Cars

The day I’ve anticipated for 2 weeks came and went. After a chilly drive down (the 1st half with the top down, until we got too cold) I drove right by the dealership. The Mini place shares the building with the BMW folks and it is a new building that is attractively landscaped. Unfortunately the palmetto trees and other plants practically hide the place from the road unless you know it is there. I guess this is probably OK with them because it fits more in with what I think the BMW car dealer philosophy might be, if you want one of our cars, come find us. Not like your basic US/Japanese dealer where the cars are on spinning pedestals 6 inches from the road with flags and balloons flapping everywhere. Really, has there been marketing studies that found a direct correlation to balloons and car buying desire.

We turned into a different Hendrick dealer’s lot and tried to snake our way back as it looked all connected. It was not and we ended up way out back, close to the BMW service area. There were a couple of Minis back there that we looked at for a few minutes before going in the service counter and asking where the Mini dealership was located (it was still not apparent from where we were.) On the short walk over, I dragged Donna over to see a BMW Z8 that was in for service. Donna wanted to know what the big deal was and I said, “It’s like a hundred thousand dollar car.” She harrumphed and said, “It’s ugly.” In magazine photos I thought it looked real sharp, but in person I had to agree with her.

When we arrived the place was strewn with Minis of all variations and colors. We met out “Motoring Advisor” Dana and she set about lining up a couple of cars to drive. My only requests were to drive a base Cooper and an S, with one of them having a sunroof. First up was the base car with no sunroof. It had some dealer installed 16″ wheels instead of the standard 15s, too bad, I had hoped to try the base in stock form so I could gage ride/road feel and handling differences when I got in the S. Didn’t really matter as the MA rides with you and guides you on about a 10 mile loop. You get a half a mile of Interstate and then just city streets. There is one patch of a road with a couple of bends in it, but nothing to really gage the handling capabilities. Next was a drive in the supercharged Cooper S. The normal S tester and the one she wanted to take us in didn’t have a sunroof either. I reminded her that I wanted one with the sunroof, so off she went to find one that fit the bill. Found one but I think that she didn’t want to take us in it was that hadn’t really been fully prepped. It still had plastic on the seats and cardboard all over the inside. It didn’t matter to me because all I wanted out of this was to see if I felt the extra 50 horses were worth the $3K over the base. Out for the same 10 mile loop.

When we got back I had one more request, I wanted to see some cloth seats. The base had leather and the S had the leatherette. The fake stuff was a very nice quality, the feel and finish would fool a lot of people, but I think cloth would be better than the vinyl and leather at $1600 was too much for too little. And if I was buying a Mini I think the cloth would be the way I’d go. There was one she could show me, but Dana had to go back inside to get the key. After we stood around a bit idly chatting about colors, I thanked her for her time and asked for her card. I think we both knew that I wasn’t buying.

Here is why I’m not buying: Neither blue in person blow my skirt up, after that any color was a compromise and neither Donna or I could pick one we really liked. The inside was too plastic feeling, the door pulls felt really cheap, the dash when you touched it had the feel of the side of a Barbie pedal car. The rear view mirror on the inside reminded my of a child’s compact mirror. It was small and quirkily shaped and surrounded by a 1/2 wide plastic frame. On the first run we started out with the A/C on and the fan seemed really loud for the amount of air it was putting out. On the second run with the roof open and both windows down it was really noisy, even at city driving speeds. Almost as loud as the Miata with full top down and if you are going to have that much sound and fury, why not have the whole convertible experience. The sunroof from the inside didn’t seem as big as it does looking at it in the roof. I didn’t find the dead pedal until I was stationary back at the dealer looking at the cloth interior. I was not impressed, Donna on the other hand didn’t like it at all. A ten mile, 15 minute drive is not enough of an experience to really tell if you like the car, for that length of time a new Chevy Cavalier is probably a wonderful car. I guess if you were meant for the car that is all it would take, but having owned a Miata, I needed to be sold and wasn’t.

Here is some of the nice things. The base car, although 15 HP shy of my Miata and 200 lbs. heavier, felt just as peppy. Not being a big HP guy the S version wouldn’t have been worth it. Good thing too, as the hood scoop sort of ruined the cute front end we both thought. Damn thing is cute as a button. Plenty of leg room, I had the seat forward a couple of notches. The doors opened really wide. Did I mention it’s cute?

Donna said it best for both of us, the inside doesn’t live up to the fun promised by the outside.

Purchased Today: $14.00
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2641.54
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 283

Ever since I drove that Sea Foam Green Miata about a month ago I’ve had the itch to get a new car. This one is the oldest and highest mileage car I’ve owned at 8 years and 124k miles. Ever since we have been married we have always had a nice automobile that we bought new. Although there is nothing really wrong with the Miata, I think I’d like the feeling of a new taught car.

The trouble is that in the past eight years Miatas have crept up into the middle 20’s and that just seems like too much money for, in essence, a small car. On the plus side, Mazda is offering 0% interest on 2003 models and they might be willing to deal some to clean the lot of these “old” cars. The bad news is that the Miata doesn’t come in, what I consider, a decent shade of blue.

On the other hand I am intrigued by the new Mini. A brand new Mini Cooper can be had for around $20k and a supercharged S for only three thousand more. On the plus side for them is they have two shades of blue that appear acceptable and they are a excellent handling car for a front-driver. The down side is they aren’t convertibles and from what I’ve read on the MINI2 forums the quality in certain areas is suspect.

I guess there is option #3 to consider, take an antibiotic to squash the fever. I may need heavy doses after Saturday, we are going to Charleston to test drive Minis.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2627.54
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 277

Today was the Miata Club’s Photo Scavenger Hunt. We only had 4 cars show up to play, the absolute minimum needed. Those who played had fun and listening to their stories over lunch was worth putting it on for us.

When we gave the teams their instruction sheets, Donna and I headed off to do the prize shopping. As is our usual practice we parked far out in the shopping center lot. This has two benefits, first we get a nice walk in and second there is less chance of door dings. Because it was cloudy with a chance of sprinkles we put on the cockpit cover. Boy did that turn out to be a good idea. We went into we went into 5 separate stores hunting just the right prizes. We wanted to get something nice, but not too expensive. Store number 6 was the winner, Michael’s had picture frames on half price sale. We snagged 8 nice wood picture frames for $30. Four 4×6 for second place and four 5×7 for first. When we got back to the car parked near the edge of the lot, we noticed that the sprinkler was on and was spraying all over the car. The cockpit cover had done its job as the interior of the car was dry, until I uncovered it in an attempt to put the top up. Donna didn’t want to get wet, so she refused to help. I managed to get the cover off without spilling too much of the pooled water into the interior. I timed it right and raised the top real fast. Unfortunately the spray was coming in the lowered passenger side window. It made two sweeps into my face as I fumbled to raise the power windows. It made two more passes before I got my key out of my pocket and turned the ignition to ON and could actually get the window up. I got the roll of paper towels out of the trunk and wiped up as good as I could. I spent the rest of the morning with wet jeans.

It is funny now that I look back on it and if anyone was watching I bet they got a good laugh. And now that I have had a while to look at the problem, I probably could have avoided getting wet at all by getting Donna to come up from behind the sprinkler head (it was only sweeping 180 degrees) and just hold it in one spot away from the car.

Purchased Today: $14.00 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2611.67
Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 272

Well, I got my wish, there were 5 cars to make the trip up to Caesar’s Head today. We left the house this morning in the dark at 7:15 AM and arrived home in the dark at 7:30 PM after covering 351 miles. The leaves as expected were not the best we’ve encountered on these trips, but the weather was. The parking area at our destination was so full the 5 of us had to park on the side of the road. Not too far from home the car’s odometer read 123,456. I didn’t stop to take a picture like I did for 100,000 or 111,111 because it wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting as the person on Miata.net that had the foresight to zero the trip odometer at 122,667.

Purchased Today: $14.00
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2537.80
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 259

California Duster to the rescue. I brushed off the week’s accumulated dust, emptied the trash bag and we are set to go. Tomorrow is the Master’s Miata Club Leaf Run. We’ve got our route planned and will highlight it tonight copies of both (SC & GA) states maps. I’m hoping for 5 to 6 cars, that makes a nice manageable group. More would be OK, but then you start having to worry about keeping everyone together.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $2523.80
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 259