I feel safe driving my mini. I never try to think negative when I drive. Just stay alert and postive and you will be fine.

 

I have not felt any fear driving my Mini. I have had some larger vehicles come up on my rear, but I hold my speed and they pass me.

I will admit that driving a small vehicle is something to use caution, just like driving a Nascar it is something to use caution doing.

Be defensive but enjoy your drive and your ride in your Mini.

 

people actually try to hit me sometimes, being that they dont like my car, then they start cursing and telling me off

 

Dude, you're from Queens...

 

AMEN brotha!

Now many times do you see people just hanging out in a dangerous position, oh - it's because the CRUISE CONTROL won't go any faster!

So... who's in control?

 

Here in Los Angeles, I think most people don't have any respect for semis. If you've ever lead a MINI caravan of 20 or more MINIs, you know how hard it is to change lanes when you are a "long"--though the temptation is great, you can't just move over. With a semi, its the same thing, and with people cutting in front of you and making life hard and who knows how many days they've been driving, I do everything I can to help them out. If I'm coming alongside one and they want to get in front of me---by all means, I'll slow down, and hold off the cars behind me, just long enough so he can get in front of me, and they usually have no qualms about me coming up and passing them after I've let them in. Semis might be scary, but put your shoes in one, and think how you'd react after the upteenth time somebody wouldn't let you change lanes. Make them your friends, not enemies.

Richard

 

Due to the low CG of the mini , I do experience couple of times at the traffic lights, cars such as SUV, MPV, trucks trains their headights into the cabin from the rear and I do not know whether its intentional or unintentional .

 

The visibility of these cars is a real issue. However, the same people that can't see them are going to hit you in just about any vehicle less visible than a school bus.

I got the MINI back on Wednesday from an accident weeks ago. I was turning left on a 2-lane 50mph straight paved highway. In broad daylight, I was stopped for 30 seconds. Brake lights on, turn signal on. No one behind me when I stopped. 30 seconds later, while I'm watching oncoming traffic for my opportunity to turn... "WHAM!" A woman hit me from behind w/ about .25 seconds of braking (screech... no ABS). She had half a mile to see me on a straight flat road in daylight. To top it off, her insurance had expired in January.

There are people on the road who are probably legally blind. They slip through the non-rigorous licensing system. They drive without insurance. They later drive without licenses. There's only so much you can do to avoid them; they have a way of finding trouble eventually.

In other words, driving on the street is like rolling the dice. There's no point in getting overly stressed out about it; it won't change it. Drive the car you like, defensively, with reasonable safety systems. Make friends with your body shop and insurance agent. Count your blessings, and smile every time you arrive at your destination in one piece in a car you enjoy.

This is my second fender-bender this year. The first: a drunk driver passed out at the wheel, drove over a curb and halfway across a parking lot and hit my M roadster and one other (pushed them both sideways). Our cars were parked and empty. The driver woke up and fled the scene, but the whole thing was on video, including his license plate.

S**t happens.

 

I drove limos when I was in college and we learned a principle that has saved me many times--the safety oval. You should always position your vehicle so that you can execute your plan (great description on SPIDE, BTW) in any direction: forward, backward, right, or left. A MINI is very different than driving a limo (sort of like driving a big sedan that is towing a trailer), but the principle still applies.

Please assume that every driver out there is a total idiot and behave accordingly--even if they aren't chances are they are cognitively impaired because they are using most of their brain cycles talking on the phone, putting on make-up, or trying not to burn their tongue on their hot coffee.

And ditto on driving with lights on--it makes a huge difference.

You might consider taking a driver ed course at a race track. It'll probably cost about $300 and will be the best money you ever spent, even if you do sell your MINI and get something bigger.

 

Ah right, the venerable Cadavalier!

 

If you feel unsafe in a MINI, try driving through rush-hour highway/city traffic in a Triumph Spitfire. I've never felt so vulnerable in my life...

After that experience, the MINI feels like a vault.

 

get a motorcycle. I've been riding amotorcycle for a longtime and you have to learn to read what other drivers are doing or you're gonna die.

 

Well said Richard. As a group, truck drivers have a higher percentage of good drivers than any other 'group' you can name. I give them room and respect and it is typically rewarded. They have a lot of momentum going and many people just don't realize that.

 

The MINI doesn't seem small to me and I feel safer in it than any other vehicle I've driven in my 26 years of driving things.

 

My first car was a Buick LeSabre, a 1970 tank of a car but with a hardtop so it looked like it only wieghed 5 tons instead of 8. In any case, that thing could have hit a Mini head-on without the transmission even downshifting afterward. Not sure what you've been driving, but it sure sounds like you missed out on America's greatest generation of cars, --cars that were real all the way down to the chrome plated steel grille on the front end of the car. They may not have had airbags etc but they had the most important safety thing in a crash, momentum.

 

I just want to say, this should be a bumper sticker or something:

"Horray for Afterburners!"

I love it, agree with it, and implement it on a daily basis.

Now if that darn M62 project would hurry along, I'd get some bigger 'burners!

RM2k5

 

To quote Ron White, "You can't fix 'stupid' ". SPIDE is what they taught me at an MSF course this past summer, and it is just good advice for all driving situations.

I also try to be nice to the semis whenever possible. They'll win in a collision, so best to just give them wide berth. Yes, some semi drivers might be rude/wreckless, but better to be safe than dead. The 5 second rule when passing is also good advice.

 

Jinsun: you have an "S" Cooper. I mean that baby can fly out and through and around alot of bad situations.. Maybe you need to go to a good driving school so you can feel more confident about handling such a worthwhile machine that you have. Seeing that you are young and a lovely girl driving awesome fun car should also make you feel safe,if you know how to use the machine. It's just like everything else you got to be good with tools that you have to get the most out of it... If all else fails, paint your MINI bright PINK ,fly flags on the antenna post so everyone can see you coming.... km

 

Big things that couldn't get out of their own way, and they'd take you along for the ride into oblivion.

I'm more than old enough to remember those monstrosities.

 

I've driven various things from 60,000 lb crash fire fighting vehicles in the military to my little Jeep Wrangler to the MINI.
I feel safer in the MINI than anything I've driven in 26 years.
And I agree 100% w/ Jersey Bill.

 

Same thing sometimes happens to me. Seams like people are out to get me!

 

Amen, ditto on the "I'm invisible" mindset. Car color can make a difference with visibility, and road-colored cars are more prone to being unnoticed by inattentive drivers & The Man with the radar gun.

An aggressive look or graphics on your car can catch people's attention. Being noticed is not just a crutch for the vane, it can make folks notice you and sometimes leave room for you and respect the speed they'll think you're carrying as you approach them.

My '72 BMW has the opposite effect as folks see it from afar and presume I'm traveling stock VW Beetle pace. Folks often pull out in front of me, requiring me to slow my pace.

 

Really?? I really liked those buttons there so easy to press. I find hitting the center of the steering wheel a lot more difficult. If you've ever owned a Dodge Durango or an Audi A8 you would know what I'm talking about..

 

well i look at it this way...if they cant see a car that looks like a oversized bumble bee(LY/B) and has a wicked sound from the engine(i love it when the SC winds up to full boost) then i dont know what to say....but when my dad picked me up from the Indy airport when i came home on leave just before going to iraq he was driving my MINI when a semi decided he wanted into our lane...car in front of us....car behind us and semi coming over...so we were forced onto the shoulder....but thats ok cuz as he was doing this i caught it on video and was on the phone to the cops cuz this semi had no plates on it what soever.....doom on you trucker...he was pulled over by the ISP a few miles later and had the dude handcuffed...not sure what happened but that idiot got what he deserved...but i did a trip from san diego to home in indiana and didnt have a prob....hell i had people pulling along side of me to get a better look at bumbles and to snap a few pics...i stopped at a gas station in new mexico and a few of the state cops had their pics taken with it...they said their daughters love MINI's....it was a fun trip

 

Spot on!

Does not matter if your on 2, 4, or 18 wheels....that is great advice and practice.

Great post JustJay!!