Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

I promised in the original MOT post that I would let you know when my pictures are posted. Sorry for the very long wait, but the gallery is now fully online. Thanks to the amazing clouds, sunset, and rainbows, there are some spectacular photos from this summer. Perhaps they will help warm you up from this winter’s frigid temperatures!

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, not only did we get the aforementioned new car, but we’ve also moved to a new house in the fall, and then the holidays hit. I’m just coming up for air now!

Two weeks ago, we turned in Sam’s Cooper, at the end of its 3-year lease. Despite it being her car and without the bells and whistles of my MINI, I ended up driving it quite a bit. With my MINI’s milage approaching 100k, in the last year I’ve relegated it to commuting only, and drove Sam’s MINI on weekends and for the many weekend trips we had this summer. Though I missed luxuries like Sirius for the long trips and the power of the JCW, the lighter weight and more gear rowing means the base cooper can be just as much fun.

The lease process was mostly transparent and completely uneventful at the end. Weeks before, MINI sent along a fun booklet with general instructions, and the wonderful Ding-A-Ma-Bob disc pictured below. A brilliant piece of clear plastic that helps you evaluate all your “boo boos” and what will be charged for when the car is turned in. MINI sent out an independent inspector to photograph and look over the car a few days before it was turned in. Perhaps thanks to its low milage, Sam’s mini was nearly good as new-not a single door ding after three years. I wish I could say the same for mine! With a clean bill of health, all we had to do was drop it off at MINI of Peabody with just one signature. They’ve now got a perfect candidate for the MINI Next CPO with only 35,000 mi.

As for its replacement, we ended up picking a BMW 128i. We first considered the Audi A3, but we were just too spoiled with MINI’s handling. Second we went for a Cooper S Clubman, but both agreed we were very disappointed in the new generation’s clutch and engine, not to mention the slab plastic center stack and high price. The 1-series test drive was much like my first MINI test drive: sold at the first corner. This time we were sure to get a few more entertainment options for those long trips, but it still came in at a cheaper price than the A3 or the Clubman! More on the 1 later.

Earlier this month I mistakenly put regular 87-octane gas in my MINI for the first time ever. It gave me the opportunity to learn firsthand why Premium gas is actually the cheapest.

At the end of my mind-nummingly long commute, I stopped for gas just before home. The first pump was not responding, so I moved to the next one. Unfortunately I did not realize that the order of gas nozzles was swapped until I had finished filling the tank. For over 95,000 miles my MINI had never tasted anything less than 91, and now I fed the poor thing Somerville Vodka-grade gasoline.

Knowing the difference in grades technically is their ability to resist pre-detonation under higher compression, I babied my driving for the tank. Modern engines won’t allow themselves to get damaged, but they will be running at a less than ideal ratio to keep things safe when pushed. So I accelerated much more slowly than normal, forgoed flooring the pedal on the many opportunities I usually take during my commute, kept speeds down a notch. This activity will typically raise the gas milage of my commute from its average of about 28.5 mpg to about 30mpg (though in my opinion, that savings is not worth the loss of fun when it is most needed!)

I ran calculations at my next fillup. Despite the fuel-sipping driving, I only got 24.25mpg from the regular gas! That’s 17.5% worse than usual, or a whopping 23.7% worse mileage than what I would have achieved driving so tamely! Clearly the engine is compensating even at normal rpms, perhaps also there are more contaminants in the lower gas that do not burn as efficiently.

So what does that amount to? Sure, Regular is 25 cents cheaper per gallon. But The $2.59 I paid would be equivalent to $3.25 for the same number of miles I would have got paying $2.84 for premium! So clearly regular is much more expensive per mile. And these numbers would be even more extreme back when gas was above $4.

So the next time someone criticizes your car for taking Premium fuel, you can explain to them that it not only gives you a more powerful engine with better efficiency, it’s also much cheaper!

I headed over to Greasy’s Garage this morning to finally get a long list of overdue preventative maintenance done on the MINI. Good MINI friends just opened the shop a few months ago out in Worcester and the good company alone is worth the trip, as well as the experience of working on hundreds of minis. Some parts I had sitting around for years waiting to be installed, while others I had ordered back in May, but any way you look at it, at over 94,000 miles, my MINI was long overdue for a checkup.

Though Pete was impressed on how good shape my car was in, my suspension bushings were shot (thanks to daily repeated pothole torture of Boston’s roads), so we put in some nice Powerflex bushings. It’s kind of like getting glasses…you suddenly realize how much you’ve been missing in the steering over the years!

Other items included new accessory belt and tensioner stop; new plugs, wires, and coils; new brake pads, rotors, and steel-braided brake lines that I’ve had for years and always looked forward to the sharper pedal response. Also replaced my seized power steering fan and PCV valve.

By chance our friend Gavin was also in for his yearly service work, it was very good to see him. But it’s great to know I have a trustworthy mechanic that specializes in MINIs, and I no doubt will be back soon, perhaps just to visit while someone else gets some work done, as the MMC folks often do.