Category: My MINI

I think it may have been the strong tailwind I had going home Friday coupled with no wind coming back on Monday, but I managed a whopping 28.6 miles per gallon on the last tank of gas. In the old ’02 MCS this would be nothing to write home about but in the convertible I rarely see more than 26 for my Brawley to San Diego commute.

Interestingly though, I put 13.1 gallons in this morning and the OBC said I had 19 miles left to go which would be less than a gallon left in the tank. Too bad I didn’t make the 400 miles, am yet to manage that on any journey.

Gas this morning was $3.56 and rising. Ouch.

I got the cool Flip Ultra, and want to take some film whilst driving in the MINI but I cannot find anywhere or anyway to secure the camera. So, I took this little video of Carrie so perhaps someone can suggest where I might stick it (so to speak!).

Shortly after getting the ’05 cabrio, Teri and I were driving top down on a perfect autumn day on the outskirts of Palm Springs. We exit the freeway and see a brand new convertible PT Cruiser, top down, at the light. Simultaneously we remark to each other what a hideous vehicle it is; I am stunned that the soft top made it look even worse. We pull alongside at the red light. The drivers are a friendly old couple, they wave and shout “great looking car you have there” and smile. Clearly they are waiting to get their compliment back. I look at the stop light, still red. Dammit, I turn and say “yeah, you too”. The light changes, and off we go.

Given my lack of preparation I ended up taking the car to Brecht for the oil service. I was prepared to pay a lot for the service; sadly I was not prepared enough. Ouch. I think I could have a lifetime’s worth of oil changes on any regular car. I need to find a better solution for the next one. The advisor said he thought the “Service 2” was around $750 which is less than I expected but still crazy. I have that to look forward to in about 9 months I would say.

Once again they wanted to do the fuel injection flush but I said no. Partly because I can’t afford it, and partly because I feel its a bit of a con. Oh, and I am sure I can get that done somewhere cheaper – unless MINI has proprietary parts on that too?

They also found that the right motor mount was leaking and suggest that I get it replaced soon, another $325 for that. It sure is fun being out of warranty. Maybe I should go swap it for a Yaris and a briefcase of cash??

At 51k, I’m just a couple of hundred miles short of being due the next oil change and can’t decide what route to take. Brecht is a pain in the derrière to get to and they charge too much, take too long. And I was brought up never to pay dealer service prices (thanks Dad). Yes, I know I am supposed to do it myself but I have neither time, aptitude or desire. Which pretty much leaves me with a regular lube place. I fully appreciate that its simply not done in the community to take a MINI to such a place but I don’t really see much choice. I do wonder if a lube’n’go will have an oil filter in hand but surely by now the MINI is popular enough that they should be prepared.

Oh, also going to replace the air filter but that one I will do myself.

[and in some other news, my driving licence is finally here – yay!]

As I predicted, Carrie turned her 50,000th mile this weekend just as we were leaving Sedona. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried but mostly we’ve motored. I had meant to leave my camera out for the occasion but packed it by mistake so there is no 50k shot, nor are there any pictures of the cool roundabouts (now I am a US citizen do I have to say turn circles?) that Sedona has. It may be 10 years since I drove in the UK but it still felt odd to go the ‘wrong way’ round. Damn, 10 years since I drove at home??

Anyway, with the 50k reached, I’m now driving without a safety net. There’s no way I can afford MINI servicing or repair, or want to drive the 150 miles to Escondido for an oil change, so will seek out a decent lube shop for the oil and keep fingers tightly crossed on the repair side. I did have a fleeting thought that I should trade her in for a swap of something easier to maintain but after 730 miles of, mostly 80 mph, freeways this weekend I am sure I would not have anywhere near such fun in a different marque. And that 730 miles at an indicated 27mpg which isn’t too bad, I suppose.

I’ll be uploading some pictures from the trip tonight, will put a link here, plus I think I have a new banner picture for this ol’ site.

Oh, and there’s still no sign of my driver’s licence… grrr

It’s been a couple of weeks but I am finally able to drive the MINI again, for the last couple of weeks I’ve been in the wife’s Camry. Driving home in traffic last night it was good to be able to put my foot down and get through the holdups, take the curves at ‘appropriate’ speeds, and most of all just feel the responsiveness of the engine. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Camry, and it was nice of Teri to make the ‘sacrifice’ of driving the MINI for a couple of weeks: I know she suffered terribly 🙂

Just over 48,000 miles on the clock, time for one more stop at Brecht to see if they can find the rattle without me having to pay them to do so. Not going to make the oil change before 50k, alas.

Inside the last 3,000 miles of the warranty, trying to make sure everything is in top shape before I am on my own for the cost of repairs. I need to take Carrie back for the clanking noise which is as present as ever but now I am thinking about my a/c.

I think when I first got the car I blogged that the a/c seemed under-powered compared to that of the ’02 MCS. That is still very much the case. There are times when I need to put the strength on level 3 or 4 to feel any air coming out of the vents (top down of course) and even then it is not always chilled. The 15 minute drive to El Centro on a Saturday afternoon in the summer heat is almost always unpleasant, last weekend in 90F I didn’t once feel any cold air even after an hour of stop/start driving. Other times, it will start out strong and then after a while it feels like it shuts itself off. I don’t feel any cool air any more.

So, dear reader – do you think this is something I should bring to Brecht’s attention? Is this normal behaviour for the ’05 cabrio ?

It took almost three months but I finally got both the tags and title slip for my MINI this weekend. The lesson learned here is that it’s better to go to the local office in person than choose the convenience of mailing it in. Just one more important piece of mail to come…. my rescheduled citizenship interview with the INS, but I think that is going to require a visit to their office so I can ask wtf in person.

In MINI news, Carrie is now at 46,700 and some change, slowly making it towards out of warranty time. Service indicator is predicting 50,300 for the oil change so slim to none chance of me getting that on MINI’s dime.