I am just about at the one month mark of ownership. History thus far:

First three weeks : two round trips to Boston, including moving out of my dorm room in three days of rain

Saturday (official third week mark): 1994 miles on the odo, first real detail. Spend four hours vaccuming, dusting, armor all-ing, washing, waxing, etc. Find the first signs of damage. A stone chip halfway up the bonnet, no biggie expected, few chips in the bumper, also expected, chip and ding in passengers side front fender , road debris (?) not expected.

Sunday: Round trip to Philadelphia for sister's college graduation...a success except for the pouring rain and 1:45 minute return trip turned into 3:30 minute trip.

Tuesday (we've got cats?) : Walk into the garage at 11pm and get the bejeezus scared out of me as a cat runs off the steps right by my feet and out of the garage. It happens again an hour later. I think nothing of it.

Wednesday : A successful day of running errands. All car related actually. Drop my moms car off to get serviced (euro spec Carrera 3.2 cab), drive up to my buddies house to retrieve some parts for my Series Land Rover project. Buy paint for LR, move more stuff around. On the way back to buddies house he says theres something he needs to tell me that I can't tell anyone. I get back and oogle the crap out of the Testarossa he just bought.

Wednesday night : Pick up a girl friend, come back to my house. MINI is fine in the driveway, or so I thought. Come back out 3 hours later to drive the girl home and find a garbage can that was previously upright in front of the MINI is now lying down against the bumper. I ponder, was the can already there? NO. Did I hit it when I pulled in and knock it over? NO. Did that cat come back and knock it over? BINGO.

The resulting bumper scratches are the most damage I have ever had happen/done to any of my cars. A nice little one inch square area that is scratched down and dulled. Threw some wax on it which made it better. Isn't that noticable but really angered me. Why is the little guy getting so banged up so quick?

Moral of the story...don't treat matters concerning intruders lightly. Buy the MINI an inflatable bubble similar to the bubble boy to prevent such accidents.

 

Forgot to mention, it could have been much much worse. But the fact that I need to go buy touch up paint at the dealer tomorrow makes me sad...

 

well it seemed to me that similar things happened when I first got it too...I think of it as new car Karma...or something. sadly it's expected. so far the worst I have is a ding in the passenger side door from parking it at school. And since that parking lot fills. there is nowhere to hide my CHECKS. So now I park as close to the curb as possible and deal with the wheel scratches for now.

Shannah

 

Bring your LARGE pocket book for the touch up paint.
I was wanting to buy some this past weekend, and for the 2 tiny bottles (EB & Clear) it was something like $28!!! I will hold off on them until I starve myself for a few weeks........

 

Bright and Shiny!!

You will only understand if you have seen the "new" Bubble Boy!!

 

my old car ('05 mitsubishi eclipse) was a nightmare for me...it seemed like everything that could scrath/ding it DID!! a piece of scrap metal blew off a truck and scratched it...someone opened their door on my door...seemed like rocks were attracted to my car...it was a mess...so far so good with the MINI...i hope things get better for your ride!

 

Thanks guys. I definitely hope the karma wears off soon. Unfortunately that means the newness is wearing off too...

 

Good vibes and karma sent your way brother....The first ding is the hardest to deal with... I had to drive around with a huge dent on the right front fender courtesy of Hurricane Wilma....Due to backlog, I had to wait 6 months to fix......THat sucked

 

This is why you park the the Series rig near anything that can fall to protect the Mini And if you do NATO or military paint on the Series, who cares what happens to it?

Dave
'04 MCS EB/W
recovering former owner of '65 IIa 88"

 

$28???? Yikes! Where are you buying it? I think it cost me $16 at the dealership.

 

Every little imperfection hurts...at least to me it does. Obviously not as damaging has your experience, but while I live in the KC area, I bought my MCS in St. Louis and therefore had about a 3 hour drive home. I got my first chip on that drive - that sucked - 3 hours old and already had a chip!

FYI, when you use the touchup paint, make sure you use something like a toothpick or very small artist brush to apply it, preferably the toothpick...the brush on the cap is for painting a picture to put over your sofa, not for touching up your MINI!

 

Talk about bad new car karma... My last two new cars were both rear-ended within the first two weeks. First was a hit and run while parked, the last one at a red light on day 5. His foot slipped off the brake while reaching into the back seat...

It's a real phenomenon...

 

So far I have been lucky enough to just have registered a few rock chips in the bonnet - but write that off to the great driving day I had up until I pulled up behind that dump truck spilling gravel.....

Funny incident yesterday - to avoid any side scratches I park WAY far away from other cars in any parking lot. Yesterday, picking up my daughter from school I was coming out with her to see an old station wagon pull into the lot and park right next to Maggie !!! When I opened the door, the owner was gushing about the car and said "Oh I just love MINIs - I always try to park right next to them...." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our cars are magnets for potential damage - no doubt about it .....

Bill

 

Funny you should say that Dave, I spent $400+ just buying paint for the LR on Wednesday. My buddie who is helping me with the project will not let me just spray or brush paint it like I would want. That's because we are pretty much going all out with a new galvanized chassis, a completely repaired as new bulkhead with galvanized replacement pieces, etc. Still recovering from yours eh?