Unlike last time, the rev counter did not under-report.

Bermuda triangle-like area of San Diego ??

So I was driving at what I thought was around 50 when I look at the speedo and see it say around 20 and around 1500 rpm. This seemed real doubtful, especially since I was in 6th gear. When I came to a stop at the next traffic light I watched the needle go to zero, below zero and even more below if it could.

After I restarted the engine at a gas station everything seemed back to normal but I wonder if this is the start of a (no doubt expensive) sensor of some sorts taking a crap.

It doesn’t help that my seat covers have faded badly from the abuse of the desert sun, not to mention my stripes that appear oxidised (the only way I can think to describe them) and generally crappy. So I’m thinking a makeover is in order – new seat covers and new stripes, and a good luxurious detail.

For seat covers I will most likely return to Wet Okole, but I’m not sure which of the following colours to choose. Any suggestions? Remember, my MINI is light silver (click on the image for the Wet Okole colour page).

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

For stripes I’m toying with the idea of getting some aviation themed stripes custom-made, maybe a plane towing a banner that says “MINI Cooper S” ? Cheesy? Stick with the black stripes? Something else?

Any thoughts appreciated, I want to make Carrie look like a new car again!

We took the Mini because it’s way more fun to dash around the high desert back roads than in the Camry, and also because the Camry cooling system failed last week and was in the shop for repairs. But the problem with my Mini is that the a/c sucks, or rather it blows, and not in a good way. It’s been like this since day one and I’ve never been sure if this is a problem with the cabrio or just my example of it. So for much of the trip we might have been better off with the top down and the 95F wind in our faces than the sad effort from the a/c.

It works well below temps of, say, 90F but above that it’s not great unless you are 3″ from the vents, and that’s with the blower on level 3. Doing our weekend shopping around town in 105F yesterday it felt like it was blowing warm air rather than cold, and since we’re pretty much stuck at these temps until October, the Mini will be used as sparingly as possible. Which is a bummer.

So far I’ve been real impressed with the Incredible, the experience is on a par with, if not superior to my old 3G iPhone. And it’s fast, so much faster. Anyway, being a Google device it comes with the google naviagation app which I put to the test last week for my drive home.

The application combines Google Maps with turn by turn voice directions as well as speak to search for nearby things. Unfortunately I don’t have a mount for the phone yet so had to balance the phone precariously on the cup holder and after the second time it fell on the floor I put it on the seat.

Some of the cool things about the application are that you can add the regular google layers to it: real time traffic, street view etc. The map display auto zooms depending on the distance to the next turn or, it seems, the complexity of it. Freeway ramps became full screen clearly showing me where to go. On Verizon my journey home is almost all 3G covered (as opposed to the 30% that AT&T covers) so the map updated very well. It’s not without downsides: for example, I can’t find a way to save locations, have to type in my home address each time. But for a free application it’s very well featured.

And with Android having real multitasking I could drive home with Pandora playing through my MINI speakers (thanks to the AUX input) while the map was displayed: the sound would be auto-muted every time the navigation wanted to tell me something. When new gmail arrived I could browse it, still listening to Pandora, and still listening to the turn by turn – very cool, indeed. And the method of switching between tasks is easy and intuitive. I’ll be interested to see just how well this works with iPhone OS4. To me, the Sense UI on the Incredible gets it just right.

The music will play just fine and then it will abruptly stop. The iPhone is still playing but the radio on the MINI is no longer saying AUX and when I rotate through the choices AUX is no longer even available as an option. The fix is to remove the audio cable from the iPhone and plug it back in – the AUX option reappears. In traffic, this is quite the cumbersome thing to do so that’s pretty much it for my music listening.

It’s a bummer as sometimes there’s something I want to listen to, rather than the regular XM radio.

I suspect the fault lies with the AUX adaptor but we’ll find out fairly soon as in May I am ditching the iPhone and will be going Android. The iPhone is a great device and I am sure I will miss it, but I’m no longer willing to put money into the ever-increasing dictatorship that is Mr Jobs – what next, demanding I can only use your devices while wearing a black turtleneck?

Oh, and I really can’t stand AT&T anymore either.

Next day I go down to the car and sure enough I still can’t open the car remotely. Open it old school and drive to work. Thinking that maybe the key had taken a charge on the short drive I tried locking it remotely and it worked. Pleased that I didn’t need a new key I thought no more about it until I had to go back to the apartment to pick up my Dad. I end up parking in the exact same spot I had left in the morning, get out of the car, go to lock the door and, dammit, nothing. Again, I cannot lock the door remotely.

Go in, pick up Dad and drive home. Get home and the key works fine. All weekend the key works fine (but the car was making some odd nosies that I need to investigate). Worked fine when I got to work this morning.

So, I’m about to go to the apartment. Will the key work? If not, is there some electrical field nearby that is blocking the signal for that one-two car lengths? Is that even possible?! It’s odd, very odd.

And so, after a few hours at the shop, Carrie is repaired[*] and everything is groovy again. When I picked up the car I talked about supercharger options and the mechanic was of the view that I should do nothing until it actually breaks. I am convinced that an oil service is of no value this late into the part’s lifetime so I’d say it’s a replacement/recondition or nothing for the time being. We’ll see how things progress.

[*] Unless of course I get @dbwildo’s level of quality repair.