After 16 years in California, my wife and I decided to move back to Okla to be closer to our grand children. We are both from Okla, but sure did not remember the freeways and city streets being so bad to drive on. I brought back my 03 MCS. This car is a fun car to drive to say the least, but the bad roads here are taking the fun out it for me.

What are the tax dollars being spent on back here? The street comtractors leave tar strips at least 1 inch above the street surface and you sure feel it when you drive over the strips

If BMW needs a test road to check for rattles in the MINI, they need look no further than most any city street or freeway in the Okla City area. When it comes to the streets, they should change the name from Okla City
to Okla Shi--y. Now I know why there are so many Lincoln Town cars and other big American iron being sold back here. You need a long wheel base to help soak up the bumps.

After being back here for about 1 month, I find myself driving either the wife's BMW 5 Series or my Dodge Grand Caravan. Both cars handle the crappy roads much better. I only have about 5500 miles on my MINI and it looks as if this MINI will remain a low mileage car for quite some time.

 

Seriously...

My girlfriend goes to school at Oklahoma City University, and when I visit(monthly) I wonder how I would ever drive my car around there if I moved! Ever see a sign for "DIP"? They really do mean it, and sometimes those can sneek up on you even without the sign.

The trick is to get out of the actual city if you can. There is some sweet country driving out there, but in the city it is pretty lame. I'd love to just take off for a day or two and just drive...but it just isn't the same in her Mazda 4 door!

What are the specs of your car? I will be back out there Valentines day weekend, I will keep an eye out for you. BTW, Earl's Rib Palace on Northwestern is the best damn BBQ I can find down there, first place I go!

 

Great topic, D.J.! I'm moving it from Off-Topic to MINI Talk, since it is definitely MINI-related!


Clo/Wanda

 

D.J.

"What are the tax dollars being spent on back here? "

here in San Diego it is Wine, Women, Song, and fancy restaurants. Chettahs in San Diego and Las Vegas in trouble regarding payoffs (not cash). City Councel Men under indictment, the city computer operaters also spending money the same way and another big investigation have been started.

Earl

 

i must agree that Okl roads are pathetic. expressways have 4inch gashes
between the concrete every 20-25ft. The only drivable Okl road is the tollway,
the turnpike. Ive make several round trips from Chicago-LA... going through
Oklahoma was the worst part of the Rt66 trip.

i would probably use 15's in Okl if I was going to live there.

 

DJ, how about moving south to Texas? It's relatively close to Oklahoma City and they have nicely-paved roads down there.

 

Hhhhm, not sure about TX. Houston has some of the worst streets in all of the US (Save Boston, there potholes are big enough to swallow MINIs whole).

One of the best things I did to my MCS was to get rid of the runflats.

I have 16" V-spokes with probably one of the cushiest tire sizes you can get for the MCS:

Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 in size 205/55 16.
I love those tires, and the ride comfort has improved significantly.
Handling is still better than with the SP5000 DSSTs in 195/55 16 size.
A good number of the dreaded and innumerous rattles have disappeared, and the
car doesn't feel like it's about to fall apart any longer.

Especially expansion joints are bearable now.

I can highly recommend this.

 

>>Hhhhm, not sure about TX. Houston has some of the worst streets in all of the US ...

I was specifically referring to DFW (Dallas/Ft. Worth) area. I knew a friend who lives and works in Oklahoma City and goes to school in Dallas, where he commutes daily.

 

DJ,
Forget TX
Go far west-
Come to Hawaii.
The roads may not be perfectly smooth but-
who cares.

Move the rest of your family too.
Wouldn't want to leave them in OK

 

Come to NY...... and experience... what horrible roads are :smile: !!!!!!!

We loose entire cars..... in NYC potholes...:smile:

Peace,
D

 

MINIHUNE, if it was up to me only, I would move to Hawaii in a heart beat. I have some photo's of my MCS after we arrived in OKC after our trip from CA. About 6 inches of snow and ice on the MINI and what really looks funny is the Hawaii plates. But I must say the MINI seems to really like the cold Okla air.

But these roads are the real pits. I took off the run flats and went with Yokohama's when I lived in CA. Runflats and the bad roads in OKC would be a real one two punch. I don't think my fillings could take the jolts. The Yoko's seem to help a little.

It's not really a problem with pot holes, but the way they do the expansion strips. They just seem to fill the strips with gobs of tar and don't bother to try and smooth the tar down. Like I said in my original post, they leave about an inch of tar up and above the road surface. I guess they figure the trucks will just beat the tar down. :evil:

 

>>
>>One of the best things I did to my MCS was to get rid of the runflats.
>>
>>I have 16" V-spokes with probably one of the cushiest tire sizes you can get for the MCS:
>>
>>Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 in size 205/55 16.
>>I love those tires, and the ride comfort has improved significantly.
>>Handling is still better than with the SP5000 DSSTs in 195/55 16 size.

I can "second" the above comments. I, too, switched my factory run-flats to the same Gooyear tires, and in the same 205/55/16 size in November because The Tire Rack's recommended 205/50/16 size was backordered until late Feb or March. Before ordering my MCS last August, I rented on sucessive weekends MCS's with both the 16" and the 17" wheels, both with runflats. The 16" definitely gave a less harsh ride than the 17" so that's what I ordered on my '04.

The moment my car arrived I switched the tires to the non-run flat Goodyears mentioned above. The ride now is SO much better AND with absolutely NO detectable deterioration in handling. In fact, last Friday, driving down the interstate in a torrential downpour that made most traffic slow to about 40 mph because of the volume of water standing on the roadway, my MCS with its vastly superior non-hydroplaning tires (See the Tire Rack Ratings for this tire) kept on cutting through the water like a knife. The car always felt like it was superbly planted on the roadway and just roared ahead through the water with never a moment of skittishness that I have often felt in similar rains while driving larger cars with other types of tires.

I can't say enough good about the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's for either ride comfort or handling, especially in adverse conditions !!!

Joe

 

Today I saw an EB MCS on Penn Ave. with COOPER S europlate on the front, is that anybody here?

 

You all know Detroit's wonderful reputation as among the most crappy roads of any poor 3rd world country. Well, it's no place for any MINI, that's for sure. It's a war zone outside - I've bottomed out, scraped my front end everwhere, get air on the regular (and I'm not joking here), and lift a wheel when pulling into some driveways, (steep), lol. Potholes, while spontaneously developing, deep, wide, and readily available, are still easily swerved around - we still have MINI's, you know

 

>>You all know Detroit's wonderful reputation as among the most crappy roads of any poor 3rd world country. Well, it's no place for any MINI, that's for sure. It's a war zone outside - I've bottomed out, scraped my front end everwhere, get air on the regular (and I'm not joking here), and lift a wheel when pulling into some driveways, (steep), lol. Potholes, while spontaneously developing, deep, wide, and readily available, are still easily swerved around - we still have MINI's, you know

Does not sound so bad Ryan. You don't mention losing any fillings in your teeth!

New York City has some challenging obstacle courses too, especially this winter!

Regards,
Red

 

don't you just love those sections of road that are so destroyed that they are literally hundreds upon hundreds of patches; as if the road was "paved" one square foot at a time "one big patch" of road

Don't forget those awesome concrete sections where the sections are offset vertically, so as you transition from section to section:

"tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump...tha. thump......" all the while you're getting rhythmic whiplash from the MINI bucking along in unison to the sections. Good Times

 

My experience with bad roads was on I-70 just West of Columbia MO. I hit a pot hole so bad the CD skipped. two days later I was at Baron MINI in Kansas City, buying new wheels and tyres. Two bent S-Lites. Luckily they had 3 take offs, so I bought all three of them, and a new runflat so Pippin has new shoes, and I have one good spare wheel and two bent rims to send to MoDOT headquarters!! I got the Wheel/Tyre combos for only $200 since they were take-offs - good deal for me!

Growl.

 

I only wish I could commute one day and not have my CD's skip

Here's another wonderful attribute (raise hand if this applies); roads so rough and patched/potholed up that you want to slow down, so you don't break your suspension off!

 

Well heck it's good to see other MINI owners experience bad roads too! Just today here in Okla City, the road crews were out and working(read patching) the streets.

Well hey, I just had to pull over and ask them some questions concerning my thoughts on the crappy roads here.

They were just standing around taking a break I guess, so I thought I would just ask some questions concerning the in's and out's of Okla City road construction. I was in my MINI and found a parking lot to pull into acroos the street from the road work.

I got out and walked up to four guy's that were city road workers, and before I could say anything, one of the guys says...How do like your LITTLE CAR?? I said..oh I like the MINI just fine. Another worker says...I hear they handle real good. I said...they really handle the SMOOTH roads very well, but tend to not do so well on real rough roads because of the tight suspension.

At that point I went on to explain to them how my wife and I had just moved back to the area from Ca and did not remember the roads BEING SO ROUGH when we lived back here 17 years ago.

Then one of the workers piped up and said....the roads for the most part HAVE ALWAYS been rough, its the ice, frost, snow heavy trucks etc...

I said I-40 in the Texas panhandle gets all the stuff you just mentioned and their roads are much better then ours here.

Then one of the workers said the following line and I quote ( The drivers back here, well these roads is all they know. They drive em everyday, so they get use to it, and in time I WOULD TOO.

 

D.J.,

The man has got a point. If you never drive out of state from OK and you haven't heard of MINI or seen but a lone few now and then, those ole roads could look "pretty normal" to the locals.

Living in California, no one in government would last very long before there would be riots if the roads got to be as you describe. So by comparison the roads are better (but not perfect).

In Hawaii we have some bad roads but we do not have the extremes of weather nor the heavy truck traffic. We do have some smooth roads but they are in stark contrast to the rough roads. It's like hitting patches of turbulence on an otherwise smooth flight. Time to fasten your seatbelts- and put on your Snell approved helmet.

Well, after you get your fill of OK you can think about Hawaii, we will still be here motoring around in our MINIs on a small island or two in the middle of the ocean. Sorry we had no snow at sealevel this winter.

It's 11:30pm and a cool 73 degrees and clear.

 

minihune, you sure know how to hurt a guy talking about the warm weather in your part of the world. Not bad today here in OKC. The high was 68 but that does not make the roads any better.

When I lived in California, I traveled I-80 from Sacramento to Reno at least five to six times a year. I-80 up above 4000 feet sees lots of snow and ice each year. Snow plows work the winter months up and down a 125 stretch of I-80, also this is a major east west highway and is traveled buy hundreds of 18 wheelers each day.

Very few roads here in Okla are as smooth as I-80. It's all about the way they construct the roads back here. Okla could learn some lessons on how to maintain quality roads from Cal Trans.

I have already written to some local and state people in charge of streets, but so far I have not received any replys. I'm expecting a letter any day now telling me to just get use to it.

Bottom line for drivers back here is.....You don't miss what you never had!

 

minihune - don't make me fly over there and smack the cool island beverage out of your suntanned hand. How 'bout I ship you a Co2'd box of nice brown snow?

 

I drove my day old Mini thru Oklahoma City and on I40 west thru Texas and the lousiest pavement I experienced from KC to LA was a long stretch of I40 west of Oklahoma City. I would definitely switch to the highest profile tires I could find if that was my home turf.