Yes, we're still focused on cars here in This Land, and this is the latest.This is the new Mini Cooper, redesigned for 2007 and beyond, although it's hard to see the changes. Why are we looking at such a car? There are at least 35 reasons - each one of them a mile-per-gallon the Mini gets.
We like both of our current vehicles, but bought both when we had a bicycle touring company and to use with the bicycle touring company. I love having a truck, but use it as a truck less then 5% of the time. The rest of the time, I'm highway driving in a 20-mpg vehicle. Diane's SUV gets 22, and although we will always want to have one 4-wheel-drive vehicle for the snow up here, it also doesn't need to be an all-the-time daily driver.
In San Francisco this weekend we checked out the Minis at the auto show, and compared them to the Altima Coupe I liked and a few others, and both quite liked it. I'd never sat in one before and wasn't sure how well I'd fit, but there's tons of room.
Been doing the research, and the redesigned model gets high marks. They used to get dinged hard on reliability, but now rank "above average" by consumer reports. The car reviews like them, and if you keep the options in check they're not expensive (especially compared to everything else I've been looking at.)
Did a spreadsheet today to see what one Cooper S could save us, based on it replacing 60 percent of our current miles. Even with it using premium gas, we'd save $1500 to $1800 a year in gas (depending on where prices go), more if it replaces more of our current miles.
So who knows. Plans form. And as careful readers might have noticed, change...
7 comments:
I love the Mini. I've never been in one though. Goes to show, you don't need hybrid technology to get good gas mileage--you just need to be small!
What they're finding in Europe is that small diesels are lower milage and CO emmissions than hybrids, with better perfomance. Who'd a thunk?
I rode in the backseat of a friend's when they very first came out and was shocked at the amount of space (our friend informed us there was room for hanky panky back there - but not till AFTER we'd sat down . EEUW). I was going to tell you about the poor reliability, but sounds like they've fixed that. Our neighbor has one that leaks oil all over his driveway.
I've always loved them, though. They're so cute.
A friend of Larry and Susie bought one last year and she loves it.
btw, we're planning to build a small coop for our chickens, and we've been calling it the Mini Cooper. So we'll both have one!
Paint the roof white!
Or maybe the british flag.
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