Don't Worry, I'm Still Around

It's crazy to think it's been almost a year since my last post here on dcMINI. But it has and it not that there has been a lack of MINI related things going on. In fact there are plenty.

I will say that I have not been driving the MINI all that much, being winter in Chicago. I don't think I even dove the MINI for all of December and a good portion of November. I know, I really wanted to but I have a really good excuse. I was recently married and much of my focus was on that. We had a Parisian wedding! And it was fantastic. We ended up doing it a bit differently by combining the honeymoon with our wedding but I really had a great time. We traveled to Madrid, Barcelona and then Paris, where we were married in a really cool old church. We dont have the pictures yet of the wedding day but here are some photos of the rest of the trip. Anyways.... that happened. I am still under 50K miles and the car has been doing ok. And by "ok" I mean there has been some issues I have dealt with. Nothing major but still worth mentioning.


Some of you who listen to the WWR podcast know that they remind us, almost weekly, to check the oil level on our cars. Fellow MINI owner Taylor was one of the first I had heard about having a problem with this. Apparently there was a slow oil leak from the oil pan gasket that eventually caused the engine to seize up. Not fun! Fortunately, he talked his way into getting the dealer to help out with replacing his engine but still, knowing that could happen to a very knowledgable guy scared me a little. I have since had my oil pan gasket and valve cover gasket replaced since they were starting to fail as well. It was just a precaution but worth doing as opposed to replacing an engine. This was back in September of 2010

Now, I have a little leak from the coolant line, probably a hose seal somewhere, but I have to have that checked out. Since the MINI is not my daily driver, it is not a priority to get this fixed asap, but I plan on getting it in in the next couple weeks.

Now to address the fact that I have not been posting as much as I would like. When I first started this blog, it seemed that everyone that wanted a voice could just start up a blog. Now I have noticed that that is not the case. There are a few of you still out there doing their thing but most are hitting up facebook. I am no exception. Although not all MINI related, my facebook handle is www.facebook.com/dcmini if you are ever interested in that. Friend me up and let me know you are a dcMINI reader.

Thanks for reading, and I'll try to post up here on more significant MINI stuff as they happen. :-)

2010 MCS Mayfair Cnet Review

Sometimes I think they just want to get a rise out of us. I still think this was a good review though. True about the volume knob. Check the blooper at the end.... Classic!

X-Ray Mini

I came across this over at TED.com which I though was fascinating. For the 50th anniverary of the Mini, Nick Veasly decided to x-ray a Mini piece by piece. Check this video out. Towards the end, he shows the Mini in all its glory. Very cool!.

Video Link

BeachComber

The Beachcomber seems like old news now that the R60 is all over the net, which it is heavily based on. Take a look at the new R60 over at Motoringfile to compare. It seems very clear to me. And I am digging the new look. I can't wait to see it in person, a very long time from now.... ugh.

Happy New Year (40000 Miles)

The odometer on the MINI rolled over its 40,000 mile on New years Day! It was freezing (thankfully part of me was toasty with the heated seats). Things are going well with the MINI. My new brakes are a bit squeaky but that's ok. My new tires feel great. I had a change to drive it in some light snow and I felt sure footed. Huge difference! Happy new year! Here's to looking forward to new things!

Lenny Wins!

I caught this on the Simpsons the other day where Lenny, Carl and Homer daydream of supervising themselves at the power plant. What else would you do but race a red, white and blue MINI in the halls. Good Stuff. Enjoy.

Rotors, Pads, and Tires... Oh My!

As my MINI gets a little older, I tend to take the car out more often. Baby-ing the car has been lacking lately since the it becomes more and more difficult to make the time. So I decided that I would try driving the MINI on a more daily basis, even in the winter months that are approaching fast in Chicago.

I had my brakes redone at 37616 miles. I didn't go with any performance rotors or pads, just a stock rebuild kit from MINICarParts.net. They had a good deal with the entire kit, free shipping, and an additional 10 percent off. It's been a couple weeks now and the brakes feel good after starting out a little mushy.

In another effort to get ready for winter, I needed to replace my Kumhos badly. Although they were a great summer tire and were considered an all season tire, they are really not. In fact in any snow, they are down right dangerous. And at the last rotation, I had some serious road noise issues. I think being a very sticky tire also makes them wear a lot faster too.

I decided to go ahead replace those with a set of Bridgestone Potenza G 019 Grid. The ratings on the winter performance were considerably better than the Kumhos so we'll see if that is the case this winter. So far, after having them installed and aligned at 37659 miles, the ride is very smooth now.

Oh yeah, I also changed out my battery just in case with a battery from Autozone. So far everything is fine.

MINI Confidential

Some of you might have received an email from MINI with this coded image. Since I did not have my MINI decoder near by I just tilted my laptop screen to reveal the message which brought me to a new site with a bunch of videos and images of what's new at MINI specifically the new coupe concept. As I was poking around I came across this sketch with a very familiar logo branding that made me think I was on Motoringfile for a second. (look at Motoringfiles header image with the "fast forward" icon) Interesting to say the least. btw, I do like what the coupe represents. I just don't think its useful enough to make the masses buy tons of them. What's great about the MINI now is that it can be used in so many ways. Exciting nonetheless.

4-1/2 Years, 36,000 Miles

I just rolled over my 36,000th mile yesterday. I have been driving the MINI for more of the day to day errands and more often to and from work. I think the next thing I want to do is get some good winter tires. I want to start driving the MINI more and having the 205/45HR-17 Kumho Ecsta AST XL Tires is just to dangerous in the winter. I am not sure what tire I should get but I will keep my eyes open.

2009 4th of July

We participated in the 2009 4th of July parade again over in Oak Lawn. This year we decided to make a patriotic top hat that proved to be a bit challenging since there was a slight drizzle all morning. Thankfully there was no wind so we were good to go. There were a ton of kids snatching up all the candy they could get as we tossed handfuls of tootie rolls out the window. I had a lot of fun getting the MINI all dressed up. Check out the picts below and Steve's photos. He's the one with red MINI and the inflatable Uncle Sam that has a perfect parade hand wave. Nice! More info on the CMMC site as well.

MINI is a Favorite @ WWDC

In case you missed the keynote yesterday at the WWDC, Apple presented a few new items including the new iPhone 3G S. And just like with MINIs, the "S" makes it go faster. ;-) Zipcar also introduced there new way to find nearby cars and reserve them via their new app. During their demo, they found a Prius nearby but opted for the MINI instead for the fun factor. And just in case when you finally get to the location and you just can't find the car parked, you can sound the horn from your phone. How cool is that! It's like when I call my own cell when I misplace my phone in the house. The keynote is posted here and skip to 1h33m for the Zipcar presentation if you don't want to watch the whole thing.

Three 3's and Two 1's

Not really a milestone but more for helping myself remember when I rotated my tires. I really can't recall when I last did that but I know it's been a while. So I decided to get a little dirty and rotate them myself this passed weekend. While I was at it I also decided to clean my wheels inside and out. Now we'll see how long that last but for now the wheels look great. I did notice a couple of nasty gouges in the inside of the rim, probably from road debris, but you can't tell looking from the outside. Here are some photos of the finished product, a couple of days later.

I Pity Da Fool

I passed up this classic van this weekend from vintage TV show, the A-Team. Awesome... Wait a minute... that is a Kia Van!! Only in America. Respect the Van! Hope everyone enjoys their Holiday weekend!

VW Bug Spoiler

I snapped a shot of this Vdub with a pretty cool automatic spoiler. As I drove along the side of this, the spoiler would pop up at about 45mph and retract back as it slowed to about 15mph. I've seen this before on the Crossfire and other cars but I never knew it was on the bug too.

There's some really ugly VW bug spoilers out there but this one isn't all that bad. Now whether it actually does anything is a different question. I'm sure it's mostly for show. As a side note, the iPhone really does some trippy things with fast moving objects. Take a look at those wheels... weird! :-)

MINI E on Cnet's Green Show

Here is a quick test drive of the MINI E. I have not seen one of these in the wild since they are only being leased on the east and west coasts. Not sure if they can even venture out here without worrying on how to recharge it. direct link

Bang for the Buck

Here is an article that came across my inbox reinforcing the idea that the MINI is a great value. Consumer Reports compiled all of their resources to produce a "bucks-per-bang" for each vehicle. The Prius Touring tops the list with a bucks-per-bang figure of $325 but the MINI and VW Rabbit came in a close second.

The Prius is followed closely in our list by the Mini Cooper and VW Rabbit hatchbacks, with a bucks-per- bang figure of $330. Five small cars, the Mazda Miata sports car, and the Toyota Camry Hybrid family sedan follow with results ranging from $340 to $365. One of those small cars, the redesigned Honda Fit, has the best owner cost in the list, only $24,000 over five years.

Most Bang for the Buck via Yahoo.

CMMC Spring Drive 2009/B-Day

Last weekend we had our first drive of the season. It was very cool with a portion of the drive being three traffic circles in a row! That made it very fun. It was also the 4 year mark of my MINI's build date. Check out my photos below and everyone else's photos on the CMMC page. Great weather and great times!

Google RSS Ads

Just about everywhere on the internet, there is at lease one kind of advertisement that competes for our attention. dcMINI is no exception but I have tried to minimize there impact (no pun intended) and make the content of those ads be relevant. Now they have started to trickle in my RSS reader too. Not a huge deal but when I start to see wrinkle creme ads on Motoringfile, it starts to give me the wrong idea. And to make things worse, there is no division from what is the add to the content of the article (see image). There's gotta be a better way.

30,000th mile

I hit the 30k mark over the weekend! And my fourth year of ownership is just around the corner too. If you click on the image you can even see exactly where it happened with the embedded geotagging info displayed to the right.

The MINI is still running strong, although I hate to think I am feeling an itch for a new one. We'll see. That Clubman is looking better and better every time I look at it. We even stopped by the dealer to ask some questions and wet our lips. FYI, the 2.9% financing MINI is offering only applies to those who take delivery now. Who knows when that offer will end so even if we were to order one, by the time it were to get here, it might not be offered.

WGN Courtesy Desk

Not terribly MINI related but funny none the less. I sent in a comment a while back to the WGN morning news and I came across this viral video response from last summer. Enjoy!


direct link