BMW has this hip, young thing going with their target audience, and, if you've been to the dealer in Denver, I swear they are all well under 30...not a bad thing, but it seems like the true Mini crowd crosses age/affluence lines pretty well. Lots of people getting together who might not otherwise have much in common. It's a great thing and hopefully BMW will capitalize on it. Not asking for your W-2 info, but I'm just wondering in general, what the folks out there do for a living and if they scraped to buy the Mini, or slapped down the cash and a little extra so they didn't have to wait on some list. I know there are CEO's out there driving the same car as that college student who hopes to scrape up enough to make the payment each month...pretty cool if you ask me. Blurring the lines, smashing the boundaries. If you can't tell, I'm closer to the scraping side than affluent.
No, I don't have my Mini yet, still have not ordered yet. Taking care of some other stuff before I can finally (no, not waiting to get out of prison )

 

80 % of the mini drivers I've seen so far driving around are over 50, either a nostalgia thing where I live or just older demographics....have seen just a few younger drivers so far...I'm 52 and just bought the MCS as a toy, mainly notalgic because I drove the original mini in the late 60's for about a year....not sure I would want to drive it cross country without a visit to the chiropracter, but a real hoot to drive on weekends when it is not in the shop...

 

I have done two long trips in my MINI. The first one was 1800 miles from Westchester MINI in Elmsford NY back to Denver. The second trip was 3600 miles from Denver to Jasper, Alberta, Canada and back to Denver. Here are my observations about the MINI:

1) The MINI is a fantastic car for two people to travel in. We packed a bunch of camping gear in the back and still had plenty of room up front.
2) Those sport seats are great for providing great support and being comfortable after a 12-14 hour day on the road. If you've ever put in that kind of mileage in one day before (or repeated 12 hour days) then you know that is high praise.
3) The MINI handled supurbly even when fully loaded down with all our gear. Part of that was because we took so much stuff, it stayed wedged in place and didn't slide around. It was great to be able to enjoy curvy Canadian roads with all the camping gear in the back.
4) The sport plus suspension with run-flats isn't Oldsmobile smooth, but it is far from harsh in comparision to some cars I've been in with mod'd suspensions.
5) I actually like travelling in the MINI better than my Jetta VR6. The Jetta headlight stink, so that makes night driving not very enjoyable, while the MINI xenons are fantastic.
6) My only complaint about the MINI is that in rain grooves it does tend to "hunt" and dart a little.

If you leave the MINI at home when you go on a road trip, you really don't know what a great time you're missing out on.

 

>>6) My only complaint about the MINI is that in rain grooves it does tend to "hunt" and dart a little.
>>

I got the 17" wheels with the All-Season tires since I want to have fun but I'm not going to race it and it IS my everyday driver. I find the MINI to be outstanding in the rain! So much so that I've noticed no difference between dry weather and wet weather. High speeds on highways in heavy rain and there is NO hint whatsoever of any hydroplaning or any lack of control. It's quite amazing. I find it most impressive in the rain actually.

 

Oh, otherwise I agree with everything else you said, Dave. :smile:

 

greatgro: I would agree, it's great in the rain, my complaint is that the MINI is very dodgy on dry grooved pavement/concrete roads (i.e. rain grooves).

But yes, the grip and handling in the wet is impressive.

 

>>80 % of the mini drivers I've seen so far driving around are over 50

I've seen mostly 20-35 ish year olders in MINIs... and according to who's on MCO, most of us seem to be 22-30 years old.... it's hard to pin down what the MINI appeals to... it's different looking, but not in a way that that's with the current trends... it also has a bit of nostalgia, but most people in the states have no idea what a MINI is... I just like how BMW is advertising it... for a company that sponsers short films featuring their products, do you think it's a coincidence that we're seeing MINI's in 3 (one is yet to be finished/released) movies so far? and in a recent fundraiser for, errr, mercy flight (i think), one of the prizes was a MINI for a week... It almost seems that BMW isn't sure who the taget market is, so they'll just be subversive about their adverts, and see who starts buzzing about it...

Rocketboy_X