Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

On Friday morning, a car in front of me kicked up a big piece of plywood off the road, which came spinning at me and hit my windshield.

Aside from the sudden shock of a smashed windshield, I was also disappointed because I was in the running for the longest lasting original MINI windshield. Everyone else I know has had several replaced because they cracked on their own. I did have hundreds of tiny chips that made it look dirty even after a good polishing, but I never had a crack.

So after a quick call to insurance I called MINI of Peabody, and spent most of Friday afternoon up at everyone’s favorite MINI dealer. Chris took me right away as usual, but to my surprise this is the first time I had seen their service bays almost empty. It’s also the first time I’ve seen them with a lot of inventory; sales is certainly slower this month while everyone’s wallets try to recover from Christmas. I spent the next few hours chatting with all the MOP employees and watching rushes of sales business come and go. Before I knew it, my MINI was back in one piece again, nice and clean, and a brand new windshield. I forgot what it was like to have a clear windshield, just like the first time I tried on a pair of glasses.

Perfect timing actually, because I have Aquapel coming in next week, which I had planned to face off with RainX, and now I don’t have to wait till the spring for a clean windshield. Stay tuned for the results in several weeks.

At the National Motorists Association meeting on Friday, Scott from Quattro123.com brought two Lidar guns. In addition to letting us try out the guns and showing videos of their inaccuracy, we later went out to the parking lot to test them. They were impressive, giving accurate distances of even stationary cars off of any surface, not just reflective plates or headlights. But we had a very unique opportunity: those of us with lidar jammers (or laser shifters or whatever else you want to call them) could finally see just how well they worked first hand. I had installed my Bel 904 (same as the Escort ZR3) myself about a year ago but since have only come across one officer with a laser gun, and I was already well below the speed limit, so I had no idea if it was actually working. Furthermore, every inch of my car was covered in dirt and salt, which could certainly make them less effective. We went out to an area of the parking lot where we had a long straight shot, and drove towards the laser gun. Two people had K40 units installed–and both of those almost never worked. The other MINI with the Blinder system worked flawlessly. And happily, my unit prevented the gun from getting a reading at all distances, in fact I was surprised just how far away I was and its jamming was effective, despite the road grime.

An interesting note was my dash-mounted radar detector only occasionally rendered a laser alert, (of course that is a useless function, they instantly have your speed at that point) illustrating that the beam is small enough to hit your front bumper but not your windshield. The two K40 owners were very upset, as they had them professionally installed. I later spotted their main issue: they were installed far behind the front grills, which blocked their transmission beams. It didn’t help that the K40s had very small infrared windows as well. It is astonishing that the installers did not have this common sense. But in the end I was very glad to see both my unit and my installation were worth the investment.

I hope everyone had a happy new year. Not much MINI going on here lately, if anything just a competition of how thick a layer of salt you can build up before breaking down and spraying your windshield. It’s officially winter when my MINI is dirtier than dirt.

For Christmas I bought my parents a Garmin StreetPilot i2, but I made sure to preload maps and set it up beforehand, and certainly test it in the MINI. It doesn’t compare to my TomTom, but for $200 you can have 3D Navigation in a nice easy-to-use unit. And check out the new suction cup mounting location I discovered! Perfect viewing location. Who reads that thing underneath anyway?

Which brings me to a new section of my site I decided to create. I’ll use it to write more generalized how-tos and guides, in addition to the ones here and on my Focus page. A nice little guide describing adding GPS Navigation for example, reviewing the TomTom and Garmin units. We all know the huge popularity of Sirius radio this Christmas, and I had to install five in friends’ cars this year; so why not help others with tips for installing satellite radio. I also put up a nice guide to set up your own .com web site, because I do get asked once in a while. Hopefully some people find them useful.

We are again afflicted with warm weather which has seriously cut into my ski season. I hope that changes soon. I’m sure it’s all because I have snow tires this year!