Speeding

As most people know, I am not a speeder. I may do 80 in a 70 zone when that is the general speed of the traffic but, unlike many MINI drivers, you won’t find me doing 100+ even though Sarah certainly would love to. My reasons are two-fold: first, I don’t want to get a ticket, never had one in my life and don’t intend to (though with my regular San Diego commute I consider it inevitable). Second, I think it’s irresponsible in most public road conditions. You might think you can stop on a dime from 130mph after coming round a blind curve to find a poor Cruiser owner broken down in the middle of the road but I know I can’t. In such an event I am happy to see Darwinism take care of you but I don’t believe innocents should have to suffer for your lesson in mortality.

I am pasting a posting from the SCMM forum which shows exactly why I don’t hang out with these people any more. Its not a question of if this guy seriously hurts himself or someone else, its a question of when. I don’t intend to be there when it happens.

Well … I had been pumping along at 110-130 at the time and that seemed to present an “issue” with Mr. CHP (go figure) … of course, I had no idea he was “watching me” and a dude in a HEMI Dodge going at it … so, he was pissed cause it took a while to land my sorry MINI ass … but he was impressed with my driving and thought the car was “cool” … durr … we KNOW THAT …

Good Gas

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.

Aural Warnings

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.

Recall Appointments

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?

Nasty MINI Crash in San Diego

Very unpleasant pictures on the news last night of a nasty crash involving a MINI Cooper . The early reports say that the MINI and a pick up truck were racing on the freeway at speeds of around 100mph. The MINI tried to overtake on the dirt median, lost control, crossed to the other lanes and hit another pick-up. Both vehicles caught fire but the pick-up driver managed to get out; the MINI drivers were not so lucky.

I cringe every time I read a posting on the bulletin boards bragging about doing 100+ on the freeway, or doing 60 on mountain twisties on the wrong side of the road – if you want to die, fine, but there’s a good chance you’ll take innocent people with you. Please keep the stupid driving to the track or other legal off-highway venues.

Problems

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.

Holy Smokes, Batman!

Back from a weekend in Vegas, took about 5 hours each way from Brawley. Because we thought there would be 4 adults, two with three weeks of luggage with them, we didn’t take the MINI but still made good time. Saw the extremes of gas prices whilst we were gone. In Needles, CA, the price of premium unleaded was an amazing $3.19!!! Contrast that to the prices posted on the CA/AZ border which was advertising the regular unleaded at just $2.03. Median price round here is still around $2.60 for a gallon of premium.

Parking on the Left

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.

Is the MINI Unreliable?

Last night I went to Borders bookstore to get a copy of the Reader and ended up flicking through some of the ‘car guide’ magazines to read their capsule reviews of the 2005 MINI. Almost all of them said that reliability was way below average and at first I was indignant, but then I thought about it, and all the problems I’ve had with mine and I realise they are probably right, at least as far as my experience goes. Its interesting that my perception of the car’s reliability is so tainted by my fondess of the marque.

Today I used the online configurator to spec out and price a new S convertible, looked great in purple with black bonnet stripes. I could afford it if I sold my Jeep (which I plan to do anyway) and traded-in my current MINI. Its tempting.