Any1 out there with both? What about considering it? Maybe dreaming for now? Or waiting to pay off a little more of the E? :lol:

Just curious, it came up at the DC E-up on the 17th of this month, there were several of us dreaming about owning a Mini along with our E's and there were a few (Chris and Jenn ~ Empire) who actually own both. :D

So, what's up??? Oh yeah, and Why do you want a Mini to go along with your E??? :D

Our annual auto show was last weekend, and I had a tough time prying my wife out of the MINI.

Her Miata is getting long in the tooth - a '90 with 135K miles which we bought new. So she's due for a new car (actually, past due - I got the E "out of turn", according to her!). The MINI sort of makes sense as a replacement, although she knows she'll miss the convertible.

But alas, ours will have to wait for a bit. Her job situation is in flux and nothing can happen until it settles down again.

I like the looks of the Cooper, but I've heard it features "real" sports car handling and ride - including being stiff and not very comfy feel. However, a 'vert Cooper is forthcoming, Mike, so your missus may be in luck. Or when the time comes, you might suggest she consider what my missus drives:

http://www.2dolphins.com/images/caliente/Caliente1.jpg
Caliente's Web Page (http://www.2dolphins.com/caliente.htm)

I wanted a MiniCooper.....but when I saw the price tag I went into sticker shock! YIKES!! So, I went the more pracyical route and bought an E......but maybe someday I will have a MiniCooper to put in the back of my E!


Just dreaming for now!

>...sticker shock!

You must've been shopping at Plaza Motors. The MINI Cooper is very reasonably priced for a sporty car - $16K - but, yeah, it's pretty easy to option it out to almost $30.

>...she consider what my missus drives

Wellllllll... shuffle shuffle... we like the looks and the cachet of the NB. We don't like VW's constant reliability problems. Both of us have owned VW's of various generations, and to a one they always had to be tinkered with. Constantly. That was fine with the original Beetles, because a Swiss army knife and a hunk of bailing wire could fix 90% of its ills... but starting with the water-cooled models that pretty much became history. I wish you guys all the luck with yours, but for us... been there, done that...

:?

it's pretty easy to option it out to almost $30.


Ummm well I like my extras.....so of course I wanted all the goodies!!! That is why I was so hyped about the E...I got the top of the line model for under 21K and added all the options I wanted aftermarket for under 1K.....so all and all I was pretty much tickled! When we were looking for a new car and I looked at the Cooper Mini when I added everything I wanted I believe I was at 28K.....and if we were heading into that price range I would have bought something else entirely!

[quote:b17669ff8a=" "]http://www.2dolphins.com/images/caliente/Caliente1.jpgCaliente's Web Page (http://www.2dolphins.com/caliente.htm)[/quote:b17669ff8a]

:shock: WOW!!!! What a pretty HOT looking Vert!!!! I love that RED color you have going there. I've not seen anything like that here in Virginia!!???

SWEET!!!!! 8)

E ON!!

Kerri

My wife's Cooper is in production now. She ordered it, and the grocery list of accessories, 2 days before Chritmas. They told us it would probably be late Febuary when it comes in. We got the Element out of necessity since we had a little boy on the way and the Neon she had previously was pissing oil. The Element turned into my toy so she wanted something she could actually order to be made with what SHE wanted and not what was just available on the lot. Plus it gets better gas mileage and will mainly be a blast to drive on a daily commute.She ordered Pepper White with black roof and all 3 packages, premium,sport and cold weather.sports exhaust system,driving lights, panther black leather interior, all the good stuff. She's pretty excited and so am I. I'm kinda jealous Honda doesn't have the multitude of accessories that MINI has available but I guess that's where aftermarket comes in. If you haven't been to the site before check it out at www.miniusa.com you can spend hours upon hours "building" and researching Coopers. Very VERY fun site. I'll post pics as soon as it comes in.

Oh, and the Cooper Cabriolet is rumored to be released later this year, maybe end of summer. I think it will actually have it's own exclusive color option, Orange. Not available for the Cooper or Cooper S.

Dea is still pulling for the mini but no changes since the meet. Oh and by the way THANKS A LOT EMPIRE the whole way home from VA I got to hear about your wife and her mini. She even tried the line that Id be a more popular E owner because there was an obvious connection between the two... UGHHH

[quote:5844af2557=" "]Our annual auto show was last weekend, and I had a tough time prying my wife out of the MINI.

Her Miata is getting long in the tooth - a '90 with 135K miles which we bought new. So she's due for a new car (actually, past due - I got the E "out of turn", according to her!). The MINI sort of makes sense as a replacement, although she knows she'll miss the convertible.

But alas, ours will have to wait for a bit. Her job situation is in flux and nothing can happen until it settles down again.[/quote:5844af2557]

tell her to get the new 2004 miata... the rx-8 engine drops right into that bad boy... ;)

hee hee hee!

-brendan

Oh and by the way THANKS A LOT EMPIRE
Glad to be of help :twisted:

Take her to a MINI dealer to let her test drive one.
I guarantee you guys will end up ordering one or will seriously be playing with the notion to.
That little damn car is so freaking fun, I was sold on it immediately after we went for our test drive and I was in the passenger seat the whole time!

I have a 2002 Mini Cooper S and a 2003 SOP EX 4wd Element. The two really work out for our family. If my wife and I are just running around town we will usally take the Mini. If we need to haul our two kids (16 and 19) or haul anything we take the Element. Both are unusual vehicles that you don't see 5 of at every street corner. The Element also is the hands down winner when the weather turns bad, the Mini and the Element have allmost the same horsepower so the Mini with summer tires is a real handfull in the snow.

Our frivilous rocket ship....

http://homepage.mac.com/jdi801/.Pictures/Autocross%20Web%20Photos/Primm%201.jpg