What did you do with your MINI today?

Finally found the time to get the wheels back on, get it back on the ground and take it for a test spin. A little bumpy at 75-80, but it'll do for now.

 

:biggrin5:

 

Got a little road trip coming up, so I checked the air in the tar's, the earl in the motor and the bug juice in the bottle. Good to go.

 

Re-installed the black fender flare that that fell off. New secret special plastic clips FTW. Thanks to eMINIparts.com!

 

I hate those little white round clips. :mad2: I have a bag full of them because if you look at them the wrong way they break. :incazzato:

 

I now have a baggie full of them too.

 

Done....
Many many coats of clear.... Buffed and ready to install...



Hey Justa Jim.... Take note... I actually finished a mod...

 

Not until they are on the car. :ihih::lol:

 

I am going to take a run to Lowes to pick up some 0000 steel wool to clean my windows and stop by the MINI dealership and look at the new "Original" MINI. :devil:

 

Ok I am back from the dealership and let's just say the car is still ugly and long in the tooth. The rear of the car did not look that bad but the huge SUV tail lights killed it. They are huge, did I say they huge, and they stick out too far.

I drove an S auto-tragic HARD because they did not have any sticks yet.

It drives like a BMW and not a MINI. It does plow (under steer) in the turns and the tires (run rocks) make a lot of noise for a new car. The ride rides soft, very soft and a suspension upgrade will be very important upgrade on this new car. The fit and finish is nice inside but the speedo tach look like a very cheap plastic afterthought. The center stack infotainment thing is just EFFIN HUGE. The color ring around the radio was annoying. As for the start and stop feature you can turn it off buy just tapping the toggle up once. I think if you hold it up you can also turn off the DSC but I could not get it to turn off because I was driving at speed. :devil:
We were able to turn the DSC when we got back to the dealership. It does brake well then again so does my car. The dash is very deep and you can see the hood and corners of the front fender parts of the hood. (too BIG)


Now for the FUN part. The sales guy had never road in or drove an R53 so I gave him a rare chance to drive one done right, MINE and tossed him the keys. :eek6:

No, I was not crazy I went with him.

Let's just say you could not get the smile off his face from the time he turned the key and heard the exhaust rumble to when he pulled back into the dealership with the GM standing outside with a big smile on his face. He loved the Supercharger sound coming from under the hood and all the power. He looked at me like I was crazy when I told him to take it up to 7,200 rpm and then shift to second. On the next turn into a straight I told him to hammer it and the tires (new Dunlop ZII's) broke loose at 5k and grabbed again as he feathered it and took it up to 7k. He pulled 2nd gear and we were spinning again. Whoo hoo! He said he was sorry I said for what having fun? I need to burn off some rubber before the Dragon since the tires are new and you are doing a great job of that. :lol:

We had a FUN drive and like I said the GM was outside when we came back. I know the GM well and the first thing the GM told him is WOW you got a chance to test drive a really nice GEN 1 MINI and by looking at your face you enjoyed it. Just remember other customers will not allow you to do that and we all laughed.

So we went inside and the sales guy went back to his desk and the GM and I went back into his office to talk about the new car. I gave him the same review above and he agreed and said few MINI owners really like the new car. He did say this car is a way to attract new customers to the MINI brand from the Mazda 3, Ford Focus, Toyota / Scion brands. This MINI is not a upgrade to an older MINI unless you like and wanted the changes which most MINI enthusiast don't. He also told me from his older MINI's this car is more BMW than MINI and he missed uniqueness that the older MINI offered.

Here is a pick of the one I drove.

 

Another picture..

 

One more with the HUGE tail lights. :eek6:

 

Sounds like you had more fun than I did Dave.

Took the snow shoes off Skooby the clubster, inspected the brakes, cleaned the windows & filled the tank.

 

Next weekend is oil and trans fluid change time and a alignment on April 15th.

Is it dragon time yet?

 

That's a big a$$ there on the right. Not my type, same as most...

 

Gee, if I didn't know yours had a sport antenna, I'd never be able to tell which one is which! :lol: