Category: My MINI

What better way to celebrate new plates and a fresh bath than to go on a little road trip in the MINI. There’s nothing like a buffalo burger to celebrate a drive so we set out yesterday from our home in Brawley to the Rong Branch restaurant in Julian. Most of the route is State route 78 which blasts west through the desert, past the OHV area at Ocotillo Wells and then winds up and down through the mountains before Julian; perfect terrain for the MINI. The motoring gods were smiling on us – even though we caught up with many RVs and trailers we always had enough clear road ahead to go zooming by.

On the way back I decided on a scenic detour. Back down the steep twisties from Julian and then southbound on Imperial/San Diego County Route S2. I’d never done the whole of S2 before and its a great road, two lanes, lots of open road, some tight twisties and great great scenery. Cruising top down was a blast.

Round trip mileage was about 170 miles and to my amazement the trip computer was showing 29.4 mpg, probably the best I’ve ever seen it read on any road trip. A good day out.

Yes its remiss of me, but Carrie got her first (almost full) Zaino treatment at the weekend and I have to say looked super smashing great for the few hours in between drying and moving again; the desert has a lot of dirt and sand [obvious statement of the day]. I’ve 303’d the top a few times and its looking pretty good, definitely slight wear on the hinge where everyone else gets it. But otherwise she is in great shape.

Its now been 7 months since I ordered my personal plates and I have hope that they will arrive some day soon. They were re-ordered at the end of November so we’ll see if “they never take more than 10 weeks” is really true (even though we already know that its not).

Sitting at the traffic light yesterday, behind a very old looking Trooper, top down in the sunshine. Light turns green and the Trooper floors it, the female passenger hangs out the window shouting something and making some gesture with her arm to us. Looks like I lost a race without knowing I was in one. My wife said that before the light turned green the girl shouted something to us but she couldn’t make it out.

Just what is it with these people who see the Cooper and want to race it? I’ve no interest in racing the car on downtown streets, or really ever for that matter. And against a battered old Trooper? Why do all these stupid rednecks in their SUVs and pickups want to take me on? I just let them go, catch them up at the next red light.

I do have to say, however, that the Trooper pulled away very impressively, not sure I could have kept up with it had I wanted to!

Whilst gbmini and our east coast friends shiver, I was out today driving with the top down, shades on, music up. Winter in San Diego, eh?!

Carrie received a couple of items for Christmas: front and back licence plate holders, MINI licence plate holder screw covers, and a Union Jack magnetic decal. She did also receive a pair of chrome side indicator panel replacements but I realised too late that I already had them on the car as part of the chrome package, and when they arrived they weren’t what had been ordered so they got returned.

In other news, the mileometer turned 7,000 today, and I need to start calling Brecht to get the windscreen, air bag sensor and clock fixed.

This week Carrie reached 6172 miles and her 21st brush with the gas station, and therefore time for another fuel consumption post. Figures from the previous update are in [brackets].

• Average Fuel Economy – 25.01 [24.6] MPG
• Best Fuel Economy – 27.1 [27.1] MPG
• Worst Fuel Economy – 22.88 [22.88] MPG

• Average Gas Price – $2.91 [3.126]
• Most Expensive Gas – $3.249 [3.249]
• Cheapest Gas – $2.479 [2.979]

This works out to be 11c per mile.

Got in the car this morning, about to start her up and I notice what looks like a crack in the window. Closer inspection reveals that, yep, I have another damn stress crack coming down from the top of the windscreen right behing the rear mirror. I didn’t know the ’05s suffered from this problem, this will be windscreen number 4 between the two MINIs. Grrrr!

Some time ago I wrote about how it seemed that Americans tend not to hold the car on the clutch like I was taught and, I think, most Brits do. Today I learned another difference – putting the car in gear when leaving it. I’ve always noticed that my wife always leaves the MINI or the Jeep in gear when she gets out of it, but I never do and I’ve never seen that done at home. At work everyone was saying that they all do it and how they hadn’t (until now) met someone who didn’t. How odd.

In other news, getting gas this evening, heard a ripping and a dragging sound. Looked around and some idiot had driven off with the pump still in the tank and had ripped the nozzle right off the pump and taken out his gas tank cover too. You hear about that, but I’ve never seen it.

Its been three months since I swapped my ’02 MCS for my ’05 and I thought I’d update my previous first impressions (and here too) of the new auto.

I never thought I would say this but I wish I had gone with the auto a/c, not for any real reason other than the air system in the car is pretty low power in comparison. On a hot day if I want to feel cool air on my face I have to have the blowers turned on to at least the 3rd mark, maybe on max and even then it isn’t that great. It is good to be able to easily vent the outside air with heating/cooling, though.

I still have the problem with the passenger air bag sensor which I am fairly confident is a loose wire somewhere. Going over the numerous pot holes at home reliably toggles the state of the airbag sensor no matter who or what occupies the passenger seat. And on the highway the light will go off and on at random so I am hoping it will be an easy fix once I get it to the dealer.

The clock still sees time differently to me. I set it to my cell phone time on Nov 1st and it is currently 9 minutes fast. I fear this won’t be so easy for Brecht to fix.

Overall the car still feels so much more together than the ’02, pulling away in first gear is a breeze, cornering is a delight and, although you definitely feel that you’re in a convertible, the overall ride is much more solid feeling. MPG seems to have settled around the 25 – 27 mark for my commute which is a little less than before but still not bad for this amount of fun.

Bottom line: I’m a very happy MCS convertible owner.

We finally heard from the DMV this week, they have no idea what happened to the plates but I am to fill in a new form (I presume for replacements) and they will submit it for me, no charge. No explanation, but hopefully I will have them by the end of the year.