Most liked posts in thread: What did you do with your MINI today?

Covered, on the trickle charger, in neutral and park brake not engaged ready for hibernation.

 

Hello folks. I've been putting on more miles in rental cars lately than my MINI. Another #$%&*# gearshift knob top broke off yesterday. All four tabs sheared right off. GRRRRRRR.

I did get to drive a new GT350 AND a new GT350R today. Not mine, and can't afford to bend one, so I didn't go nuts. Here is the GT350. The GT350R was black. Not dealer prepped yet, so the front splitter is in the front passenger seat instead of on the car.

 

The MINI was on day four as my camera gear hauler. Day five is tomorrow. There shouldn't be any stop-and-go Dallas traffic on a Saturday, so I won't be cursing my manual transmission choice.

Soooo Dave, how would you like to detail a polished aluminum car? Lots of fun to photograph.

(BTW, it is a real AC/Shelby Cobra, and yes, I drove it)



CD

 

She popped into limp mode otw home Friday afternoon. Once I hit my exit, pulled into a Audi dealership to run a diag and clear the code. Salesman walks up to me and asks if he can help in any way, I said unless you can sell me a high-pressure fuel pump for a MINI under $800 he couldn't. Then he tried to talk me into a test drive, mind you the whole time I'm looking at my phone reading the bad news... But I was using their parking lot so it's all good. I told him I might be interested but the MINI would be my down payment, he says "Great! It looks like you've taken good care of it". Then I said, and it has a branded title. He ended our conversation and walked away So after the codes were cleared the car drove fine until I got a few miles down the road. In the video you can see it would start to go under boost and all, then pop into limp mode. This was the first time I've run into limp mode that didn't stay.. limp.... My homie at the stealership is gonna try to get MINI to cover it, otherwise, I'll be doing the replacement myself.

 

Ordered my 1000cc injectors today and checked on my car in the garage on the Battery tender.

 

I called the city because my curb in front of my driveway had deteriorated so badly I couldn't even get in my driveway. The city came on previously and has sprayed a mix of tar and pea gravel into the holes, but the first good rain we had washed it out. I called and complained and told them not to bother sending out the guy with the pea gravel again, later that day a crew pulled up, milled out the old concrete and ashphalt and laid in a whole new curb! An hour later it was done and has held up well for a few years now. If you don't make the curb the same as the rest of the road (if you concrete a ramp in over the curb like in the video shown in the other post) then water won't flow down the curb but rather go around the ramp, and it won't last. My neighbor did this with concrete and it only lasted a year or so before chunks of it came out - best thing to do is for her to learn how to approach the drive at an angle and slowly, as he said.

 

A friend of mine bought a Suburban to use as a tow vehicle for his rally car. As I recall the Sub was something like 11 years old with under 3,000 miles on it. I mentioned that he might want to buy new tires. He said "heck they look like new". His first trip towing on the way to a rally in Michigan he had a tire explode. He told me he darned near lost the whole rig. He bought 5 new tires before he drove further.

After he past on & I was helping his wife clean out his shop, there were rally tires that had to be twenty years old. Those things felt like they had changed into some sort of hard plastic.

No way I'll drive on a tire that is more than 6 years old. I usually wear them out before that. Old tires can look good, but there is no way of knowing they are safe. More than likely they aren't.

 

Didn't realize I was so close, but on January 1, 2020, went to a New Years Day get together with some friends and noticed my MINI cross yet another mileage milestone.



Given my current rate of mileage driven, it is possible I could cross the 300000 mark at the end of 2020. Just hoping nothing serious falls off or needs replacing between now and then.

 

That is interesting, wonder when & if there will be an official word about this. MINI seems to sell many more cute utes than cars. I can't remember the last time I saw an F56. I see lots of MINI trucklets,

 

You can find interviews with the new powers that be at whiteroofradio.com. The new guy in charge speaks on the subject but doesn't necessarily say anything official. He does say they realize they've lost their way and he wants to get back to what made MINI successful.

The only MINI ute's I've ever seen was them R50 Red Bull cars (don't think they're actually made by MINI but modified by a 3rd party) but those are fairly rare nowadays though I do see one at the Global Imports stealership for service on occasion. I mostly see MINI SUV's and station wagons around ATL.

 

Almost wrecked today... Nothing like a no look u-turn. That said, I was watching her since she pulled to the side and expected some crazyness. I was going just over 60 and it had just rained.

 

Good situational awareness.

 

Going to have to add running the dragon to the bucket list of things to do. Not sure if my MINI will make it across the continent to do the dragon without having to spend a lot of time and money to fix up the engine and suspension and other old car things though.

 

Thanks guys, going to call Chad.

 

OK, folks this one is nice, does anyone know the current owner or perhaps owned this when it was out east?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2006-mini-cooper-s-35/

Seems really low on bids, even though it is up in the miles but not for an 06! Lots of RMW goodies, if I had room. It is well kept.

My second choice behing a 06 GP.

Don

 

And sold for $8500, I think it was stolen at that price! Good buy!

 

All you need is a decent set of winter tires.

 

I gave away my snow blower last year. Since I live in this condo/old folks home the ground crew clears the snow for me.

 

I Received a call from my MINI dealer contact. He was asking me when I would like to take the MINI SE out for a spin. My car is due for an oil change soon anyways so I told him when I make the appointment to get my oil changed.... soon.

I was just thinking, after 15 years, and almost 300,000 kms, my R53 still gets about the same gas mileage as shortly after it was broken in, and only a minimal amount of loss of power and handling as after I installed the 15% reduction pulley and 22mm rear swaybar. Not sure I would be able to say that with an electric car. Not sure I would be able to say that about cars running on battery power after even 5 or 6 years. Would I be able to get anywhere near a 100 mile range on a full charge ?