I LOVE MY COOPER

No not Bradley Cooper but he is very nice to look at don't you think? I'm talking about my Mini Cooper S. Remember my post on Venting from last Monday? Well I was feeling bad for my car. I wasn't venting about my cute little car, I was venting about a day that was filled with a few unfortunate circumstances. (this is long so don't feel obligated to read it but I think you might enjoy it)

This is my second Mini Cooper. I could have almost any car within reason ($) but when BMW brought the Mini to the USA it was love at first sight. I had my first Mini for 5 years and I couldn't have been happier with it. In 2008 I bought my second Mini Cooper. It's the one you see in the picture. I remember waiting 3 months for my first one to be built and shipped from Germany. It was all very exciting and you could follow along on it's progress while it was being made! My second one only took about 2 months to get here. I do get all the bells and whistles on my car so it needed to be built like the first one.

So the problem I had last Monday was just some miscommunication. The person that booked my appointment should have told me that you can't wait for the service when the emission light it on. But they did give me a rental and all was well. So I was assuming my car would be ready on Wednesday so I got up, showered and waited for the call. (You know I like to be in my PJ's most of the day) Well they couldn't find anything specific wrong but they had to continue to look. So on Thursday morning the same routine, shower, make-up, get dressed and wait for the call. Well they decided to put the foreman on the job and found that it was an oxygen sensor and my car would be ready on Friday morning. (this part was under warranty) Hooray!

So I get up and ready to go pick up my car. There was no traffic like Monday and I get there in 40 minutes and dropped off the rental. I go inside and met up with Aldo who was taking care of me. He said let me go get your car and we will get you checked out of here. When he went to get the car the light came back on. They were going to have reset the computer which would take about 3 to 4 hours. So I was able to get a rental again, a BMW this time and I went to do some shopping at the Irvine Target. I had planned to shop at a Target on my way home anyway so I was okay with that. I know Target didn't mind me doing some shopping while I waited. So Aldo called me, I checked out of Target and got my car. This Mini/BMW dealer in Irvine is the best. I know it took a long time to get this issue figured out but other than an annual oil change each year this is the first time I've ever had to do this type of repair.

There is a Mini dealer close to our house but when I went for one of my free oil changes they "saw me coming!" I must have had gullible written on my forehead! See my Mini was only two year old at the time. Mark was of course out of town. Isn't that how it always happens. This was the year that I let the kids drive the Mini to Mammoth Lakes which was not one of my better moments. So the car had just been home a few days when I went to get my oil change. I drove the car to the nearby Mini dealer and went inside to check it in. (I was of course waiting for the car) They took the car inside with no issue. Well here is where they got me....they came out and said the guy in the shop had to jump my car, the battery was dead. No way that battery was dead but they had a trick up their sleeve. See if you have low mileage on your car the warranty on the battery changes. It's not covered because you don't drive the car enough to keep it charged properly! Yes I was taken for a few hundred dollars for a new battery. I have never been back since.

Funny thing, when the guy was writing up the slip he asked if they could change my plate frame to Mini Ontario and take off the Mini Irvine one. I said sure because I thought I would be coming back to this one that had just opened. Well God knew better, they forgot to change it and that made my heart very happy when I noticed it! Here is something about that day. They took a mandatory meeting, shut down for 2 hours while I was waiting for my car to be finished. Wasn't that just rude of them? So even though I may have had issues with them not telling me about having to leave my car there for the emission service, in the long run God again was watching over me. See I would have had someone follow me if I had known but in the long run, because of the time it took them to find the problem, I would have been out a car so the rental was actually the better deal.

So all is well and I am still in love with my little gray Mini Cooper S! (even though driving the new 2012 did gave me a moment of new car fever)

Yes it was Friday the 13th and I got to drive home in an ugly rain storm! But God kept me safe and I will never look back with regret for going back to the dealer in Irvine. See when Mini first came out dealers all over Southern California were tacking on a few thousand dollars above sticker price because they knew peoples wants, knew people would pay it because they wanted the car now! Irvine Mini was not doing that so that is why we ended up going there for my car. I learned a lot about patience waiting for my car because I was one of those who wanted one yesterday but I waited and learned a valuable lesson.

This is actually what my car looks like on the inside.

I have Burnt Orange Leather interior!