UKPylot’s MINI Blog

I love my XM Radio but recently I had to change most of my preset stations as they were getting real blah, the rotation isn’t quite large enough on some. But a couple of the new ones are real good- U-Pop and Worldzone on 29 and 100.

But I have a dilemma: now I have both an XM radio and an iPod for playing music in the car. My MCS is a 2002 model with the radio that has no auxillary input (still amazes me that) so for the XM I am using the FM transmitter method of receiving. The sound is ok but the talk radio stations and any chat is mostly too muffled to understand. Do I go the same method for the iPod, or should I get a new head unit completely and get a much cleaner sound? And is there way to get both plugged into the same unit?

On the way home last night, the combination of setting sun and flithy windscreen made driving westbound somewhat hazardous. So I decided to get the car washed, I knew it was too late to get a human to wash it but figured I’d just run it through one of those automatic dealies. Fifteen minutes later I had yet to find one - plenty of gargages proudly announcing “Car Wash” but all of them were now supervised and therefore closed. I did find one eventually but I think the death of the automatic car wash has been greatly under-reported.

I haven’t died, just started a new job and could not remember how to login to the posting system here. Not that there is much to tell… the MINI is on a good running streak with no problems to report. The fuel guage was acting odd again last Sunday, started with a full tank but after 70 miles it showed well below the first mark; usually I get about 100 miles before the first mark. Went to the restrooms on the I-8 and when I got back in the car the guage was showing what I would expect, nowhere near the first mark. Second time something like this happened.

Saw a few MINIs in San Diego, one went by my hotel every morning when I was coming out, a red one with bonnet stripes, and I also met a member of the West Coast MINI group in Pacific Beach whilst stopped at a traffic light. I haven’t done anything with SCMM in a long time, maybe I shall and see what these guys are up to; they are supposed to be a lot more informal.

The good people at MotoringFile are reporting over 3000 Convertibles delivered worldwide which is pretty cool, too bad one of those isn’t coming to my door.

When I was waiting to pick up my MINI a year ago, a fellow MINI-owner in the lounge told me that I would get tired of people asking me “so what does it run?”. And he was right, not a week passes without at least one person coming up to me and saying ’so, what does that car run’. The obvious answer to the question is premim unleaded but, no, the question that is being asked is really how much does the car cost. Maybe its a Brit/US thing cos no way do I get that from the actual words that are used. So my answer: it runs pretty damned fine.

I’ve recently given up on the automatic air conditioning. The temps out here now are firmly in the low 100s and rising so I want to get cold air on me when I want it, not when the MINI thinks its a good time. I do like the auto a/c but right now its better to be able to control it myself.

On the way into El Centro this afternoon a new MINI I hadn’t seen before passed in the other direction - it was pepper white, black roof and blue stripes on the bonnet. Not sure yet if I like that combination, seemed odd to me.

Just in case anyone was wondering where the links to eSchwa and w(t)f etc have gone (yes I know I am deluding myself in thinking someone might be), I have resurrected my homepage blog and moved them to there. The links on this page will be MINI-only from now on.