About a year ago while driving around my mini i could find another cooper and wave hello or mess around in traffic a little. now it seems that any regular joe has one and they do not seem very friendly, any one else notice this?

 

heeey!! i resent that.. i always wave hello to my fellow minis.. but yeah some aren't as enthusiatic about waving back.

 

Maybe a bit, but I still think it takes a special kind of person to drive a MINI. Try waving to someone in a Honda Civic and see how THEY react. Lol.

 

Lately I am finding that its about 50/50 waivers to non-waivers.

How many people wait to see if the other is going to waive first? And they are probably doing the same?

 

I think that at least in Los Angeles, there are so many MINIs running around, many driving them are unaware of the community of enthusiasts.

I think a lot of folks may have bought them off lots and don't know sites like NAM exist.

I always wave or flash my lights at other MINI drivers. I would say that I get a response a bit more than 50% of the time now. Back in 2002, we all acknowledged each other. It's a matter of no longer being quite as unusual, perhaps?

 

i have noticed that too.

i rememeber back in 03 everyone almost always waved or knodded heads.
lately not much at all. so i kinda stopped too, unless it's modded or has
some custom graphics or something distinguishing them from the now
'ordinary' MINI owners to the distinct ones like us.

 

Yup,

I get less than 50% acknowledgment now I used to get 90/95% but now "just regular people" are buying them.

Earl

 

This is entirely a "geographic thing" and has to do with numbers. Clover got it right.

It all depends upon where you live. You live in the boonies, then two MINIs is a gaggle and you got a club. Your unique. Live near the big cities ... I see just as many MINIs now as Corvettes ... No biggie, they are mulitplying. I might see 10 in one day just driving 25 miles ... Dealers have 50 on the lot unsold. ALMOST ALL of them are totally stock ... OEM. The vast majority of the motoring public could care less about "modding" ... its a car.

The days of MINIs being totally unique are long gone in the sense that with 150K of them on the roads now, those numbers are getting bigger and bigger. You know what they say "You can never go home"

Being in the DC area, we have lots of high-end cars. BMWs are a dime a dozen. Yesterday I saw my first Mercedes SLK355 on the road ... ever. That was unique. (to me).

"They" are going to be less friendly because its just a car.

 

I'm new at this, but I'd say that in my case if we see each other we wave. Heck last night I got a honk of the horns & a wave. I'll always wave, kill em with kindness. If someone doesn't wave it hardly means they suck. Maybe they just didn't see ya.

 

I always wave, even if I don't get the wave back. Maybe they didn't see me. Maybe they need to get a clue. Owning a MINI is supposed to be fun! No sense being a stick in the mud.

Here's where I show my team colors: I heard of someone who owns a MINI but doesn't wave, participate in any groups, gatherings, forums, or want to talk to other MINI owners or anybody else about MINIs because "it's just a car." ARGH! It's not "just a car." If you feel that way, you can take your attitude and go buy a genera-honda!

Buying a MINI is like dyeing your hair fluorescent green; you knew ahead of time that your uncommon choice was gonna get some attention. Don't make a stink about the attention being unwanted; if you didn't want attention, you wouldn't have made the choice that you did.

 

Don't know where you live but I drove over 350 miles yesterday to Fort Lauderdale and saw 3 MINIs the whole trip.

 

I couldn't agree with you more! I wave, honk, etc and 90% of the time I get nothing in return

The other day, I was in the parking lot of my local REI out side of Chicago (Oak Brook). Another MCS was parked directly in front of me... and the driver looked up, saw that I was in a MINI and didn't do a single thing. Didn't make eye contact. I drove off complaining to my wife.

I get a lot more obvious rubber necking from guys in their pimped out golfs (probably because the R99s look like their VW rims). I even had more thumbs up in my Samba Green del Sol 10 years ago than I do in my Cooper today.

Now not every MINI driver in Chicagoland is like this. There is one very nice young woman who I've spotted several times in her MC on Rt. 59 between Bartlett and Schaumburg who is the most enthusiastic waver out there. I guess the half dozen times shes buzzed by me at 7AM honking and waving is worth the aggravation of every other MINI driver who doesn't care. Her enthusiasm definitely puts a big smile on my face

Frankly, MINI drivers not acknowledging fellow MINI drivers is a very sore spot for me.

Comon Chicago MINI drivers -- WAVE !!

 

Sorry to disagree ... but this discussion is coming from within a performance oriented, like-minded group of people ... a subset of the full set of those owning MINIs who buy the car for whatever reason "they" like ... gas mileage, cute convertable, whatever. Being inside the box, its sometime hard to view how the rest of the world view them.

One ancedetol story (which don't mean much considering all the possible stories).

Coming out of a grocery store, I saw an "older" guy in his MC. Just putting his groceries in. I tried to go over and ask him how he liked it and got the dirty look and he just drove off. Like what was I doing bothering him while he was doing his errands.

Does that make him any less a MINI owner than anyone else?

 

 

i think he thought that you were going to trick him and steal his frozen pizza.

 

Thanks MINIclo!

I guess I'm venting at the wrong crowd. Sorry! Like chows4us said, we're all like-minded so the ones we're complaining about aren't necessarily going to be reading this. Perhaps I hoping that a noob reads this thread and decides to give their fellow motorer a nice wave and a smile!

 

Heh, I probably scared the crap out of him

Strangers dont go up and talk to strangers in this part of the woods!

 

I confess that I, too, have often felt this was an appropriate analogy.

 

I feel somewhat better. I have had my MCS for a month now and at first I am waving around beeping at all other MINI's I can see. And everyone keeps looking at me, unenthusiasticly waving back like I am nuts.

So far I only have one decent response and that was on a highway in the rain no less?! He followed along and brighted and honked when I was getting off.

Now I just look to see if someone waves first. I am eager to return it but ......
signed losing my enthusiasm to waving....

 

I actually get lots of thumbs-up from drivers of MGs, Triumphs, and Sprites! THEY get it!

 

The growing number of MINI on the road is certainly having an affect. Here in the DC Metro area, I see lots of them, the funny thing is, I see more "non-club, bonestock, normal, non-waving/non-enthused" than I see "club member, modded, real-motorers".

Although, I did see a fellow DCMM'er this afternoon - but that's rare!

I probably should do a better job of waving and smiling at ALL MINI that pass my way.

 

It may not make him any less of a MINI owner, but it DOES make him an @&*hole.

It's not like there's any shortage of those anyway. There's plenty of people who are just so stuck on themselves that it nearly kills them for someone to wave or strike up a conversation. Maybe they'll get so unfriendly they won't meet anyone and therefore won't breed!

By and large, there aren't many of those types driving MINIs...thank God.

Rawhyde

 

The first day I had my MINI, I was tooling around the township and while trying to make a difficult left-hand turn across multiple lanes into an auto parts store, suddenly there was all this honking behind me....

I thought to myself, "Hey, I am in the correct lane..." when I saw a PW/B MINI zoom by on the right with hand waving.

For the first time I felt a member of the "movement" !!!! It was really cool and I fumbled to wave back.... Now, I am on the lookout for all MINIs and have no qualms about recognizing them....

Bill

 

sheer numbers is no excuse for the non-community attitude...... look at Harley's or all motorcycles for that matter..... When I had my Harley, every motorcycle waved, nodded, etc..... I agree most Mini owners are oblivious to just how cool we are.......

 

I know what you mean Paul. I kinda stand out with the MCC. Even more when the top goes down. I don't get too many waves back either but I keep on trying I usually don't get any waves from other guys but I do get them from the ladies

btw.. nice sig