My wife says I am a MINI-enthusiast because I read the blogs, the news sites, try to keep informed with all the changes etc. I say I’m not an enthusiast because I totally don’t care about things like Fireball Tim’s latest performance mods, or the latest carbon fibre rivets to give me that extra 0.1hp. So what exactly does define you as an enthusiast or not? Clearly I am more into MINIs than the average Kia driver is into their Kia, but I am a long way off of the interest of the “average” MINI enthusiast. Maybe there is a better word for “my kind”. Hmm… maybe I’ll turn the vulgarity filter on!
Category: General
Under $3!
I didn’t expect it to happen but driving through El Cajon yesterday on the way home, an Arco was displaying $2.99 for premium and $2.79 for regular. Locally, it is $3.09 which is still pretty good by 2006 standards. I need to get a picture of a street corner in El Centro. Last weekend the Chevron on one corner was advertising $3.37 for regular unleaded whilst the 7/11 on the opposite side of the street was advertising $3.09. I’ll leave up to you to guess which had more customers on the forecourt.
Gas Prices
What a difference a day makes! Last Thursday I bought gas in San Diego for $3.33 a gallon but this morning’s fillup in Brawley to come back was a (by these days standards) decent $3.19! Regular gas is $2.99 everywhere at home, would love to see premium come down to that but I’m not hopeful. Of course, those travelling the country right now are getting prices better than even that.
Speaking of gas, I’m jealous of the mpg figures that Ian is quoting. This morning the OBC was indicating 26.7 but the actual was 24.8 – eek. I wonder how easy it would be to take the back seat out of Carrie, no one uses it as I know no one who is willing to sit back there cramped up. Might be good for a couple extra mpg….
The “Black Box” Is Here!
Talking to my wife last night, she told me that a black box from MINI had arrived yesterday, so it sounds like the famous “secret decoder kit” has finally arrived. But is it too late to use? Have all the ads run already? Still, at least its nice to know I am still on the MINI mailing list, if at the bottom of it. I’m looking forward to checking it out when I get home this evening.
Stupid Weather
I risked death on Sunday by finally getting around to washing the automobile in the heat of the afternoon. So of course, yesterday it rained and now the paintwork has lots of lovely rainspots on it. Just great.
Not much going on in MINI-land though I may have some engine problems to report later, am currently trying to decide if I can hear odd noises whilst idling or if its just in my head (perhaps the bubbling noise I hear is the blood in my brain). With the paucity of updates, and unlikelihood of this changing, I’m thinking of merging this blog into my regular one but am so far undecided.
Dust to Dust Costs
Found this from a link of a link…. CNW Marketing Research Inc. spent two years collecting data on the energy necessary to plan, build, sell, drive and dispose of a vehicle from initial concept to scrappage. This was translated into a “dollars per lifetime mile” figure. That is, the Energy Cost per mile driven. I’ve seen plenty of discussion saying that the method is flawed but I thought it interesting enough to pull out some of the items:
| Model | Cost Per Mile ($) | Est. Lifetime (Miles) |
|---|---|---|
| Maybach | 11.582 | 257,000 |
| Lamborghini | 4.009 | 121,000 |
| Prius | 3.249 | 109,000 |
| Expedition | 3.058 | 284,000 |
| MINI Cooper S | 1.908 | 161,000 |
| MINI Cooper | 1.795 | 169,000 |
| Focus | 0.803 | 169,000 |
| xB | 0.478 | 189,000 |
So the MINI comes out pretty well.
Got My MINI Visa Card
I know I said I wouldn’t be applying for the new MINI Visa card but I did, so there. The lure of having a card with a picture of my very own auto on it proved too hard to resist. I was going to post a picture of it but I couldn’t find a way of obscuring the credit card numbers that left the picture reasonably intact. Its kind of a shame that I don’t have the old MINI as that combination (red, white, union jack roof) would have made a great looking card but it is neat to see Carrie on my card when I buy things.
Now…. should I use the introductory 0% credit deal to pay off some of my loan….. just kidding.
New Server
Moved the guapacha.com family of blogs to a new webhost last week. At the same time I moved the WordPress install location which I think has probably broken everyone’s RSS bookmarks…. I’m still in the process of testing everything but if you see something wrong let me know.
The Real Cost of Gas
This picture of a Manahattan Beach Shell gas station shows the real price of precious petrol in CA…
Though I have to say that my local station is down 21c over the last week or two. Its still $3.52 for the premium but that’s better than it was, looks like we’ve staved off $4 for now….
Made it at Last
Yep, on the way home from San Diego this afternoon, I hit the valley floor and saw the OBC rise to 104 degrees, old-school. Its getting warm, baby! And this at 5.45pm, glad I wasn’t here mid-afternoon.
I filled up with gas when I left work and despite terrible traffic on I-15, SR-52, and I-8 the OBC was indicating 29.7 mpg for a very long time. I’ve not seen that high before in Carrie over any distance. Unfortunately I had to put the a/c on (or die) and by the time I got home it was down to 29.0 but that’s still a record for me over 130 miles of driving. An hour in stop-start traffic, and then another 90 mnutes pretty much at 80.