Okay...I'm totally loving this car. I have never owned a standard and have only driven one a handful of times. It is much easier than I anticipated.

One scary thing happened on the way home after driving for about 95 miles I noticed smoke was wafting out of the hood and I could smell something burning. When I got home, I noticed a puddle under the car. It looked like water but my husband felt it and it was oily and had an odor to it. After reading the boards, I think it is probably cosmoline. I have a call into service just to verify. Anyone else experience this? If so, how long can I expect it leak? I told my husband that I will get something to put under the car so it doesn't stain the driveway, and he commented with Ah, Bruiser needs pee pads! I thought it was cute!

wannabe - a Clubman driver waved to me this morning! He initiated, and it made my day!

 

Cooper Dreams, I hope it's nothing serious! I have no idea what cosmoline is; I don't think I've ever heard of it.

I've never had anyone wave to me yet, although I am starting to see the same MINIs repeatedly around town. I guess I'm paying more attention these days. One of these days I'll wave to someone!


ETA: I just did a search on "cosmoline". I've perused this board and I can't believe I haven't read anything about it before. Although I found a lot of posts that mentioned it, I didn't find a definition of exactly what it is, other than it "seems to be a dealer prep thing". Fortunately, it doesn't sound serious.

 

CooperDreams, for what it's worth (and it might not be much!) I don't know that I've ever read about cosmoline burning / puddling.

As I understand it, cosmoline is used as an undercoating to seal all the seams / welds. I picked up my MINI in late August of last year. Like many others do in warm weather, I did experience some dripping of cosmoline, but nothing more than that. The detail guy at the dealer said to take it off with bug / tar remover.

We probably never get as warm as Texas so maybe that is what you're dealing with. Hope you get it resolved soon! Keep us posted...

 

It's okay...apparently the cars are completely coated in cosmoline when they come over on the Atlantic. It is similar to vaseline and has a petroleum smell. I saw pictures in the Port Hueneme Vehicle Distribution Center thread on 1st Gear, and there are BMW's completely coated in this wax. It is understandable that some might have lingered.

My MA called last night to check on me and didn't seem concerned.

Hope you all are having a good week. The sun is back out here after a quick round of storms last night. I was able to clear a cozy spot in the garage for Lil' Bruiser and he was safe and sound.

 

I haven't posted on here in awhile....been busy at work....

But I had to share a moment I had last weekend. While waiting at a stoplight in Newport, Ky, a teenage girl in the crosswalk in front of my Mini squealed (plenty loud enough for us to hear with the windows down):

"I LOVE THAT COLOR!"

I always appreciate anyone who loves Minis but especially people who get the color right too.

 

Well my news of the day is that at about 9:00 A.M. this morning while heading over to a meeting at our second campus at work, I hit 1250 miles and my break-in period is officially over!
I got the car on December 23rd.

On my return, I wound her up to 4500 RPMs

 

Welcome back ! Did you recruit her? Is she a future MINI owner?

wannb, I don't think it's ever taken me so long to read a sentence. Once I read the word "hit", my heart stopped. SO glad to hear all you hit was the end of the break-in period !

I did that in my second week (but I did take a trip just to nudge it along a skosh).

 

Oops! I didn't even think of that when I was writing it, but re-reading it now I sure see how it looked ominous the way I phrased it!
OMG! I cannot even imagine messing up my little beauty. I just love this little car!

I've had no problems at all, although two things occur that I'll mention whenever I have to bring her in for service if they continue.
One is the brakes make a squealing sound just as I am coming to a stop, so not the entire time I have them on, but more at the end of the braking as the car is actually stopping rolling. And it's not your typical squealy brake noise. It's higher pitched. Doesn't really sound too troublesome and it doesn't happen all the time.

The other is also an intermittent thing. I hear a rapid clicking noise. I'm not even sure where it's coming from, but probably the engine. Then, suddenly it will stop.

Unfortunately most all of my driving is very short trips; I work 7 miles from home and when I go out at lunch, it's often around the corner-type trip. Seems that both these problems tend to occur soon after starting, then go away.

I've had some cars that I really enjoyed, but this one tops them all.

Oh, and my break-in miles include one trip down to MA that was about 250 miles plus the 100 or so getting her up here from Boston. That means in 7 weeks I have put on 900 miles. There was a time in my life that I was putting over 600/week on with a horrific commute.

 

I didn't get a chance to recruit - my boyfriend and I were distracted by cracking up in the car! But, if I had to guess, I'd say she is definitely a future MINI owner. She seemed pretty in love with the car.

 

Weeeeee! On my way home tonight I passed another OB/W that was my car's twin. She was going the opposite direction on the highway separated by the median and, although I gave the thumbs up (yes, I did it!), she didn't see me.
Then I arrived home to my MINI Adventure kit! I have an 8 ball on my antenna now. Nice pen and journal, too!

 

Well, Bruiser's leak isn't cosmoline after all...There is a small leak in the gasket for the upper oil pan. He has continued to smoke and leak all week so I took him by our local BMW dealer to check it out, unfortunately they can't service the MINI yet. Our dealer is 90 miles away in San Antonio.

After downplaying the problems we have been experiencing, our dealer has stepped up and will be delivering a loaner to the house and picking up Bruiser to do the repair.

It looks like the Austin MINI dealer will be ready to service MINI's in August. That will be very convenient.

I still love the car, but my husband is losing confidence. Fortunately it is something small that can be repaired easily.

 

my car has 12000 miles on it and i've taken it in once for a leak somewhere connected to my gas tank. and now it makes a funny noise when my steering wheel is lock to lock. i think bmw's are just weird like that. if you continue to have problems, plead lemon law.

 

Hey, way to go wannab! At least you tried. I've gotten worse snubbings than that, but what the heck, you're having fun in your MINI and life doesn't get much better'n that!

That is a bummer CD! I hope this is just a blip on your enjoyability screen and that things smooth out from here on out. So far, I've been lucky and not had any troubles with mine, but it makes me wince every time I hear any of us experiencing issues (with MINI or dealer)!

 

What a bummer, Cooper Dreams! My fingers are crossed that they fix this and you and Bruiser live a long and happy life together.
Do keep us posted.

 

Bruiser is now in San Antonio being repaired. There was a ton of drama on Saturday. I didn't want to bring down the board with our issues! We assumed the dealer was sending a flat bed tow truck on Saturday, but only a driver showed up. Needless to say we weren't about to turn Bruiser over to a driver. The tech at BMW implied that we shouldn't drive him too much with the leak, so a 90 mile drive didn't seem like a good idea.

My husband was beyond frustrated, but I think it all boiled down to lack of communication with the sales department and the service department. Yesterday morning a flat bed truck showed up with a loaner and picked up Bruiser. He should be on the road to recovery in no time.

Hopefully I will be able to pick him up soon and enjoy him without smoking up the place!

 

So sorry to hear about your problems with Bruiser. I sure hope they fix him and soon.

I was sad to hear on the news Sunday that Mini is having layoffs at the plant in England Guess the economy is affecting everyone. So, I wonder if a person ordered one now if it would arrive even sooner??? Not that I'm getting another Mini any time soon. Nellie is doing just fine and so far, knock on wood, has had no problems. My other car is a PT Cruiser which I like a lot and so far has been trouble-free too.

 

CD, sounds like you were right to insist on not releasing your car to be driven. I hope they are able to find and fix the problem quickly. It sure does take away from the excitement when you have to face something like this. Fingers crossed for you!

I also saw the links on the layoffs. Sad. I'm glad I got mine when I did. Zero problems so far. I am still on my new car honeymoon!

 

I just got off the phone with my SA and the leak is coming from a plug on the engine block. Of course they have never seen this problem before and are working with the engineers to determine the appropriate parts.

If they have to order the parts from Germany it can take 10 days to get the parts. By the time our first payment is due, I could be driving the loaner longer than the car we are actually paying for.

I am no car expert and really fell in love with the looks of the car, so how concerned would you be with this type of problem?

Then...if we demand a new one (depending on the severity of this problem), it will probably take months to get a new one based on the issues with the factory. I really do feel for the agency workers. Did anyone see the article PatM posted about the disgruntled workers damaging the cars? Oh goodness...

 

X 2 what wannab says--all of it!

 

Hey to all My OB/W/B Peeps!!! Tomorrow will be the 1 Year Anniversary of ME ordering MY Sweet Little Molly!!! I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Tomorrow will be a Day of Motoring Adventure, I think Hubby and I are heading up to Multnomah Falls, I've ordered Sunny Weather on the count that it is also My Birthday, so it should be fun. I hope to have pictures to share too!!

 

Happy Birthday tomorrow, RJ, and have a great time driving in the beautiful Northwest.

 

Congrats RJ--that sounds like a great time! Happy Birthday--watcha gonna do besides the Falls; wash the MINI?

 

Hey everyone! I hope it's not too early for me to be posting in this thread, since I just placed my order a few hours ago, but I've been lurking for a while now, and I wanted to say thanks to you all for helping me choose Oxygen Blue as my color of choice! I originally wanted an S in Laser Blue, but I couldn't justify the price diff, and thanks to all your pictures and posts, I really warmed up to the Oxygen Blue and I couldn't be happier!

Now I just have to wait. And I am NOT a patient person.

So here's what I ordered: Oxygen Blue/Black Roof & Bonnet Stripes, 6-speed Manual, Chrome Line Exterior, White Turn Signals, Sport Package, Premium Package, Xenon Lights, Anthracite Headliner (this was a MUST HAVE), Hi-Fi Sound System...His name will be Ianto (after a character from a BBC show I like) - funny thing, on my way home from the dealer's coming down the highway I was playing leap frog with an older Cooper S - it was like he was saying hello, welcome aboard!

 

Thanks LindaPD and Tedswoods. We got to sleep in!! Didn't make it to Breakfast, so we had Lunch instead. Sorry, no pics. it was pretty overcast and not much volume today. Had Fun though.

After we got back home we rested a bit, I wanted to go Downtown to a store I've been dying to go to for awhile, Patagonia, I have a T-Neck Sherpa Fleece Pullover that I needed repaired and they were having a Sale that ended todoay. After we left there we stopped at Ben&Jerry's for Ice Cream...YUUUUUMMMMMMMMMYYYYY!!! Right next door was a little shop called "Cupcake Joe's", well guess what we bought for Dessert for Tonight, 4 cupcakes!!

After we got back home we rested a bit more. Then it was Dinner time. We drove out to Gresham and went to Original Roadhuse, my choice, I think Hubby was a bit surprised, since he kind of 'poop pooped' the ideas at first. But it was really good food and even better service.

I had 2 phone messages tonight when we got home, to rest some more. One from my Mom and the other one from my Daughter, couldn't end a Birthday on a Better Note!!

 

Congratulations Atomic17, nice color choice!

Happy Birthday RJ! Sounds like you had a great day!