Just wanted to warn everybody that there is a wheel theft ring operating in the Seattle area that has a fondness for Mini 17" rims... I know this the hard way When I called Northwest Mini about replacements they said I was the third person to call for a complete set of rims that week -- the SPD also told me there have been a lot of wheel thefts lately. So excersize some extra care until the so-and-so's are caught. There are a lot of MINI's in my neighborhood (Wallingford) so I bet they'll be back.

Argh...

[Paul]

Nice of you to share the warning, I hope they get caught quickly!

[IBMiniG]

That totally sucks , I my Acura was stolen form that neighborhood years ago. I wonder if you could get a settlement and get some lighter weight wheels, I hear it makes a BIG difference. *off to get a set of wheel locks*

[scooperman_uk]

thats just not on. does locking wheel nuts make any difference?

[lespurgeon]

Ouch!
Glad the MINI will fit in my MINI sized Wallingford USA (stheodox - I'm sure you know the reference) garage when it shows up this summer.

[camminich]

Dunno about it fitting in the garage. The place I use to live over on Woodland Park off 48th had a garage so small that I don't think my Mini would now be able to fit in. I don't know what the architect was thinking when they built those.

stheodox; do you have the BRG mini that is sometimes parked on 42nd going up towards Aurora?

[lespurgeon]

Won't be a problem - I squeze an Acura Integra in there now. I have a friend that bought a place on Queen Anne and there was an MG Midget in the garage when the house was being shown. He got his VW golf in there - but couldn't open the door enough to get out.

You aren't thinking of the BRG/W one that is often parked just as 46th turns to go down towards Ballard are you? There is a DS/W MCS that parks by our place 42nd east of Stone quite a bit (owner works on Stone), and I figure I'll have to pull up and park ours when it shows up where he normally parks just for a lark.

[camminich]

I see the BRG on the Market hill all of the time. I am starting to wonder if the owner ever moves it. I was going to stop one time on the way to a Mini meetup. But I use to see one I though on 42nd around Woodland Park. A buddy of mine still lives up on Whitmore so I use to pass by it all of the time.

If I am in the area and see two Mini's parked off 42nd and stone I will make sure to stop by.

[RickB]

I have to park on the street, in West Seattle, when I visit my girlfriend, and never think about the wheels disappearing; muddy cat prints is the worse indignity, to this point. I have off-street covered parking at my place, just off Aurora, and the car's been safe there, for over a year. We just bought a house in Shoreline, with a 2-car garage, so the MINI will have a safe home, when we move.
I see the BRG Cooper, coming up the hill out of Ballard, regularly. There's a S, a couple of blocks west of Woodland Park, that I see fairly often. I think it's off 57th or 58th.

I'm a grey/white S with nav, usually parked on Woodlawn Ave. Wallingford is mini-heaven, I once counted seven minis within about 12 blocks of home.

No word from the coppers on the wheel theives, but while I was waiting for the towtruck the other day a passerby mentioned he'd seen another mini up on blocks on Capitol Hill the week before.

I heard that the mini uses the same bolt pattern on the wheels as a Honda civic, so it's a popular target for wheel theft among gangsta's who want to trick out their jacked-down Civics. No idea if that's true, but it's as good an explanation as any.

All in all, what a hassle. My carport is too tiny for me to open the doors on my Mini -- another silly little seattle garage. I've half a mind to take a sledgehammer and knock down the wall so I can park in there...

[camminich]

Are you going to get a set of wheel locks for your new tires? As many times that I venture over to Seattle and park my Mini out over night, I think am going to invest in a set. So far though I have only seen them in silver and not black. I think I might just take one of the lugs out and go into my local Schucks and see if I can make a match to the BMW wheel locks. They should fit, maybe.

[lespurgeon]

Noticed they picked up a couple of teen boys in Montlake the other day. Some guy looked out the window, saw his BMW on blocks, and 2 kids across the street taking the wheels of a Merc (may have gotten the brands backwards).

[camminich]

Really? Good deal, was it in the paper or on the news?

[lespurgeon]

Saw it in the PI.

[4wheeldrift]

An associate at work had the misfortune of finding all four of the R84 16" wheels missing from her MCS one morning. The deputy taking the report was heard to say that he believed it is the MINI's misfortune to share a wheel bolt spacing with some very popular Japanese imports. He didn't think it was likely the wheels were being stolen to be used on other MINIs.

Hehe, they caught the guys alright. In fact I got interviewed on Channel 7 news.

Of course it did take an entire MONTH to get some !$(^!!@&&(#@ wheels and tires. The actual work was about 5 hours, but locating new wheels and tires took more than 3 weeks. Ugh.

[RickB]

Since I first saw this thread, I've kept my eyes peeled for a non-MINI rolling on MINI wheels, and haven't seen any. As many wheels as there are to fit Japanese cars, and as many Japanese cars as there are to steal them from, why would there be much of a market for hot MINI wheels?

[camminich]

Simple, why have cheesy stolen rims of another rice burner when you could have stylish stolen rims off a MINI. It will impress your friends, and most people won't know that they are MINI rims, so they will look even more rare and unusual.

That's just a guess, but it falls into the same logic as why people that own older Hondas put BMW and Mercedes emblems on it, they want to bring up the value of the "ride" by adding a European flair to it.

[MrBean]

Perhaps it must've been the reason why I saw an older model Civic coupe with a set of 17" R85s parked outside a condo in Alki months ago. It was very odd, but it sure did accepted the MINI's bolt pattern.

Sorry if I'm a bit late to this discussion, but important I weighed-in. I'm unsure if that Civic is still around that area till now.