Category: My MINI

I ended up taking my MINI to Baron’s for the inspection. They quoted a decent (by some standard) price and they were not far from where I work. Turns out that a couple of MINI owners here in the desert take their cars to him and I think they have a genuinely good reputation.

The quote for the Inspection and the brake fluid flush was $595 (and I never did hear back from Brecht). I noticed a call from Baron’s about 90 minutes into the service – never a good sign, and sure enough the rear brakes were worn right through and I needed new pads and rotors. This pretty much doubled the cost, and I walked out of the garage later that day $1139 poorer (or rather deeper in debt to American Express).

I need to go back through my paperwork and see when the brakes were last changed. I think I had them done under warranty but I suppose that was 30k miles ago or so. They advised me that my front brakes have maybe 3-5k miles on them depending on my driving style so I’d better start saving for that.

In case you are interested, the costs broke down as:

• Inspection II Service, labour $262.46
• Brake Fluid Flush, labour $157.79
• Read Brake Pads and Rotors, labour $327.68
• Parts and Fluids $386.53

I’m close to 73,000 miles and the inspection interval is somewhere near 300 so I think I am pretty close to my ‘Inspection II’. After the $300 oil change I can’t even begin to imagine what Brecht would want for this. So I called them but they couldn’t tell me as all MINI Motoring advisors were busy, but one will call me back (presumably when the supercomputer has worked it out).

Anyway, really is no way I am taking it there, instead I will piecemeal it out a bit at a time. I’ve been trying to find out what is actually in the inspection and I think it’s the following:

• oil change
• spark plug change
• pulley belt
• brake flush
• coolant flush
• air filter change
• micro filter change
• a bunch of inspections

My Dad is visiting right now and said he’d help give the oil change a go if I get the tools. I’d need the special wrench and some stands, oh and the oil pan (and a place to ‘dump’ the oil). Air filter I can do myself (I think!), and I presume I could get the brake and coolant flushes done at any regular garage or lube place.

Alternatively, I called a local Land Rover garage that also offers MINI servicing (with techs they stole from Brecht) and they said “around $630” which is ouch but maybe not as ouch as I was expecting.

Also called a MINI place recommended on the SCMM forums, they quoted me $400 or so for the Inspection II but said that the brake fluid and coolant flushes are separate (about $400 more) with a 10% discount for first time and AAA customers.

Back in June I was all doom and gloom about my rising fuel costs:

but since then of course everything has gone pear shaped and the cost of gas has come down, way down. CostCo out here in the Valley has premium for $2.09 so I thought I would add an extra line to that table.

Gas Cost	Regular Driving	Boring Driving	Civic Hybrid
2.09	$130.00	$115.00	$85.00

I think the highest I actually paid was $4.80 so right now I’m saving about $150 a month over that.

$50 “penalty” for having a blast in the MINI compared to the tedium of the Civic? An easy no-brainer with these prices!

Sitting here at the tyre place waiting for a rotate and balance. I was third in line to be taken care of, the guy asked what I was here for and then without hesitation identified my MINI as my car.

Must be something that makes me look like a MINI owner, I guess.

Passed the 70,000 mile mark on the way out of work tonight. That makes a yearly average of just under 22,000 miles a year. At the risk of jinxing it I’m pretty happy with the reliability of the car since the warranty. Sure, I’ve been stung by some crazy dealer service prices but not next time (which incidentally is due in 2,300 miles). Got my fingers crossed for at least another 30k before the super charger gives out.

In other news, gas prices keep coming down here as everywhere. Regular is now below $3 almost everywhere in San Diego and premium can be had for less than $3 in a few Arcos. I am noticing that the traditional 20c gap between regular and premium seems to be widening. On Monday in El Centro, Costco was selling regular for $2.86 but premium was $3.19. Hmmm.

Got a bit of a bee in my bonnet right now about buying a VW camper van/vanagon. I’d love to get a classic to run around the desert in for the cool winter months. Been looking at ebay but most everything is too expensive or just too run down for me to even start. I did see something today that was located in San Diego but it was a 1980 and the look really isn’t what I want, not the classic shape. Only looking to spend 2-3K max so probably will end up just idle browsing.

Not digging the new theme, will be finding something different soon.

Yeah, we know the answer to that but the woman driving her MDX didn’t seem to know. I don’t know what it is with people wanting to beat me off the line at traffic lights. Surely after all this time, people know that the MINI is, well, a bit quick. And I’m used to WRX’s, 911’s etc making their intentions clear but not often an SUV.

So tonight I’m in the left lane of two at the traffic light, next light is a left turn for me. I see the Acura come up behind, pause, and then come out around me to the right. My first thought is that she wants to go straight on at the next light. Light changes and she’s off, engine squealing. I don’t usually bother but I’ve been pissy all week and I’m frankly disgusted that someone thinks an MDX is faster than a MINI.

I catch her during the change from 2nd to 3rd gear (I bet most of you would still be in first!), cruise by her and am at the light 10-15 seconds before her; she pulls up behind me.

I don’t get it. I drive very conservatively, no crazy quick starts, no challenging other vehicles, and yet time and time again a car will pull this crap. Frankly I’m getting tired of it.

I finally joined the ranks of the iPhone users last week and am loving my new toy, never before did I think that using a phone could be fun. But, despite owning about 8 mounts for my Flip camera, I don’t have a good way to secure the iPhone in the MINI. Right now it just sits on the passenger seat but one tight curve and it’s off onto the floor. Or worse, with the windows open I could see it bouncing up and out into the wild blue yonder.

So as much as I hate to buy yet another mount, looks like I need something. I know Ian has a convertible and an iPhone – what do you do? RB – you have an iPhone, too. And anyone else care to say what they use?

btw, the picture is of a mount sold by MountGuys.com.

Last Friday I on my way home from San Diego I could see huge cumulus clouds building up in the East but one thing I have learned from flying, it is impossible to know how far away they are – could have been over home, or all the way to AZ or CO.

Got down to the Valley floor and there was a wall of grey 10 miles ahead. A huge storm cloud tilted in the sky, the left hand side tipping all the way to the desert floor. To the right, a veil of darkness. Hmm.. this was going to be interesting.

Inside the cloud it started to hail, giant balls of hail banging on the glass. The wind was fierce and visibility went down to maybe 20 feet. A lot of people had pulled off onto the hard shoulder but the storm wasn’t moving and I figured I could be stick there for ages. So I kept going, but at 20 mph or so, watching the white line real close. Yeah, I had the camera for a while but soon realised I was in enough danger as it was, no need for more.

Finally got outside the storm but it looked filthy in the sky in all directions,. A few miles later, a large brown curtain masked the road ahead. No rain this time but the storm winds had whipped up tons of sand and dirt and for a few seconds it was almost total brown-out. Scary stuff.

I was glad to get home and, I thought, get to enjoy experiencing the storm from under our patio roof (I have an extreme weather fetish) but the storm stayed to the west and the north of us. Naturally, I had washed the car on Sunday and now on Friday it was all dirty again.

It was also the first time for me to try out my new Anywhere Travel Companion, an aviation and street GPS unit. Maybe more on the latter in a future post.

This Friday when I went to leave work my fuel gauge showed totally empty, despite me having filled up that morning. I checked around the car in case the fuel line had broken, or maybe someone had stolen the gas out, but could see no evidence of any damage. There’s a gas station a couple of miles away so I decided I’d try and make it there and see if I could put any fuel in. About half way I was stopped at a light and decided that I couldn’t have gotten that far on nothing so turned the engine off and gave the car a good shake. Put the engine back on and the fuel gauge was alive and showing full.

Most likely a stuck needle in the tank (do modern cars still work that way?) but then yesterday I was driving around town and noticed that the needle was way below what it should have been, but after about 15 minutes it finally went up to what I thought was the proper mark. Hopefully just a transient issue or am I going to have raid the piggy bank for some repairs.

Talking of piggy back, I’m only about 3 months away from my Inspection II being due – I don’t even want to know what Brecht will charge for that.

Rumours have reached this desk that I might be planning to attend a MINI run in the near future. Well, it’s true! There is a very good chance that Teri and I will be meeting up with SCMM in Redlands on Aug 23rd to join them on their run to Big Bear. Yes, people, watch out – earthquakes can not be far behind!!!

And in other news from the future, I am sure everyone has received details of the room rate for AMVIV 6 in March ’09; I think we’ll be at that, too.