UKPylot’s MINI Blog

Sarah turned 30 today, not 30 years old of course but 30,000 miles. Thats a lot more miles than I am used to doing (welcome to Southern California driving!) but still nothing compared to this guy. Only around 20K of those miles are mine, and only a couple of weeks to my one year ownership anniversary. If/when I start working in San Diego, that figure will get a lot higher!

I’ve come to the conclusion that the MINI is a dangerous car. Not because of its design or construction but because it is so damned small. First, its impossible to see over or around 80% of the vehicles on the road which makes me edgy in close-moving traffic (i.e. all the time in SD or LA). Second, a lot of drivers underestimate the power of the MINI and will pull out in front of you thinking that the tiny car couldn’t possibly be going fast enough for them to be in the way. Finally, some vehicles just don’t see you, especially in the super-lifted automobiles of the Imperial Valley, I swear I could drive underneath some of the monster trucks on the roads here.

Be careful out there!

Last weekend the MINI and I went to the Ramona Air Fair, somewhat north of San Diego: had a great day watching the planes and their acrobatics. I was looking at their website today for pictures of the event (I had been stupid enough to forget my camera) and to my surprise, Sarah made it into their photo album!

Click here for the fair’s website

I love the optimism that the MINI trip computer shows. Yesterday before I left for San Diego it was showing a range of 367 miles. On arrival in San Diego, 120 miles later, it was showing a range of 407!! How many cars get that kind of mileage!!

I’ve had Sarah for almost a year now and I am still often not getting it right when I pull away in first gear. The Cooper has a high torque engine and it doesn’t really respond until you get above 3000 rpm. So I try to get the rpms up before I bring the clutch up but what happens quite often is that it’s about 1500 rpm when the clutch engages and the first thing that happens is the revs go down to about 1000, its like the accelerator has fallen into a hole. Then it picks up and we’re off.

Its annoying because I get challenged quite a bit, either implicitly or explicitly. I’ll roll up to a stop light and the car (usually a pickup of a Neon) behind will pull alongside me. 9 times out of 10 I should have no trouble leaving the car in my dust but when I get that first gear wrong, it takes a few seconds to catch them up – leaving the wrong impression about the might of the MINI!

Not really MINI related, but MINI financing… and I really should have caught this earlier so its all my own fault really. I thought I was being fiscally smart, each month I was making more than the required payment on the loan, get that thing paid off early! Well, they are smarter than me… they’ve been reducing the required payment each month so as to keep me on track to take the whole term of the loan! Yeah, I should have noticed the payments were getting smaller but I still feel duped.

Living out here in the desert, a pool is essential to cooling down but not everyone has one, including us. So… what better (and, more importantly, cheaper) way to cool down than your very own MINI pool.

So I’m a day late posting this but HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH! Yes, June 1st was her second birthday, only 27500 miles on her but her natural parents only put 10000 on her in her first 14 months so I’m trying to make up for it. She’ll get a nice clean and wax today as a celebration.

Only a few days until my baby turns 2 and she continues to have some growing pains. Yesterday during a trip to San Diego the fuel guage stopped working, later it came back on, only to go off again. Currently its working so I can live without another trip to Brecht’s to get it fixed. I certainly did get the runt of the litter when I picked out this baby. She’s still adorable though.

Right now, my MINI looks like half the bug life in the world committed suicide on the window and bodywork. Its so bad, the carnage is two layers deep. So I think I should wash it but then I realise that in a couple of days it will be disgusting again so why bother?

Another new MINI is in the Valley, this one an all pepper white Cooper, looks very nice.

Today I saw an all gold PT Cruiser, just when I thought those things couldn’t be made to look any uglier.