Regarding service manuals, is the Mini shop manual available as a download somewhere? I have the full 3,000 page service manual for my 2013 Ferrari and it was as simple as someone having a link to a google drive site.

 

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/

No download but complete manual. Use it constantly and includes procedures. Very complete.

 

That's awesome. Thanks!

 

Good thread. Good insights, IMHO.

I would add that the explosive growth of on-line videogaming has captured the screen time of, literally, millions and millions of younger people. (And maybe older people too).

We used to be in the garage or shop tinkering. Now they're on the couch clicking away with headphones and microphones on. It's a different world.

And, as a Gen 3 MINI driver, I agree that the cars have "evolved." I was shopping for a BMW when I ended up joining the MINI world. My name is 2017All4,and I guess I'm the new target demographic, at age 66

 

Well I just bought a 2013 JCW car for my 15 1/2 year old son's first car that will double as my track car. He's going to spend time tinkering with it whether he likes it or not. If I had that when I was his age it's all I'd be thinking about...

 

If you've really been around for the long haul, you'll remember a little forum called CooperSpeed that a buddy of mine and I ran for a bit.

 

I remember that, i remember when roadfly was the thing and NAM did not exist. MINI owners were in a subforum of BMW on roadfly. This was before they even took delivery of the cars back in aug 2002. I guess you could call them waitlist people.

 

Even that may soon end. With the advent of self driving vehicles, transportation may become a subscription service. The model is called "Car as a Service", abbreviated "CaaS". Basically, you will order an Uber, it comes to your door and takes you to your destination. No maintenance, no insurance, no ownership. When you look at the costs of running a vehicle for the non-enthusiast who cannot do any DIY, it would make sense for the majority of people to go this route. Plus, without the cost of a human driver, the cost of the service will become cheaper than it is now. Self driving vehicles also present another interesting issue if you do choose to own a vehicle and that is one of safety and how it relates to insurance. Once they get the system worked out and it has a far lower cost to the insurance companies, you could be priced out of the insurance market as they try to force everyone into self driving cars for cost control.

 

This right here! I am actually listening to "200 Miles Before Breakfast" podcast right now. It embodies the art of the one day road trip. I going to head out tomorrow before day break. Probably head up to Los Alamos, NM for coffee. Will post up a few pics in the Travel Stories sub-forum. Maybe others can do likewise.

Drive more...surf less!

 

Good idea! I took mine out tonight and put about 80 miles on it just to relax and am planning a junkyard roadtrip tomorrow. I found a junkyard with 3 R50 and R53 MINIs in it and want to take a look. It will probably be around 200 miles total. I was also thinking about doing a segment on my YouTube channel where I do a small roadtrip in my MINI every weekend and see something different, but am not sure if there would be enough viewership to be worth the effort.

 

Duc OT,
Went through Los Alamos Tuesday morning on the way to Jemez Springs for the day/night. Past LA, the fire remains were concerning but the road was great. Hooked back around on 550 and then up I 25 the next morning, about 180 miles round trip. The MINIs out East may have the dragon, but that drive on 4 is certainly the Lizard.

 

I started a thread in road trips for mini MINI road trips, but it said it needs approval from a moderator.

 

Taken care of.

 

As a Millenial, and owner of an R53 for almost 13 years, I grew up with Forums from this place, and also video game related forums, of which I still check out from time to time. And as an owner of a 2014 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, I am also a member of the Cherokee forums.

Forums are definitely not as popular, especially those who are younger than myself, but there is still a place for them. Like others have said, the DIY crowd have found forums to be quite useful over the years, but it would appear that because most folks have smartphones, I still prefer to visit forums on a desktop/laptop simply because of the interface. I know most forums have adapted to mobile devices, but they just don't compare to a normal setup. Real estate is the biggest thing, and smart devices just cannot compare unless you have a much larger tablet.

I've been checking out NAM a bit more over the last couple weeks, mostly because I will be doing some work on Egan in the coming weeks, and months this summer with suspension, and supercharger service, so I'm taking in as much info as I can before I tackle it. I also like just commenting on some threads in the process. Feels like revisiting old friends...even though I have never met any one of you.

 

Maybe there is a chicken and egg problem here. Forums aren't popular on mobile devices but it's not because of the content. It's because the mobile forum sites and apps just don't give a very good experience.

Over the years I've shifted from a desktop Reddit user to an almost 100% mobile user. Why? The third party apps, such as Apollo, give a truly excellent experience. Even Reddit's own app and mobile site are good.

Contrast to the Internet Brands sites (this is one of them) which all share the same terrible mobile app (which I'm using now!) and half baked mobile views. The owners of the forums neither enable third party developers to make great apps to access them nor do they make a great experience themselves.

I'm not unsympathetic to the challenge of paying for development on ad revenue. But Reddit apps such as Apollo, Alien Blue and Narwhal were all created by solo developers in their part time. Great experiences can be made without a huge team. Internet Brands just doesn't seem interested.

When IB forums like NAM die, it won't be because forums are inherently poor or because of lack of users. It will be because they didn't adapt to the times.

When, not if. I love NAM but the writing is on the wall. Like Usenet before it, it may continue on in zombie form but is not likely to regain living vitality. 😔

 

Being the grumpy ol' stubborn curmudgeon that I am (born 1970), I resisted smartphones for a very long time and relied upon a flip-phone until it finally died just last year.

I made the leap and got myself a damn smartphone, a Moto z3, and I've surprisingly adapted to it and find it to be very useful.

When viewing NAM it usually defaults to "app view" or whatever but I don't like that and have to scroll over for "view full site" so I see exactly what I see when in PC mode, but I'm not very fond of actually posting from my phone because the text interface is still awkward to me and I haven't enabled voice command.

Massage the message of the medium.


Well done or rare.

Raw.

Eat at Joe's.

Et cet Era

 

Perhaps, but nature has a way of eliminating the distracted (staring at something too long) and not having situational awareness. Before, it was the sabre tooth tiger lurking by you. As evidenced today, it is staring at one's phone crossing a street, or texting while driving...how many stories of a driver, dead in a demolished car, with a SMART phone still in hand?

 

When I was new to Mini in 2007 I was on NAM a lot to learn about the car and what people did to mod them. The when the F56 came out I got on more to hear how people like them (but bought an R58!). Back then I was big on 2 Blackberry forums, and an AudioVideo forum for stuff like calibrating HDTVs too. And a local newspaper forum. I think forums like this are somewhat dated, but this is the only one I'm on now. And I never used it on my smartphone (or any forum). But I gotta admit I do participate on a couple of Facebook groups/forums and I only do that on my phone, so maybe whomever posted that revelation has a point.

 

I just had this conversation with a young man @ Great Clips ! He said when he bought his Mini, he kept waving but no one waved back, and he was bummed. I promised him I’d wave ! I think it should be a rule for buying a Mini..

 

I'm a waver!

 

 

I wave as well. I figure if the jeeps can do it why can't we?

 

Surely I am not the only one that sees the concern with this logic!

Either you have an incredibly responsible son or you should have bought two cars.

 

Would you let your kids drive a base model Mini? I'm basically having a zero boost tune done for him and a big boost tune done for my track days, will be switchable.

 

And kids are in general computer illiterate, right? Ha!
“Man Plans, and God Laughs.”