No sooner do I leave home for a few days than my wife phones me with some story about her car having developed extremely nasty engine problems (like, basically, it doesn't go). As the estimated repair bill is a minimum of $5000 (and quite possibly higher) we decided it was time to purchase the new MINI. We can't really wait until September for a custom build, but we can get close to what we would have ordered for delivery in about four weeks. We're ending up with a couple of items we wouldn't have ordered (HK sound, & who needs the cold weather package in Calfornia?) but basically we'll soon have a red/black Cooper automatic.
And, as regular readers of this newsgroup would know (and half-way intelligent people might consider before making dismissive remarks) some people have medical conditions which make commuting in a stick shift a practical impossibility. My wife happens to be badly enough physically handicapped to warrant a permanent disabled driver placard.
Thank you for your thoughtful and compassionate consideration, though. I'm sure it will make her life much more enjoyable.
did you get velvet red or chili red? both look very nice with the black combo. you won't mind the HK once you have it. i have a hard time switching to my other car which doesn't have as nice a stereo and i sure miss the steering wheel controls for the stereo. the cold weather package has heated seats right? that might be handy if you are up in nocal though :) did you get the R83 rims? I only seem to see Coopers with R83's around here, unless they put customs on. i hope you got the spoiler too as the Cooper spoiler looks very nice, almost better then the handle bar S spoiler, though i have no complaints on mine mind you.
anyways, congrats on the car! if you are in socal, check out joining
I'd think that an automatic is a permissible option for anybody with a bad commute (such as ours in the SF Bay Area, or the hellhole called the M25 that's the regular drive for the other automatic owner I know). The MINI makes the automatic as reasonable as possible, anyway - you can always flip it into pseudo-manual mode and get a sequential 6-speed box. Not really a manual (there's some power loss), but fairly close.
On 24 Jun 2003 20:47:26 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@panix.com (John Francis) wrote:
Hello John! As a Mini owner now for 3 years, I will say that the car is a blast to drive. To answer some of your concerns, well, first, yes, you will notice some rattles in your car, but that happens as you put miles on it. It makes sense that noises will develop because the suspension is very tight and the wheelbase is small, so you will feel every cigarette butt in the road. Then again, that's why it handles so well. Driving a car that hits every bump hard will eventually cause things to start to rattle, no matter what car it is. The only car I ever owned that handled this well, and also gave you a smooth ride was my 1988 M3, which I sold to buy my Mini.(the Mini is actually faster than my M3 was). A second thing to consider.....you are getting the standard model, not the "S" model, so your suspension isn't as stiff as my "S" model is. This should give you a somewhat softer ride, which you will appreciate on a longer drive. Don't upgrade to a larger tire, unless you want the ride to get harsher. Mine came with 16 inch tires, and after a lot of consideration, I'm sticking with them when I order new ones next month, only I'm not getting runflat tires when I do order. Runflats make for a harsh ride also, since the sidewalls are stiff to support the vehicle should the tires lose air. The sidewalls will offer some cushioning as they flex when riding over bumps, if you get a regular tire, not a runflat tire. This also comes into play if you go to a larger diameter tire. By increasing the diameter, you decrease the profile of the tire. That means that the amount of tire between your rim and the tread is less. By lowering the profile, you decrease the amount of sidewall that can flex as you hit a bump, so the ride becomes harsher. Now you would gain in handling with a lower profile tire, but is it worth it to suffer with a harsher ride....only you can answer that. As for the automatic, I too am a hard core enthusiast, that would only opt for a stick shift (of course that's all that you can get with the "S" model anyway), however, not everyone wants to drive the car like a racecar driver. A lot of people just like the car's looks and will only be driving in urban areas or areas of higher traffic, so it only makes sense that they get it equipped with an automatic. And as the other person mentioned, if you are handicapped, you may not be able to drive a stickshift, so being able to get it equipped with an automatic will still allow handicapped people to drive a car that they really like. As for service, well, I've only had the car in twice for service to a dealer, and the service was okay, although I felt that one of the trips there could have been resolved on the phone. They treated me okay, but they wouldn't give me a loaner car to get to work, because I didn't buy the Mini there.(They wanted $3,000 over sticker price for a new Mini and I told them it wasn't worth that much, so I went to another dealer in a neighboring state, and got it for the sticker price, even though I had to order it in order to get the color I wanted....Electric Blue. I lucked out though, I had my new car 4 weeks after I ordered it.) So John, congratulations on your new car, and I know you'll love it when you get it. I hope I was able to help in answering your questions.
September? Sheesh. I just ordered my Mini late last week and they're giving me lead times of 10-12 MONTHS, so I might see it by next May. But I ordered an S model, not the base, so perhaps that's the difference.
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