Monday, August 18, 2008

Beyond the keys

Since you're probably sick of looking at those keys (I know for a fact that a few of you are), here's a photo of my actual car (haven't had a chance to take more detailed shots):

When you get a new MINI or any new car for that matter, they tell you not to go too crazy until after the 1,000 mile mark. Since I decided to drive up to a wedding in Santa Clara just a week and a half after taking ownership of one, I didn't have to wait that long to break 1,000. And seriously, now my car seems to ripen with responsiveness every day that passes and I'm loving it more and more. Plus, I'm starting to settle into it more comfortably. I'm freely experimenting with the ergonomic positions and my right arm is starting to remember that the window switch is its responsibility. My left thumb now knows the steering wheel stereo controls by touch and I'm starting to fumble less with the key fob. I am definitely starting to feel more at one with it whilst driving.

And probably more importantly, I care about it's cleanliness. (My old car was always dirty and messy.) I've already been to the car wash several times and even made sure to get a punchcard. I've also bought cleaning supplies for on-the-fly bug removal (ugh, didn't realize that that was a pun until I wrote it, sorry) and am constantly scanning the exterior for dirt and bird crap.

I even care about the gas I put into it. Since I'm supposed to pump premium, I went online to find out which one was the best. While there is a lot of debate, there is general agreement that Chevron and Shell premium are pretty good and at the moment, I'm just doing Chevron, which I can normally find at a pretty good price (relatively speaking, of course.)

The next step for me is to learn how to use the manual shifting option (via paddle or stick shifting) to get the most performance out of my MINI. (I think I've been watching Top Gear on BBC America too much lately!)

1 comment:

TonyV said...

Wow, thanks for the update! I'm pretty sure I'm one of the "few people" that made comments. :-)
I'm thrilled that you are enjoying it and absolutely ecstatic you are going to keep it clean!!! I will take some credit for that!