Three Quarters of a Century

Yep, last night on the way home I passed the 75k mile mark. Usually I notice when I hit the ‘000 boundaries but this time I missed it, saw 750001 instead. Carrie is still going strong though at the weekend I went to get gas and the DSC light came on and wouldn’t go off. I figured I would troubleshoot it when I got to the gas station but when I cranked her up the light was off and has stayed off ever since.

The front brakes are due to be replaced in the next 2000 miles or so. After Brian’s comment about how much I paid for the rear ones, I am not sure if I will take it back to the last garage or not. One thing I noticed though with the rears is that they replaced the rotors as well – shouldn’t I be able to get just the front pads changed??

To Coast or Not to Coast?

Ever since gas was real expensive I’ve been doing my own hypermiling variant which involves taking the car out of gear and coasting when it makes sense to do so.

At the dentist recently I was reading a car magazine that talked about ‘fuel efficiency myths’ and it said that fuel injected cars do no better coasting than they do with your foot off the pedal, so keep the car in gear in case you need some revs. There is no gas saving.

I’m no car expert but I can see the rev counter at 3k rpm compared to 0 and it seems to me that means gas is being used, although it might be small.

What do you all think?

Inspection II – The Aftermath

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

Inspection II Time

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.

Fuel Calculations Update

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

UKPylot2019s MINI Blog » Blog Archive » Some Fuel Calculations

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!

The Sky Isn’t Falling (Sirius XM)

I’ve complained at least twice about the passing of XM and my worry that the “new and improved” will be anything but, and last week the big switch happened (without any warning to subscribers, naturally).

Of the first 6 preset channels on my radio, I lost three of them to new channels which was a little disconcerting. But after a few days, with the exception of one of them, I am liking the replacements.

  • UPop 29 – always knew this was going (since Worldspace is in Chapter 11) but it has been replaced with BBC Radio 1 which I have always wanted access to. Only downside is that the sound quality for speech has always been dodgy on every channel so at freeway speeds in the convertible it is near impossible to hear what the DJs are saying
  • Flight 26 – generic pop station, has been replaced by another generic hit station playing too much Nickelback, Daughtry etc I can’t tell the difference between any of them. I have replaced this channel with Chill.
  • Fred 44 – very sad to see this replaced but I am delighted that the replacement 1st Wave is fantastic. Hardcore fans of Fred certainly won’t like it, but for the very reasons that I do. I liked Fred for the new wave hits and did not like it when it went all punk on me. 1st Wave seems to be overwhelmingly the style that I like, just this morning they played King’s Love and Pride, I haven’t heard that in years.

Time will tell if the “shallow playlist” complaint of the XM nation will hold out, I’ve not listened enough yet to determine how often the same tunes are coming around, but so far I’m pleasantly surprised with the new lineup.

70,000 Miles

70,000 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.

Future Listening Choices

Some time in the next few weeks we’ll see the official list of who stays and who goes in the Sirius/XM merger lineup. I’ve been a big fan of XM in the past and I wonder if I will like the results. My favourite channel, UPop, was taken off the air for a long time for no reason; it’s currently back but it’s owner, Worldspace, filed for Chapter 11 this week so I’m already resigned to losing it.

Since then I’ve been listening to XM Cafe, The Loft, Fred, Top 20 and some random button pushing to find something I like. The Loft is not bad and Fred is pretty good when they stick to the alternative music and not stray into rock. But I’m not feeling the love for XM that I used to.

Today I read over at DBSTalk.com that a great many program directors have been let go suggesting that a lot of XM channels are being axed, including many that I like.

So right now I’m thinking that I may return to CDs and the iPod in the MINI for my future commutes. I’m not fond of the Sirius stations, though if BBC Radio 1 is offered, that might be enough for me to keep being a customer.