Several people have said “oh noes” you can’t get rid of your MINI, or “what an ugly piece of crap, how can you want one of those!” so I thought I’d point out some reasons that the VT appeals.
- Price. For $26k or so I can get a sporty looking vehicle that can do 0-60 in just under 7 seconds, has sunroof, rear camera, 7″ touch screen with Pandora, bluetooth, navigation etc…. I can even plug my PS3 into it and play games on the screen. I can’t get a comparable MINI, Audi, BMW (not that I ever would) etc for that
- Looks. I happen to like how it looks. Unlike the last point, we can agree to disagree.
- Cost Savings. I do about 23,000 miles a year, 2/3rd of that on the motorways. Quick fag packet calculations… my MINI currently gets about 25 mpg, let’s say gas is $4 a gallon so that’s $3680 a year for the hot juice. The VT is advertised as 38, so lets say I actually get 34, gas is #3.80 a gallon so that’s $2570. I just saved a $1000 in gas. And I’m still having fun.
- Rarity. For better or worse I like vehicles that are different. My first car in the USA was a Toyota Paseo, have you ever seen one of those on the road? Exactly. So the VT appeals as it will be a car that turns heads (even if only to puke) and therefore appeals to that inner need I seem to have for attention (ah, the old dance competition days….).
So there’s a few reasons. I think the car is going to be very hard to find for a while, but I really would like to get one before my MINI is up for registration at the end of August. My choice is for a Vitamin C (read: copper/orange), Manual Transmission with the Ultimate package but I may have to give up on colour, we’ll see.