A lot of very good points here. And believe me I have heard both good and bad comments about my MINI from coworkers and people off the street. Honestly I could give a crap less. To me, the most important interaction between my MINI and my job is when I come out of the office at the end of the day, see my car and smile because that's what I get to drive home and that's what I have just spent the last 8 hours working for.

 

My boss is a partner at a pretty large PI firm. He BEGS to drive my MINI. I don't know why he HASN'T bought one, but he keeps telling me how much he wants one when he drives mine. And it's just a Cooper

I didn't read through all the posts yet, but that sentence caught my eye. Sure, alot of people at a law firm drive Mercedes, BMW's, Lexus', Caddy's, etc. But there isn't one person here that hasn't drooled over my MINI and talks about wanting one for themselves. Maybe it's because they're worried about the image too, but i'd rather have a super fun car than worry about what other people think i should drive. After all, they're not fitting the bill for it, and they most certainly aren't the ones driving it everyday.

My $0.02.

 

I don't want to offend anyone, but a couple of my local mini mates and I have observed something about the mini. In Australia, it seems that the people that buy the mini as a fashion item, ie. the "posers", tend to buy the MC (this isn't always the case, but that seems to be the trend down here). In Australia the Mini isn't cheap for what it is. The people that tend to buy the MCS are "drivers" - usually. A lot of the MCS owners I've met in Oz are professionals that own other cars - and the MCS is the car they have to enjoy on the track or the weekend.

One of my friends asked me the other day if they make mini's for men. I wasn't impressed, but I pointed out that he drove a crappy Australian V6 family car (Mitsubishi Magna - it's garbage). He is in the same demographic as me (mid 20's, was single when he bought it, and earns about the same $$$). I feel it's for other people to make fools of themselves, you shouldn't feel that you need to impress those fools

If your work buddies want to give you stick about the mini - offer them a ride in it. That's worked for me on several occasions.

My mini is well known amongst my family and friends and they often ask me about how it's going. Lots of mates have asked to drive it, and 90% of the time people are interested in it more than they are keen to tease me about it!

Besides! In a mini, it's all about you!! When your'e driving it, it's all about you enjoying yourself - you won't have time to care about what your work buddies think - you'll be having too much fun!

 

That's a pretty good point. It's like they think it's apart of your family sometimes.

My grandmother asked for a new picture of me... but she wanted my MINI in the picture too

 

Yes.

I sold my Jaguar XJ-8 to get into the mini. I didn't have to sell it, I've just decided recently to get down to just one car (and one motorcycle) and stop losing so much money on depreciation. When people find out what I did, they usually have one of these two reactions:

- oh, that is a neat car!

or...

- you sold a Jaguar for that!?!?!


Typically, the people who respond the first way are folks who either enjoy cars or enjoy life. The people who respond the second way, well, they'll never get it, so why bother trying to explain it to them?


Michael

 

Do a search of all forums with the words CRASH PHOTO. The thread is "People Still Don't Get It", the MINI compared to the F150 crash photo is down the first page.

 

...and 1 airplane... and 1 bicycle... and 1 formula ford... etc...

I totally understand!!! HAHAHA (not that I really have a plane, motorcycle or a race car but I can dream, can't I?)

 

I think that someone descriminating you for what you drive shows how shallow and how much farther that person has to go in life!
Thats excactly what it is, descrimination. I cant afford any car that I want. Although I can afford much more than others. I have been in the Military for almost 12 yrs now, and am not married for just this reason. So my vision of what goes on in the civilian world is a little tainted. If I am to classify someone by what they drive, I dont classify by the vehicle their driving. I classify what type of person they may be by what kind of condition the car is in. You can have a 40k dollar car that hasnt been washed in 6 months parked beside a 79 Pinto that has just been washed and waxed, guess what person I would be more inclined to have a conversation with?
My thoughts on the subject are stated in the first sentence!

 

I'm not about to go into the whole "like me for who I am, not what I have" deal. Just one point about the Mini is that it is as advertised, the perfect ice breaker. No matter who I've been around people have always admired and commented on my S. I don't think I've heard anything negative at all. Most are just surprised I can fit inside it. I'm about 6' and all arms and legs so I can understand that. I've never had so many strangers just come up and start talking to me and asking questions. If I had a job where I felt the need to impress people with a car, I'd definately get a Mini.

 

My experience re Mini perception has been roughly as follows:

Women: 10-20% are negative, 30% are lukewarm, 50-60% positive

Men: 20%-30% negative, 50% lukewarm, 20-30% positive

By negative, I mean "Why would you ever get that car??"; lukewarm would be "I guess that's an okay car, but personally I'd never get one"; and positive would be "It's SO CUTE!!", or "How soon can I take yours for a test drive??"

This would be among friends who are generally late 20s / early 30s. Very unscientific poll, limited sample size, your results may vary, etc. etc.

I don't know what to make of women calling my Mini "cute", because "cute" could imply "I'm jealous and want one!" but simultaneously "...but I'd rather date a guy who drives a 'masculine' car rather than a cute car". I'm somewhat worried about the Mini turning into mostly a chick car (given how often I get the "cute" comment), like the Beetle has, but I don't think that's happened yet and hopefully it won't!

At any rate, while I do think I could have impressed more people by getting a 3-series (which wouldn't have cost a whole lot more than my well-equipped MCS), I love my Mini to pieces and don't really care (...much! ).

 

The only negative feedback I've gotten is from two friends, both of whom are girls and think that the MINI looks like a clown car at the circus.

On the flip side, all of my male friends, male acquaintances, male relatives, and even a few male almost-strangers (never met them before but we work in the same building) want to drive my MINI. Strangers approach to ask these hesitant, respectful, almost wistful questions and, last month, a husband-wife team approached me at a rest stop and said they were so fascinated by my car they had been following me down the freeway for the last 40 minutes, hoping they could catch me at a stop.