How I Got Hooked

I first saw a mini cooper up close inside an Ikea as some sort of give away or promotion back in the Fall of 2003. It did catch my eye, but I was not in the market for a new car at the time, so I did not lose much sleep. I mentally filed it away as a potential purchase down the road, noticing the rather reasonable (IMO) sticker price, not knowing there was little flexibility with that number.

I started falling for the MINI Cooper back in April of 2004 when I went car shopping for my mom. We test drove a number of cars including the VW Golf, Mazda 3, and a variety of other small hatchbacks. At the time, the Scion Xa had not reached the Chicago area, but would have been another on our test drive list. My mom ended up getting the Chevy Aveo, which was a new model for 2004, but she did consider the MINI. Some of the things that turned her off were the sporty nature and look, the lack of room of the interior, and the fact that it only came in a three door model (she wanted a five door car). The major turn off was the price, which was almost double of the Aveo.

All good points, but none of those were issues for me. After test driving the MINI, I knew that I would get a Cooper as my next car. I felt that if I were to buy a Cooper, I would have to think of it as a premium sports car for a great price. At this time, the MCS was only available as a 6 speed manual, but a new MCS auto was on the horizon.

Over the next year or so, I visited the dealer about once a week, test driving the CVT Cooper to get a feel of the car in general, and asking as much I could about the future MCSa; and, without the full support of my family, I went ahead and put a deposit for MCSa in October of 2004. The wait time was about two months, but I intended to take delivery in the beginning of April and did not want any surprise delays with delivery time. So I was put on the wait list and allowed people to go ahead of me as needed to get the car when I wanted.

I ended up taking delivery on April 15th (tax day) just in time for some Spring motoring. I was extremely happy to say the least. Mini Dee was waiting in the show room, all nice and shiny. I even was offered to drive it out of the show room, but I opted not to for fear of hitting the door or something. My dark silver/black roof MINI Cooper S automatic had only 11 miles on it, if I remember correctly.

Here's my original spec list:

Premium Package-sunroof, mfsw, auto A/C, and the OBC.

Sports Package-DSC, slack bonnet stripes, xenon headlights, front fog lamps, and wheel upgrade to R98 17" web spokes R99 silver double spoke wheels

Cold Weather Package-heated front seats, heated side view mirror, and heated washer jets.

Convenience Package-auto dimming rear view mirror, rain sensor, auto headlights, and the universal garage door opener

Rear Fog Light

Automatic Transmission with Agitronic Paddles

Gray Space Cloth Seats, anthracite dash

Added Accessories:

My Mini Chrome Door Buttons

AUX input

OEM Rubber Mats

Original Auto Up Circuit from Ian Cull