My New MINI
Today I picked up my new car: a dark silver MINI Cooper S with the Premium, Sports and Cold-Weather packs. I've honestly never enjoyed driving so much in my life.
After much deliberation I got a 6-speed manual. I was worried about having to shift with my right hand (while I've driven manual in Australia, I've never driven stick in the US). But I'm so glad I went with it. No problem at all switching hands (I guess the real work is in the feet anyway and they don't switch).
I can't push it too hard for the first 1,200 miles but the acceleration in second gear is awesome.
The interior controls are really nicely done but I'm going to need to sit down with the manual to really get a hang of everything (trip computer, iPod integration, etc)
The purchasing experience at MINI of Peabody was excellent. You are really made to feel like you are joining the "cool club". Maybe MINI is the Apple of cars.
I love it! And I'm not into cars at all :-)
Comments (5)
Alexander Falk on Nov. 17, 2007:
Congrats, nice car! The timing is perfect, too - almost a birthday present to yourself... :)
Talking of which: happy birthday in 2 days!
Sean Reifschneider on Nov. 18, 2007:
Congrats on the new car. Seems like it tis the season. I also got a new toy recently. Also, 6 speed manual.
Though for us, it was a harder decision because we really wanted AWD. While there are lots of AWD cars (not SUVs or trucks) out there, but many of them are automatic transmission only. For example, the Lexus IS250 AWD is AT only. It has this "sports mode" with steering wheel paddles, but they only work in gears 1-3, not 4-6, and it will still sometimes downshift. It was pretty annoying.
I find automatic transmissions pretty annoying. I did have one in a rental car once that didn't annoy me. It was a minivan. But, it had a little gate so that you could manually shift up or down, and it wouldn't shift unless you told it to.
Congrats on the new toy.
Sean
Tom on Nov. 18, 2007:
I'd like to schedule my ride sometime after mile 1,200 :-)
Congrats!
-t
Nelson Clemente on Nov. 22, 2007:
Hrm... for some reason its soooo easy imagining you in that cool Mini. Take a photo of you in it!
-Nel
Last Modified: Nov. 18, 2007
Author: James Tauber
Philipp von Weitershausen on Nov. 17, 2007:
Congrats to your new car! Going with the manual was the right thing to do, by the way. A Mini with an automatic gearbox would be like one of those self-playing pianos -- you might enjoy the tune, but it's not you who's playing it :).