...

a little background... i have always loved fast cars my whole life; as a kid i always told my relatives i'd own a lamborghini countach when i got older... hehe. sure, my first car was a suzuki 4 door sedan, but only lasted a whole 2 days (leaked oil like a sieve) and then had a 84 lebaron. finally, my junior year i got a 84 Pontiac Firebird w/a V8 and auto tranny. amazing hp and rwd factor was a blast to drive and taught me how to drive a fast car.


in college, i bought an eagle talon awd/turbo and OMG, amazing car but the timing belt went out and bent valves/totalled the car. however with that car, i realized i found my car type; pocket rockets. fast forward to 7 years ago, i bought my first ever new car, 2006 Civic Si and loved every moment in it. the look of it was beautiful and high revving RPMs were a blast to drive but things were starting to feel bland.. boring... like i was just commuting to work each day and not driving...

this brings us to jan 2013. my hunt for a new car began. i initally started looking at smaller SUVs since i was looking to get a car to put my camping gear in and thought i'd see what the mini suv market looked like. well... there's a ton of them but man are they ugly and just no fun to drive.

after doing some contemplation, i decided i'd look at a Mini Cooper Hardtop. it had the space and looked fun to drive... wait a second.. what is this thing????

it was a mini cooper s coupe... i was instantly in love and custom building my own mini coupe to see how much it would set me back. at this point, i still had not even driven a newer mini cooper (my pal had a vintage one and i drove that around a few times; right seater too!). so i decided on a saturday to go in and take a coupe out for a drive. met w/Gretchen from Motorwerks and took out a Cooper S Coupe. from the moment i saw the coupe and got into it, i couldn't stop smiling.

4 hours later and $400 down, i have my own custom mini coupe order into mini's system and a new car in the making. one thing i did not know then but do now is the pain of waiting for your custom mini it becomes a near obsession along with customizing your mini to be you-ified.

about 1 month and 23 days later, my big day comes and i get to finally take Bonnie for a spin.



Been smiling ear to ear since then and already have a solid 750miles on her. Everywhere i go i get looks since the coupe is very rare in MN; only a few owners. i've 'discovered' how much the burple/pop in sport mode makes me smile and that corners are my best pals!! i had no idea how much low rpm torque a cooper s has and thats not even pushing it!

i'll be honest.. i almost want to start a fight w/a mustang or new camaro to see how she fairs.. coopers are scary to those pony cars.

anywho, so far i am in love with my cooper s coupe Bonnie and can only see the love increasing after she's broken in.

and btw, the mini community/NAM RULES!!!!! seriously feels like a virtual family

 

Beautiful MINI. Love the color. Awesome story thanks for sharing.

 

My story starts about three years ago. I'd been driving and loving my miata (hence the screen name), but I had a baby girl that was about to be born and the wife had put the foot down that our second car can't be a two seater convertible. Well I checked out a MINI as I'd loved them from first seeing them at the 2001 Toronto autoshow. Well a regular cooper just wasn't going to cut it with a rear facing child seat in the back. The salesman suggests we could look at a clubman, but I couldn't swing the $30K+ for a brand new one. (they didn't have a used one).

So what does any self respecting father to be do, I bought a SUV, a Honda Element to be exact. Well within 6 months time I was already getting sick of driving an auto and being so disconnected from the driving experience. I then spotted a older gentleman looking for someone to take over the lease on his clubman. I test drove it and was in love, but the price just wasn't right, plus I had a perfectly good vehicle that I had bought just 6 months ago.

Well I couldn't stop thinking about the MINI, kept on configuring a justa clubman online, but new that I wanted an S. Well I finally spotted an 08 used clubman with low km halfway across the country. I so wanted it but took my time justifying this purchase to myself. Well two weeks later I was on a plane to Kelowna BC, bought the clubman on the spot and had the best "get to know you drive" throught the rocky mountains in the middle of winter bringing her home. I managed to be stranded in the interior of BC for two nights as all of the highways were closed due to a severe blizzard.

So I've owned her for over two years now, and while I love her to death I still can't help looking at used 06 models, and now that my daughter is forward facing I might have to go and test drive one the next time I see one for sale.

On a side note, anyone know if its possible to change your username/login name? I don't plan to leave the MINI family anytime soon!

 

Another great story and a new love affair. Thanks for sharing.

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