My little town had their "Fall Fest" today which included a car show.....sort of. It was a Show and Shine with spectators voting for their favorite car. Since I have the only MINI around I thought it might be fun to enter it. Well, the folks that attent the Fall Fest ain't the same as your normal car show crowd. A few minutes after I parked my baby a hard rubber ball came from nowhere and bounced off the left front fender. I don't think there's a dent but needless to say I wasn't happy. A bit later a lady is looking in the car while her kid is standing next to her. All of a sudden he grabs the fuel filler door and jerks it open. She looks at him and says nothing. Of course I step up and tell him to keep his hands off the car. The show is on a paved, blocked off street near the other Fall Fest festivities. Lots of folks pushing kids in strollers by my car just inches away. Up comes a your guy in a wheel chair. I'm thinking, "oh no, broadsided by a wheelchair. He stops a couple of feet from the car and I start to talk to him, trying to be especially nice because he has an obvious handicap. OK, he jumps up out of the wheel chair and looks in the car....I guess my MINI cured him. As he leaves the woman with him gets in the wheelchair, lights up a smoke and wheels herself off. What the heck! In the meantime, lots of kids around with their hands all over the car. One kid about 10 had a metal socket wrench stuck over one of his fingers. I don't want to know what that was for. Comments from adults like, "you could get killed in that thing" and "insurance cost are very high on those, etc., etc.

It was like the car show from Hell. I told the guy running the thing I had enjoyed all I could stand and left.

I hope I'm not just a grouchy old man, but I've been to real car shows and they were nothing like this. It was great to get home.

 

ROFL that sucks! My nephew was in his car seat in my back today, i was scared cause he was playing with his old school (im talking real old) play revolver gun (yeah kinda stupid to have in the car, its one of those cast metal revolvers from the cowboy days type gun) but now i have scuff marks all over the back seat (luckily its plastic) any way of getting those out? Also i have a nice door scratch from someone opening their door, its about 5 inches long and wavy, like they opened their door, had it resting against mine and got in or out so it made the scratch worse. Ugh. people have no respect

 

Wow what a bummer! That sounded like a nightmare! Glad you got out of there early. You've got to have something upstairs to appreciate the MINI. Those less fortunate in that respect will never get it. Oh well...

 

Oh Man! I feel for you!! What a lousy day! I'm glad your baby didn't actually get damaged with all those close calls!

If you want to read a great thread on arguing with a dolt who says the MINI isn't safe, check this out:

http://www.epinions.com/content_6876...4/show_~allcom

Start towards the bottom and read up the page. They guy's a real idiot!

 

Too bad about your car show experience, it sounds like it wasn't any specifically themed car show, which are definitely the worst! Try to bring the MINI only to British or BMW or MINI-only shows, where the crowd will appreciate it

 

>>Too bad about your car show experience, it sounds like it wasn't any specifically themed car show, which are definitely the worst! Try to bring the MINI only to British or BMW or MINI-only shows, where the crowd will appreciate it
______________
Hear here!! And as for kids with toys which could scratch your car, I say draw the line as to what they can have in the car BEFORE they get in. If their parents don't have the good sense to curb their kids' destructive habits, it's tough luck for them too.

 

iwannmini-
Sorry to hear about your experience. Not every show can be like that but it can be possible if the crowd is just the usual people that come out to a fall fair and not auto enthusiasts. In our area we have a British Racing car club of Hawaii, a BMW club and MINI club. We try to get the dealer to support our participation at the various events or shows so they will bring a MINI or two and we will bring our cars and support each other. We don't always pick areas of high traffic where things and run into or fall onto our cars but you do have to be careful.

Once at the close of an event a big gust of wind lifted a portable tent entirely off the ground and it came crashing down on one of the dealer's new MINIs and scratched it a bit. No one injured but a bit dangerous for all. Got to be careful out there.

Maybe next time check with your local trusted MINI or auto club and see what events are the safe ones to go to. I like the ones with more enthusiasts that know something about the cars.

 

minihune,

It must be great to live in paradise. Unforunately, I'm stuck in Arkansas for the duration. There will be no MINI club or BMW club etc. here. Perhaps the local John Deer club will let me in. We do occasionally have car shows that aren't part of other festivities and they are much more enjoyable for a car enthusiast. They're mostly all encompassing shows because there aren't enought of any one brand or type to have their own show. That's OK though since I also have a 69 Chevelle Malibu in excellent shape. Little Rock is about 70 miles away and it is possible that they could have a MINI club. I need to look into it.

The comments from some of the attendees at todays Show & Shine reinforced every Arkansas stereotype I've ever heard. Of course there were a few folks there that knew about the MINI and it's history and were real auto enthusiast. But the majority were clueless...........and not just about the MINI.

 

That is such a bummer!! We have had similar experiences as we have been going to car shows for years with various Classic cars. Shows that have a "mixed" entry - anything from muscle cars to Jags, WILL attract people with lots of kids and people who DO NOT have the respect for someone elses car!!! It's very unfortunate...and it amazes me how the parents of these uncontrolled kids - could give a crap....urggggg..... :smile: :smile:

Chow!

Donna
donna@dcmetrominis.org

 

Sorry about your experience too. I really am hesitant to mention this lest it be interpreted as a rant or more than gentle suggestion to all. As someone especially sensitive to disabilities I feel I must though...

Everyone please consider not being especially nice to those in wheelchairs. The intent is nice but it is much much better to simply treat them like they are: normal people other than a physical difference. If you are extra nice it often comes across as pity or some other nonhelpful emotion. I know people in wheelchairs that are great people and others that are complete jerks. I just treat them accordingly. As for the couple you mention, they go beyond the jerk side of the scale.

Hope your next show is better!

 

Car show blues! To paraphrase Forrest Gump, "Car shows are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna git". Sounds like you participated in a show right out of the Twilight Zone. Most of us who enter our cars in local shows have had some excellent, as well as a few bizarre, experiences. Yours was definately more towards the bizarre, (especially Edward Socket-hands, ROFL). Interestlingly, one of the best car shows I've ever participated in was put on by my local pizza parlor. It seems that there are a sufficient number of gearheads and motorgeeks who order a pie for home delivery while working on their cars to result in a really fine show. Or maybe I too just happen to live at another address in the Twilight Zone.

 

Sorry to hear about your bad experience on the car show. I guess you really have to be very careful about which car shows you going to attend. This people mush of had been from the land of nowhere. If I have a gun I would……. :evil:
Thanks not a good thing to say but that’s how I feel.

 

Don't feel bad.

Their taste is all in their mouth.

I have a Classic Mini Cooper. I get responses, from the thumbs up to "That's the coolest car I've ever seen" to "That thing shouldn't even be on the road." to outright laughter. I live in the Detroit Area where there is an overabundance of Pickups and SUV's. They can't keep up with me and I can corner at speeds that would put their vehicle on it's side. It's actually pretty funny when they try to keep up... especially when I can manage to find an onopbstructed curvy piece of road.

All I can say is. No matter what you drive, somebody is going to have a problem with it. People really identify with what they drive, and everyone else is seen as an outsider. In reality we're more alike then we care to admit.

2 Weekends ago I spent Saturday burning up the roads around Ann Arbor MI with 20 BWM Minis and Sunday doing a Classic Mini Rally with mostly old Minis, Travelers, and a couple of New Minis.
For Sunday's rally we met in our usual spot in Royal Oak MI was also has a Supermarket.

When we pulled out of the lot a lady and her daughter, who had just loaded their groceries into their Hummer and pulled out behind us. So picture a line of 15 or so Minis of various species, followed by a "Drive me to Bagdad" Hummer.

A Kodak moment if I've ever seen one.

And from what I saw, those groceries would have easily fit into a new Mini with the back seat down.

So I ask you, what is more ludicrous, two people in a Hummer or two people in a Mini? They're both automotive extremes.

I pick agility, efficiency and and a feeling of connected-ness to what I'm driving. AS for level of utility... For 99% of my hauling needs, a New MC has all that I need. I don't have to Re-Fi my house to buy one and pay for gas... But that's my choice.

Maybe I'm being too rational and cars, like art... speak to us on a totally different level.

 

>>Sorry about your experience too. I really am hesitant to mention this lest it be interpreted as a rant or more than gentle suggestion to all. As someone especially sensitive to disabilities I feel I must though...
>>
>>Everyone please consider not being especially nice to those in wheelchairs. The intent is nice but it is much much better to simply treat them like they are: normal people other than a physical difference. If you are extra nice it often comes across as pity or some other nonhelpful emotion. I know people in wheelchairs that are great people and others that are complete jerks. I just treat them accordingly. As for the couple you mention, they go beyond the jerk side of the scale.
>>
>>Hope your next show is better!

Just curious, but does your special sensitivity to disabilities come from you or someone close to you being disabled, or are you just a very sensitive person? Don't worry, encounters with people like the the "wheelchair" couple at the car show will effectively correct any tendencies I may have toward over, (or is it under?), sensitivity for the handicapped.

Love,

R.E.
:smile: :smile:

 

Hi GV,

About the classic Mini Cooper. I was at a swap meet a couple of weeks before I picked up my new MINI. There was a red classic with a white top and white mirrors for sale. It was in great condition with only 21.000 miles. The owner said it was a 94 model that had been brought into Canada, had it's title massaged, then brought to the US. It had neat 12" Minilite wheels and came with manuals, spare parts and a new set of 12" tires. He had an antique AR license and the car was titled as a 67. Anyway, I took it for a drive and wanted it real bad.....but I'd already spent everthing I could afford and them some on my new MC. He sold it the next day to someone else who also had a new red/white MC. He was asking $9600.

I can't have all the the toys I want but I'm happy to have the toys I've got. :smile: :smile:

R.E.

 

R.E., I worked in the area of disabilities in a previous lifetime. That's what I pretty consistently heard from people in chairs, sometimes because they could tell I was acting "too nice". On the other hand, some confessed to milking the pity angle when it suited their needs. If I am ever needing a wheelchair I hope BMW is making them by then.

Back to car shows, I think there should be special agents with cattle prods to zap anyone who touches the cars. It just ain't right.

 

>>Oh Man! I feel for you!! What a lousy day! I'm glad your baby didn't actually get damaged with all those close calls!
>>
>>If you want to read a great thread on arguing with a dolt who says the MINI isn't safe, check this out:
>>
>>http://www.epinions.com/content_6876...4/show_~allcom
>>
>>Start towards the bottom and read up the page. They guy's a real idiot!

That is without a doubt the stupidest thing I've ever read on the internet.

 

Alot of you said to go to a british car show, well most british people do not like the new coopers. We (me and ~sugar~) attended an all British show last Feb. and you could hear all the snide remarks that all the people made because they were not the original ones. Another thing from that show, is an all stock cooper, with a union jack roof, won the new mini class, over mini's with modifications (it was a people's choice).

Car shows are car shows, we have had people reaching inside the mini, and even touching the headliner (we have a custom headliner) There is no respect in the world anymore.

My suggestion, would be to rope off the mini so they can only get so close. Alot of all show cars/truck do that to ensure there safety.

I can assure you though, there are good car shows, for example. I am into lowered trucks and cars, so occasionally we take the mini to there shows. Well, at these shows is where we get the most respect. Nobody opening the doors, reaching insde, just looking at, and talking with us at the same Overall a very good expereince.

I'm done ranting, somebody might want to spell check this