Motoring in California

I’ve past 600 miles today. It doesn’t seem like I’ve driven that much in the less than two weeks I’ve had it, but there it is. I’m still learning the ins-n-outs of the turbo, like when the lag kicks in and how long it may take for the turbo to spool-up (not long). [...]

It’s been a week now and the car is so much fun to drive and play with. I’m really glad I got the SAT/NAV, there is still more to learn but I’ve never used one before and it’s awesome. I went for a drive on very twisty road one day for a long [...]

I bought the badge holder from MINI so I could personalize my car a little with magnetic badges from ToddsMods.com. I had read on NAM in some thread that the pre-R56 model should work with my R56 so I wasn’t worried about whether it would fit, but the R56 grill leaves very little room [...]

Picked up the MINI today at East Bay MINI. Very easy experience. Not too much pressure to spend more on dealer “enhancements”. Saw my car right away sitting just in front of the showroom door. My youngest daughter drove me there and shared in the excitement. She said I was [...]

My MA called yesterday and told me my car was at the dealership and waiting for the techs to get to it. I guess they have more programming and electronics checks. They also are going to add mud-flaps; don’t know how long all this takes, but he figured it would be ready tonight. [...]

Got the Wave-Front Lasik done on Friday and so far I have great distance vision.  One thing I’ll have to get used to is reading glasses.  I mean I needed glasses all the time before but I could take my glasses off for real close work, say 6 inches or so.  Now I can’t read [...]

Well tomorrow I’m getting my eyes done. Kind of nervous tonight, so I’m spending as much time as possible reading the various blogs and websites about MINIs. Still no word from the dealer and from NAM I’ve seen one or two whose MINI was on the same ship who have either gotten their [...]

I was in training (job stuff) just a mile or so from the dealership and they let us go early on Friday, so what else to do but take a R56 MCS out for a test drive.  I should be getting mine in a week or two so I thought it would be a good [...]

Saw this story on MotoringFile. I guess my car missed it by a few weeks. Looks like it was made as a specialty item, too bad a regular customer didn’t get it, would’ve made a great and unique car. I do like the custom graphics, very nice. It would be cool [...]

A couple of weeks ago I ordered the badge holder, a hat and a t-shirt from MINI Motoringgear and today I received the badge holder. Now all I have to do is get a badge or two to put on the holder. So as of right now, the first mod is set. [...]