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General MINI TalkShared experiences, motoring minutes, and other general MINI-related discussion that applies to all MINIs, regardless of model, year or trim.
I bought my first Mini in January 1968 ... a 1967 Austin Cooper S with 10K on the clock ...
A month after it was stolen in August 1972 I ordered a BMW 2002 tii. Had to wait until February 2003 before taking delivery. Instead of the Inka (Orange) one I ordered I got one in Taiga (Metallic Green) ...
The 2002 tii was my daily driver until taking delivery of my 2002 MCS in July 2002 ...
Regrettably I had to sell the 2002 tii in September 2002. Last year the current owner who lives in San Diego contacted me and sent me a picture ...
By chance, it was... 2 months ago I was home sick with the flu. Going through a pile of mail I found a flyer about a giveaway at the local used car dealer. Had a scratch off and said I won a TV. Since I was off I decided to go claim my prize and was going to half heartedly look at the inventory. I had a 2001 Legacy GT with 245k on the clock and still going strong but had no rear bumper, no PS and battery was going. There was an 06' 2dr with 50k on it but didn't start well and sound like issues. As I was leaving I saw a big blue countryman S. Dealer said "you don't want that, its manual". Got in an loved it, and love manual cars. Price was steep, asking was 19k with 84,000 miles but was spotless inside and out. After negotiations I left without a deal. Some hours later I got a call and they met my substantially lower offer price. Went home with it that night and currently searching the interwebs for another for my fiancée.
Always loved 4wd small cars. My heartbreak was when my 15' Suzuki SX4 got totaled by a drunk driver last October. Lift kit, big tires and rally lights, Loved it! We then had a 16' Mitsubishi outlander sport, great priced car but engine/trans/mileage sucked and never got better. Ended up trading that in for an Equinox same night we got the Countryman. Bigger car, bigger engine, better mileage and way better ride for less $$. That was a great deal as well.
Well, after I got mine, we got one for my wife and I troll craigslist daily for a possible third.
The bug has bitten me already...
Long story short, my wife and I play a lot of mario kart. Sometimes we have a group of 5 adults and 2 kids (my daughter and a friend's son, both 5 years old going on 6) playing.
Well my R53 is Wario (my favorite character on mariokart 64) which is fitting. The mini is a gokart, and with the supercharged engine it whines like Wario does when he loses or gets hit with something.
I am now trying to talk the wife into getting a white Mini with a red roof and get the personal plates "Toad" (her favorite character). So far she demands it must be 4 doors, so its a no go for now (already have a couple 4 door cars, no more needed).
What an adorable vehicle the chrome looks in excellent condition as well as the aluminum rims. Must be nice to have glass headlights instead of this plastic.
Well I'm resurrecting a 2004 Mini, the previous owner gave up on it. Cylinder 2 in the motor is bad so I'm pulling parts off until I get down to the problem. (Ignore the masking tape on the headlights I'm restoring them at the moment). Status of my work & a couple of questions is here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-cylander.html
Last edited by WillYart; 02-23-2017 at 11:30 PM.
Reason: more info
After it was clear that my first car (1998 Chevy Malibu) was on its' deathbed, I searched everywhere for a car that I would enjoy driving, since the Malibu was strictly the "A to B" car. It seemed like months went by without getting any interest in anything, when my friend sent me a link to MINI USA and just said "you should get one of these." So that weekend I went to test drive a couple, and ended up ordering a 2008 Astro Black Cooper, 6speed with the premium package.
I put about 20,000 miles on that car in a little less than 2 years when I drove by a loaded 2009 fJCW on a local Lexus lot. I was in school full time and interning making terrible money and the car was about $27,000. So needless to say I spent just about every penny on that car, and I still don't regret it. That car was by far the most fun experience I've had in the automotive world. It was the first car I really modded, and I went pretty crazy. But, I still had that dream car that I knew I would buy if I had the money.
When I got my first job out of college, I bought a Lotus Elise, that I ended up dumping a ton of money into mods into. Supercharger, racing clutch, etc. I still had the JCW, but it was never getting driven, and the $1000 per month I was spending between 2 car payments and insurance just didn't make sense. I parted out the JCW and sold it.
I've had several cars since my first MINI, and none of them ever felt as fun, I got bored very quickly with all of them (12 total). I even flipped a 1977 Mini 1000. This past fall I found a super low mileage, low optioned, 6 speed 2009 MCS on the local MINI lot that I couldn't pass up, so that's what I have now. I don't think I'll be giving this one up anytime soon, and I've been stockpiling parts for it, just waiting for the nice weather to come back. By next year it should be in full racecar mode.
I have owned too many cars to count and of all sorts from hot hatches to muscle cars and everything in between. I like unique cars with some personality which is hard to find these days. On a whim I test drove one, traded my BMW 428i on the spot and could not be happier.
In 2013 when my twin brother and I graduated with our mechanical engineering degrees, we decided we needed another car since we were no longer going to the same place every day. We were actively perusing red with white stripes R53 Mini JCWs as well as any late 80s thru early 00s BMW with a stick shift. We were quite set on the Mini JCW except they were all very expensive used at the time. We ended up finding an amazing 2002 BMW e39 M5 for sale locally, it was actually the first stick shift 80s-00s BMW we had found for sale in a 100 mile radius over 6 months of looking. We purchased the M5 and loved it for 3 years. We poured money into it keeping it in tip top shape.
Then we started to get a bug to replace the M5, it was getting boring to drive. It was a fast car that was boring to drive at road speeds. We got the bug to buy an e36 M3, but then decided to look and see what Mini's were going for. We decided to add 2013 JCWs to the list. Unfortunately as we quickly found out, the colors offered for 2013 JCWs were really quite ugly. The only color combo we wanted was red with a white roof and white stripes. Then, we stumbled upon the nicest built 2013 Mini S way out in St. Louis, MO on ebay. It had all of the JCW and GP upgrades possible. We decided to buy it and drive it over 500 miles home.
If the trend is correct, in 3 years I will be purchasing a 1999 BMW e36 M3. That also conveniently lines up with when the power train warranty runs out on the Mini.
On a side, I have a 62 Austin Healey Sprite of which from what I read, drives a lot like the classic Mini's. The old A series engines are brilliant fun.
02-07-2017, 01:47 PM
