Category: My MINI

Whilst washing my MINI yesterday I was struck by the similarities between that and flying. In both cases it doesn’t matter much what a great job you do, the activity is defined by just one thing: in flying, its the landing; in washing its the windscreen. Fly like an ace but all anyone asks is “how was the landing”. Wax that MINI to a supershine but if there is a smear on the windscreen, you did a bad job.

And, of course, I washed the MINI yesterday because I knew I’d be driving through a monsoon this morning. The road into the base must have been half an inch of standing water for the last 1/2 mile. Its odd, but I don’t remember English motorways getting as waterlogged as the freeways in the US. Is it some difference in construction? Or am I just losing my mind?

Its good to see gas prices coming down a bit. I paid under $2.40 today for the first time in a while. I have recently found a good gas station on the outskirts of El Cajon, the 2nd St exit. It’s an Exxon station and today has premium for $2.27 (or so it looked from the freeway).

On the trip over to San Diego today, had to drive on snow and ice over the mountain. It was amazing to see all the snow on the ground. The DSC came on a couple of times though I really didn’t feel any reason for it.

I don’t know if my MINI is self-adapting, but the recent problems starting in cold weather have gone away, she starts first time every time.

Lastly, I want to wish Sarah a Happy 40th – on the drive home Friday she passed her 40,000th mile and still going strong. A few rattles inside the cockpit but otherwise no sign of aging.

I’ve always thought it odd that there is no aural warning when the ‘low fuel’ state is reached. Unless you glance over and see that the little red light is on, you might not notice until the MINI starts to stutter. There is a warning, however, when the outside temperature gets into the ‘ice zone’, so that you can adjust your driving style to the risk of ice on the roads. It came on this morning a couple of times on the way to San Diego, temps went down to 29F at one point.

So a while back I got a letter from MINI saying that my car was subject to a voluntary recall to fix a software problem that could mean that emissions do not meet California standards. I called Brecht’s yesterday to book an appointment and they said that they were so busy with recall work right now that they are currently booking 2 months out!! The service guy suggested I wait until my next service work needs doing, which for me is currently 8900 miles. He said that there is no time limit on the free software upgrade so I will do just that. And perhaps by that time the software will have even more nifty features – like getting rid of my stumble?

Seems like its been a long tine since I had any problems with Sarah which is good as I was getting a little tired of the long drives to Escondido for service. But since the weather has cooled, it takes two turns of the ignition to get her to start in the mornings and evenings. She’ll turn over and start but almost instantly the motor dies. I have to take the car back to Brecht for the emissions recall so I shall see if they can look at that same time.

There’s a guy here at work thinking of getting a purple convertible MCS, if he does I will find it really hard to resist doing the same.

I realised the other day that I always park on the left hand side of a row of parking spaces. If I’m going down an empty row with the option of parking on the left or the right I always choose the left, I have to make a conscious decision to go to the right and it feels wrong to do so.

I’d be curious to know if others have a similar habit, er, compulsion.

Three days into my auto-up enabled windows and I love it! It is so handy to be able to close them with such ease. If you don’t already have the circuit, get on to Ian at GBMini and order before he stops making them.

On the way over to San Diego this morning, stopped at the Border Patrol checkpoint and was halted. Said hi to the officer and he motioned that I needed to talk to the officer at the passenger window. Thinking that I’m about to get that cavity search I always wanted, I put the window down, say hi and he tells me that I am driving the wrong colour MINI, it should be a “grey” one, then he smiles and points to a silver S sitting in the staff car park. I laughed, told him that red is best and sped off before he could even think about putting on the gloves. So… all you would be immigrants to the US of A, get a grey MINI if you want to get that Green Card.

I love my MINI’s optimism: last week I had driven about miles on a new tank of petrol and the trip computer was forecasting a range of 514 miles which would have given me about 600 miles on one tank!! Given that I have never gotten more than 350 miles, I wonder just what she is inhaling sometimes….