Lighten up, man. Most of these threads are just tongue in cheek. no need to get all bent out of shape about it.

 

My wife has driven my MINI a couple of times. She drove it ome from the dealership and home from a party a month ago. I let my son drive it too, but I was in the co-pilot seat at the time.

That is about it - most of my friends cannot 'drive stick' and they are not about to learn at my gearbox's expense.......

 

yeah, hu, i know i need to work on my net punctuation, im just always typing in such a rush.

oddly though i love the comma, even when im typing in a rush, i can always find room to throw some comma's in.

sorry for being off topic but to get back on...
id also probably be a little more giving in sharing my car if my friends could drive stick, but no one seems to care, to except when they are trying to get behind the wheel of harley quinn.

 

This seems to be an issue for many of us.

I try to arrange for my wife to drive the car once a week. She looks good driving the MINI, especially with the top down. Since we have limited parking at home and have to stack the cars, it is a bit of an effort to rearrange the stack for our commute times. As it happens she is a bit of a better driver than I am. Skilled and precise where I have hand/eye/spacial coordination but prefer the edges of things to actual correct execution. The car is safer in her hands.

I usually do the driving when we participate in club events. Sunday she did want a shift. It was a run up Hwy 117 from Quemado to Grants . . . a lot of high plains drifting then a run through the narrows between the malpais and sandstone cliffs to the arch (can't remember the name of this particular arch). Pretty much a cruise at 90 mph. Her driving is moulded by her experience with Z cars (rear wheel drive). As a result, when the going gets going, she drives with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the shift ***. Good technique, from what I know, for rear wheel drive. But in the MINI, as a passenger, I just hope a stone doen't hit the power steering cooling fan!

I've let my second son drive the car. It was delayed because he flat spotted the new tires on my Honda. It took me a while to get over that . . . it turned out it wasn't him personnally . . . he'd loaned the car to an acquantance (to go rent a video) on a night when he'd been drinking and didn't want to drive. His acquantance took the car and did donuts in the video store parking lot.

My youngest son, now on his learner's permit, drove the car for a bit on the return from the English Conclave in Denver last month. Fortunately I was able to find a 30 mile strech of highway without a turn in the San Luis Valley of Colorado.

My oldest son will drive the MINI in a couple of weeks. He's to college on the East Coast. I'm driving back to Atlanta to see a couple of soccer games and we'll hit the dragon.

My father in law drove the car. A show of respect for him. He reciprocated by driving with civility.

 

This question depends on the situation. The wife won't drive it or prefers not to since its a manual. She can drive a manual but isn't real good at it. If its family, then I would let then take it for a spin but only with me in it. My friends would not be allowed to drive. It only takes one screw up, one scratch, one mistake, and the friendship, by nature, would be jepordized. Do your friends treat their cars like you treat your own?

However if I had friends that owned MINI's, come visit me or asked to drive my ride, then I would have no problem letting them borrow my MINI. Most MINI owners are crazy about their cars. It would be natural for them to treat mine as good if not better than their own MINI. Then there is the fact that since they own and drive a MINI, they would know the cars capabilities and limits.

Thats where the friends who don't own MINI's differs. I have a few friends that don't own MINI's and they treat their car as if it was just waiting to go to the junk pile. Regardless if people here think its just a "hunk of metal", the fact is we spend alot of time in our vehicles and we do spend a fair amount of money in them. Its about pride and joy and showing that by taking care of your auto. Its about self respect. I, like most people, don't have 20+ thousand to just use and abuse.

Thats where I stand. If I drive someone elses MINI, rest assured, it would be cared for even greater than mine, if thats even possible.

 

not a bad idea

 

"Oh...here comes "it's just a car" people..."

No reason...? You sure can dish it out no problem.. but can't seem to take it.
Try understanding other views on the subject.. We all love and enjoy our cars and many have lots of time, money and sweat into it.. but in the scheme of things... its not that big a deal.. excuse us for sharing our fun times and mini with others...

better put some ice on that...

 

Yes! +1 here!

 

Oops, tried to delete post. I misunderstood the post I was quoting. Now why can't I delete a posting?

 

I am very careful about who i let drive my car. So far only my dad (who has a 05 JCW) and my previous mechanic/friend (when i was a pushrod mustang man), and 1 of my female friends

 

My dad has driven it before, he has 40+ years experience driving sticks, my GF wants to learn how to drive a stick but i wont let her learn in the MINI

 

So far I haven't let anyone else drive Morrigan. I have nothing against letting others drive as long as I know they take care of their own vehicle and will respect my property. The ironic thing is that most of my friend's who do respect my property, will not ask to drive Morrigan because they know how much I love my car.

The current list of people who I would allow to drive my MINI:
1) My Dad.
2) One of my best friends. I got to drive his classic Mini and is the reason I bought mine.
3) Above friend's ex-father-in-law. He restored my friend's classic.

 

My husband drives the MINI VERY rarely - by my choice. Sometimes I do need the bigger car on certain days, and he takes the MINI. But he is the only other person to ever have driven the car. And he's driven it MAYBE 8 times.....

 

Yup. So far the mini has been driven by:
Myself
My husband
My three married children and their spouses (my daughter-in-law had never driven a manual... whoo hoo... whiplash time!)
My 18 yr old daughter (she loves to sweet talk me out of it for meeting friends)

I imagine many more people will drive it. I'm here in OK right now and one of my son's friend's asked if he could drive it. I'll let him.

The thing is, they are all good drivers and safe. No problems there. I give them the "don't do this list upon threat of death" and they listen to it.

 

No I do not. Since when a MINI "just a car," btw?

 

I’ve let many people drive my MCS around town and at the Dragon.

 

When comparing it to my wife and whether or not she should drive it, any Mini (ANY car) is just a pile of metal and plastic.

 

HA!... How can you compare... Or could you

 

We drive each others' MCs. It's funny to pull into the parking lot at work with a different color Cooper and watch people scratch their heads.

Other than each other, nobody else has driven our MCs yet. Nobody has gotten up the nerve to ask !

 

Thought my answer was kind of obvious. It cracks me up that there are people who will trust someone with their life, parent their kids, but god forbid they drive their mini!

 

Ok "Bill"...You missed the "wink" in my original quote hence your terse response to me... but whatever...:impatient

 

A MINI is just a car....? pfffft...hardly! Who has been lying to you!?

The MINI is more then a car, it is magical!!!

It was hand built by Jesus and the blueprints were sent down by angels and given to man. The windsheild washer fluid alone can cure cancer for crying out loud!



I absolutly love my MINI, and i would never see it as "just a car". Just a car would be like a Kia, you pick paint color, automatic/or manual and thats it. Cookie cutter cars with no personality and standard "follow the masses" body lines.

just my .02

 

Since it has four wheels and an internal combustion engine. I've always been a car girl and I've owned a lot of cars, from a classic Mustang fastback to a bunch of BMWs (M3, 330, 325, 328) to a 911S to a squadron of gorgeous little Italian cars - also some commuter beaters to spare the "loved" car the indignity of parking lot dents and massive mileage. Some of them I've liked well, some of them I've outright loved. Some of them I kept for almost 20 years, some of them I only kept for a couple years. The Audi Quattro GT I put nearly 400,000 miles on. But they've all been just cars, beautiful bits of machinery.

 

Ah yes, I don't have one of those.

 

Conveniently, except for my Dad, nobody else in my family can drive a manual. He's the only other one that has driven it (he actually got to drive it home from the dealer because I learned to drive a manual on it). As for my friends, I've never let any friend drive any of my cars. My reasoning stems from an incident where my sister's roomate wrecked her car and my sister ended up having to deal with all the headaches, added insurance costs, etc. So unless there was an extreme circumstance I wouldn't let anyone except immediate family drive my car.