Picking up our new Mini Cooper S, February 12, 2005
Laura's old Toyota Celica was totalled in an accident on December 27, 2003. (She was fine, the car was not, it could have easily been a whole lot worse, and driver's licenses should be forbidden to anyone under the age of 25.) For over a year, we lived with one car. After much deliberation, we finally decided to replace it with the car Laura has been dreaming about since well before the accident, a Mini Cooper. We talked about a lot of cars, but she had really just fallen in love with the Mini, so in the end, there really wasn't any choice.
You don't just walk into a dealer and drive home a Mini, at least not here in New Jersey. We ordered the car in late October, knowing that it would be months before we got it. What the heck, we had the one car routine down pat, what difference was a few more months going to make? Since the car was built to order, we (meaning Laura) could decided exactly how we wanted the car to look and what to include. So there's a Union Jack on the roof, and a satellite radio inside, and heated seats and other decadent bourgeous touches. The result was custom made for a mid-life crisis.
The salesman didn't quite listen when I told him how to focus the camera, but what the heck.
The Union Jack decal on the roof wasn't applied properly. The salesman was horror-stricken, and they took the car into the shop and fixed it on the spot. This was worth a couple of free t-shirts. If it starts to peel again, maybe we'll get free jackets. (Mini has a plethora of swag available....)
Here I engage in my penchant for taking pictures of speedometers (well, really, odometers). For some reason, Laura thinks this is weird. Anyway, this speedometer is indicative of the nice retro styling touches throughout the car. And I think 7 miles is the least number of miles driven on any new car I've ever bought.
This smile made the months of waiting and the necessity of paying list price for a new car all worthwhile.
More pictures ->
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