BruceK
Apr 14th, 2002, 09:23 PM
Confession time: Ever since the MINI prototype was shown at the Frankfurt auto show in September 1997, I have been lusting after a MINI. My mind has been made up since then that I would do whatever I could to own one. But the truth is, until 2 hours ago, I had never seen a MINI in the flesh and certainly never driven one. :eek:
How is it possible I am one of the most MINI-mad people around (according to my wife and perhaps the number of posts on this site :)) but I had never even seen a new MINI? Well, the short answer is time and distance. A year ago I planned to fly to the Detroit auto show to see the MINI, but things got busy at work and I had to cancel the trip. :mad: Then, last month when all the MINI dealers opened up across the US, I found myself a full 632 miles away from the nearest MINI dealer. Too distant to travel that far just for a test drive I rationalized since I’ll be on vacation in Florida in May and near two MINI dealers at that time. So while my youngest daughter is counting on our vacation to provide Disney thrill rides, I was counting on getting my own Oxford-built thrill ride! :D
But all that changed this afternoon when my oldest daughter excitedly gave me a call from her mobile phone. She said she was driving home and had just seen a new MINI drive past her near our neighborhood. Yellow with a white roof. Yeah. :rolleyes: Sure you did. April Fools Day is over I reminded her. :p I need to put this in perspective here: There are probably less than 1,500 MINIs in private hands in all of the US at this time. So when my daughter said she’d seen a MINI, I was a little bit skeptical to say the least. Especially since there are no MINI dealers in this state, or in any of the states bordering this state. After she assured me she wasn’t joking, she was sure she had actually spotted a new MINI. I quickly ran to the garage and jumped into my classic Mini to go out and try to find the MINI. My simple plan was to drive up and down every street within 4 miles of my home hoping I’d somehow see it parked in front of someone’s house nearby.
It was a goofy plan, but it worked. :) After about 30 minutes of driving my Mini up and down every suburban street I could find, I suddenly caught something yellow on my left. On the driveway in front of a house was a new MINI right in front of my eyes. I slammed on the brakes and my jaw dropped open. :eek: I suppose that if I had been looking at Julia Roberts and Carmen Diaz dancing naked together on the driveway my expression would have been the same. :eek: :eek: Stunned in other words. Stunned to actually find a MINI in my neighborhood and stunned to finally see something I had only ever seen pictures of. :D
I parked my classic Mini and walked up the yellow MINI in the drive. First impressions? The MINI is big. Bigger than I thought it would be anyway (again, I had just climbed out of one of the world’s smallest cars). Second impression? After finally seeing it in 3 dimensions it is perfectly styled. Pictures don’t show it as nice as it really is. Third impression? Yellow is nice, but it is too pale for my tastes.
I knocked on the front door of the home like a little kid asking if some other kid could come out and play with me. The owner, Steve, was more than happy to show me around his new MINI. He just purchased it several days ago from a Midwest dealer and had driven it back to Texas. He said he was really impressed with how well it handled on the highway and how solid it feels at speed (his other car is a wonderful looking red Audi TT turbo quatro roadster). His MINI looks just like the yellow/white Road & Track cover story feature car from the February 2002 issue with the 7-hole wheels and sunroof. The only difference is his car had black leatherette (very nice!) instead of the profile leather of the magazine car.
He had a look at my classic MINI and then offered to take me for a ride in his yellow pride and joy. He didn’t need to ask twice! :) :) As he backed it out of his driveway I noticed the typical MINI power steering noise and I actually liked it. I climbed in we headed to my house to show the car to my family.
Everyone climbed all over the car and took pictures. Steve pointed out all the things he really likes about the MINI, and viewed my shrine to the MiNi (my garage decorations). Then he handed me the key and suggested that I drive the MINI back to his house where my ’65 Mini was no doubt feeling abandoned by now. :(
My first driving impression was the accelerator needs a lot of pressure to bring the revs up. I was also surprised by how far away the windshield was. (These are probably all skewed somewhat by 30 minutes of classic Mini driving just prior). Once moving, I was impressed how solid the car felt and how supple the suspension was. I was very conscious of carefully driving someone else’s car, so I treated it with full respect and didn’t try to test the car’s handling at all. The drive back to his house was all too brief, but I am very grateful of the opportunity to experience a MINI from the driver’s seat. Thanks so much Steve! (I told him about MINI2, so I hope he becomes a member here :))
Steve told me that according to the state Department of Motor vehicles, his car is the 2nd MINI in the State of Texas. :eek: It is amazing to me that with only 2 MINIs in this state, a guy who lives just half a mile away owns one of them. To put that in some sort of perspective, Texas, in land area, is larger than all of the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland COMBINED. What are the chances of having a MINI in my own back yard? Talk about finding a needle in a haystack!
Anyway, my days of being a MINI virgin are no more. :rolleyes: :D Now it is both harder and easier to wait for my Cooper S!
How is it possible I am one of the most MINI-mad people around (according to my wife and perhaps the number of posts on this site :)) but I had never even seen a new MINI? Well, the short answer is time and distance. A year ago I planned to fly to the Detroit auto show to see the MINI, but things got busy at work and I had to cancel the trip. :mad: Then, last month when all the MINI dealers opened up across the US, I found myself a full 632 miles away from the nearest MINI dealer. Too distant to travel that far just for a test drive I rationalized since I’ll be on vacation in Florida in May and near two MINI dealers at that time. So while my youngest daughter is counting on our vacation to provide Disney thrill rides, I was counting on getting my own Oxford-built thrill ride! :D
But all that changed this afternoon when my oldest daughter excitedly gave me a call from her mobile phone. She said she was driving home and had just seen a new MINI drive past her near our neighborhood. Yellow with a white roof. Yeah. :rolleyes: Sure you did. April Fools Day is over I reminded her. :p I need to put this in perspective here: There are probably less than 1,500 MINIs in private hands in all of the US at this time. So when my daughter said she’d seen a MINI, I was a little bit skeptical to say the least. Especially since there are no MINI dealers in this state, or in any of the states bordering this state. After she assured me she wasn’t joking, she was sure she had actually spotted a new MINI. I quickly ran to the garage and jumped into my classic Mini to go out and try to find the MINI. My simple plan was to drive up and down every street within 4 miles of my home hoping I’d somehow see it parked in front of someone’s house nearby.
It was a goofy plan, but it worked. :) After about 30 minutes of driving my Mini up and down every suburban street I could find, I suddenly caught something yellow on my left. On the driveway in front of a house was a new MINI right in front of my eyes. I slammed on the brakes and my jaw dropped open. :eek: I suppose that if I had been looking at Julia Roberts and Carmen Diaz dancing naked together on the driveway my expression would have been the same. :eek: :eek: Stunned in other words. Stunned to actually find a MINI in my neighborhood and stunned to finally see something I had only ever seen pictures of. :D
I parked my classic Mini and walked up the yellow MINI in the drive. First impressions? The MINI is big. Bigger than I thought it would be anyway (again, I had just climbed out of one of the world’s smallest cars). Second impression? After finally seeing it in 3 dimensions it is perfectly styled. Pictures don’t show it as nice as it really is. Third impression? Yellow is nice, but it is too pale for my tastes.
I knocked on the front door of the home like a little kid asking if some other kid could come out and play with me. The owner, Steve, was more than happy to show me around his new MINI. He just purchased it several days ago from a Midwest dealer and had driven it back to Texas. He said he was really impressed with how well it handled on the highway and how solid it feels at speed (his other car is a wonderful looking red Audi TT turbo quatro roadster). His MINI looks just like the yellow/white Road & Track cover story feature car from the February 2002 issue with the 7-hole wheels and sunroof. The only difference is his car had black leatherette (very nice!) instead of the profile leather of the magazine car.
He had a look at my classic MINI and then offered to take me for a ride in his yellow pride and joy. He didn’t need to ask twice! :) :) As he backed it out of his driveway I noticed the typical MINI power steering noise and I actually liked it. I climbed in we headed to my house to show the car to my family.
Everyone climbed all over the car and took pictures. Steve pointed out all the things he really likes about the MINI, and viewed my shrine to the MiNi (my garage decorations). Then he handed me the key and suggested that I drive the MINI back to his house where my ’65 Mini was no doubt feeling abandoned by now. :(
My first driving impression was the accelerator needs a lot of pressure to bring the revs up. I was also surprised by how far away the windshield was. (These are probably all skewed somewhat by 30 minutes of classic Mini driving just prior). Once moving, I was impressed how solid the car felt and how supple the suspension was. I was very conscious of carefully driving someone else’s car, so I treated it with full respect and didn’t try to test the car’s handling at all. The drive back to his house was all too brief, but I am very grateful of the opportunity to experience a MINI from the driver’s seat. Thanks so much Steve! (I told him about MINI2, so I hope he becomes a member here :))
Steve told me that according to the state Department of Motor vehicles, his car is the 2nd MINI in the State of Texas. :eek: It is amazing to me that with only 2 MINIs in this state, a guy who lives just half a mile away owns one of them. To put that in some sort of perspective, Texas, in land area, is larger than all of the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland COMBINED. What are the chances of having a MINI in my own back yard? Talk about finding a needle in a haystack!
Anyway, my days of being a MINI virgin are no more. :rolleyes: :D Now it is both harder and easier to wait for my Cooper S!