Month: July 2006

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.

Getting Hotter!

On my way home from San Diego yesterday afternoon, the OBC showed 119 when I got to the desert floor. I was willing it to hit 120 but it didn’t happen this time. Its only July, I think I will see 120+ before the end of the summer. But 119 is a record for Carrie in her first year.

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.

Clean Me!

Haven’t cleaned the MINI in at least three weeks and boy she looks dirty. I have discovered a downside to owning a convertible – you can’t take it to the car wash for a quick touch-up. When its 117 during the day, there’s no way I’m getting out there and washing the car. So it will just stay dirty for now.

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.

Any Finance Wizzes Out There?

Would you save on your car loan if you used those “use you credit card as cash” cheques that have a good interest rate for a fixed term? Lets say the cheques have a good rate for a year. Make a year’s worth of payments on the loan with one of the cheques, and then instead of making loan payments you pay the credit card company for a year. You’d be paying less interest on the credit card, and your total car loan repayment amount would be less because the monthly interest would be accuring on a smaller total amount.
Does that make any financial sense or should I stick to being paid in gummy bears?