My wife had a college-age computer "expert", who works with her, over the house today to fix her computer who didn't have a car, still in college. Poor kid had to take a bus to get to the house. When they were done, she volunteered to drive him to the bus stop (1/2 mile away). A minute after she left the house she called on the BT and said she was going to drive him home because he was enjoying the ride so much.

When she got home she said he was totally blown away with the BT ... never knew such a thing existed and when she cranked it up over 4500 (JCW flap opens then) it was like "OMG, I need to get one of these things, it would be SUCH a Chick magnet!"

 

Don't laugh too hard..the Fit IS a decent car...lots of performance heritage.

I was at the Albuquerque car show a few weeks ago looking at the cheaper but still fun cars...I actually had a deposit on a Fit...then I walked past the MINI display, saw the base price of $17,450, and thought, holy moly, I can have a MINI for just about $2k more than a Fit (well duh!).

I started looking at non-S Coupes, and after about 3 weeks of looking and looking, ended up with an S convertible, 1 year old, for $26.3k...about $10k more than the Fit!

I've joined the New Mexico Mini/MINI club, been on a drive and earned a Motoring Hearts badge for raising money for children's hospital, and have a USS, 15% pulley, wind deflector, several items for detailing from Griot's garage, and a few other things on order.

I am loving every minute of it.

Life...LIVE IT!

Oh wait, I almost forgot the title of the thread...

I've also had several girls at work go gaga over the car...let them drive it around at sunset with the top down and tunes playing (but not loud enough to block the sound of the supercharger <g>)...oh man....one of those "it doesn't get any better than this" moments...and by that I mean sunset+MINI+top down+music (the girls are icing on the cake).

Another is when my 7-year-old son looks over at me in the car and says "thanks for buying this car Dad, it's SO SO much fun, esp with the top down."

Thank you God for MINI's.

 

To understand my where my quote is coming from, you got to read the Yaris thread

OH, and its MINIs (to be politically correct). Mini is original.

 

Maybe he was a Brit and he was calling you by the slang term for a cigarette!

 

the kids around here all still comment when I go by and wave... sometimes at the gas pumps I get comments too... but mostly about mileage (which isn't why I bought it). and you should see the amount of attention 26 MINIs get parked outside of IKEA for a group get-together!

 

Aw nuts, I knew that...OK...thanks...my post has been edited.

 

The other day, I was at the Post Office and an elderly lady came up to me and told me she was going to play checkers on my roof.

I was a bit speechless since thats actually in the MINI literature. She kept insisting and asking where the big checker pieces where hidden

 

Well, I was at a gas station, getting gas, and this kid (like, 16 or 17) comes up to me, and tells me what a nice car I have. Then he asks me how old I am, and I tell him, and he asks me if I have ID. I tell him I'm not buying him anything. Then he tells me its for some girl across the street, and she'll perform favors for me if I do it. I insist I can't, and in turn, heinsists on doing that weird handshake with me that I've never gotten into, and wouldn't stop until I learned it. Then as I was getting in the car, some guy came across the street and said to the kid, "hey man, what the hell are you doing?" I had a funny feeling about that gas station too. Oh well.

Anyway, that's my only comment from a stranger. Although, I was at lunch, and I watched this old guy in a Jeep park next to me, and he as soon as he got out, he started checking out the car. As I went to pay, he said, "So, I was checking out that black BMW Mini Cooper out there. They're pretty nice! They get great gas milage." His buddy said, "Yeah, the only problem is the people that drive those kinds of cars want everyone else to drive a car like that too!" Ha!

 

Instant celebrity, without a doubt! Especially in states where a MINI dealership does not exist. In Arkansas, I pulled into a gas station, and was mobbed by people asking me questions about the car. My favorite was, "Did you buy a kit and build that yourself?"

 

We must have stopped at the same station in Arkansas! We were driving to Hot Springs and stopped at a gas station in Pocahontas, AR. As soon as we stopped, two cars pull up beside us and people from both cars start asking us questions about our MINI. (NOTE: Potential Drawback to Open Motoring: People don't have to wait on you to open the door before asking a BUNCH of questions!)

The funny part was when each of the groups started trying to make the other think they knew more about the MINI. One guy was saying that there are only 5 or 6 MINI dealers in the US, and the other was saying that our car's model year was the first one with back seats, but that they had always made convertibles!

It got to the point that one would ask a question, and the other would answer it-not necessarily correctly. We just kind of shook our head and let them have their say, and left as quickly as we could.

 

I don't get too many people stopping to gasp at Nell, that's her name, took me a month but it fust came to me one night. Back to the story, I had her for about a week and had to go down to Munchen, or Munich, to meet up with my friends. And after my wife and I pulled off the autobahn for a break. I had been cruising around 90mph for about an hour , I know that's not good. So I pull up and sit there letting Nell cool down, and this German pulls up next to me, for a smoke brake. Gets out of his mid-90's 7-series BMW. And goes off in German, not quite to his level yet, I tell him I don't speak German, and then in broken English, he says this look real good, how old? And I answer his question, then he asks if I want to get on the autobahn and take it to top speed , I kindly say no, although I was tempted. He smiled, I'm pretty sure he pasted me about 10 mins later going 145-150mph, they are crazy over here.:impatient

 

my neighbor who lives across the street came over to me this past weekend asking if i was the guy with the mini that everyone's talking about.

My area has many retired people who are home so they watch and see everything that happens here.

 

We've lived in our neighborhood for almost a year, and our neigbors never looked up as we drove past.... total white collar, everyone-keep-to-themselves-land.

Then I bought my Mini...

Since the Mini, people wave and smile, like they know me. Well, OK SOME do. More than before, anyway. Maybe the smile on MY face every morning and afternoon inspires them.

 

Chicks dig a man whose secure enough to drive a Cooper. It may just be the coolest car that you put up with endless redicule because of.

 

On the other hand, when I bought mine, my boyfriend said he was worried that guys would hit on me because of my car

First night I had it in town, I came to pick him up from work and some guy who said he used to live England drove up (about midnight in a deserted parking lot) to tell me how much he liked it.

 

This past Weekend I was filling up at a gas station and an older gentleman parked his Buick right in front of my Mini and started asking me questions. It felt good putting a smile on his face by just letting him look and talk about how he wanted one when he was younger and if this was the newest model etc.