Say hello to my leetle friend
First of all... Happy 200th post!
It seems quite appropriate that this 200th post be spent on something special. The Hdez clan welcomed its newest member to the family yesterday: A 2007 Mini Cooper S (with a big 'H' on the roof!).
- "Why on earth did you get a Mini Cooper?"
- "How do you even fit in a Mini Cooper (remember, I am 6'5", 290)"
- "Are you going through a mid-life crisis?"
Well, it is sort of a long story to answer these questions. I'll be pithy.
- About two and a half months ago, my 99' Malibu ran out of gas while I was driving home (the gas gauge is broken and I use mileage as an indicator). The car has been giving me many signs of its old age (belt noises, some kind of "crunch" over speedbumps, not starting reliably). So, after that incident I told the wifer, "I want a new car."
- You won't believe me until you sit in one, but Mini Coopers have, as they say here in Norcal, hella room inside. I've got more headroom than I did in a large VW Passat (which I was thinking about for a while). The legroom is great too. Do I fit? Absolutely. Can someone sit behind me? Only the U-man and his 3'5" self.
- Nope. It is more like a 1/3-life crisis. I really wanted an "adult" car - one that wasn't clearly a family car. Originally, I thought that I would get a more luxury sedan (like a used BMW or Nissan Maxima or Altima with a tricked out interior). But, after doing lots of research online (edmunds.com is the best) I decided to look at a MINI as a joke. "Surely I can't fit in one," I thought. That joke slowly turned into reality as I read expert and user reviews on the car and watched this video at CNET which totally sold me on the car. I figured the only thing standing in my way: my size. I had to be able to fit comfortably in the car (which I do). Getting back to the mid-life crisis thing, the Mini also enabled me to have a small, quasi-two seater that was more functional than a roadster (just a little - it is still not big enough to comfortably hold more than 3 people when I am driving). It drives nice, has a great engine (4 cylinder turbo at 178hp - remember, the car is tiny so it is like a rocket!), and handles like a go cart (very responsive to turns and steering).
posted by Rafael Hernandez @ 5:29 AM
3 Comments:
What's with the big H on the roof?? Are giant H's standard on mini Coopers? And, hahaha - donkey song...
The 'H' is an option. Essentially: Mini Coopers are high demand cars and so you are pretty much stuck with what the dealer has. Since I wanted the 'S' model, they only had the letter H one and another (it wasn't yellow). I knew I wanted a yellow one, and I really liked the big 'H' (it is a heliport graphic - believe it or not you can also get one with a Puerto Rican flag!) so it was a natural choice. As we were wrapping up the paperwork, someone else came in and remarked that they were interested in the car. Too bad for them as I walked away with it.
About the donkey song: that actually is part of a bunch of random, nerd-funny musical jokes that serve as footers to the blog posts. Each time the page is loaded, there is a chance that the footer will change and the donkey song will be elsewhere. I am glad that it loaded when you viewed the page. I find it to be a particularly lovely song.
I can attest that he truly does fit. I wouldn't have let him buy it if he didn't....no matter how cute it is.
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