Bye Bye BRZ
 

Well, after three years of fun and games, my lease is up and I'm no longer a BRZ driver. I'm going to miss that car. As far as pure driving experiences go, it was hard to beat.

I'm still going to lurk around here, mostly for Ultramaroon's smartass comments. :thumbup:

Dammit. The pressure.

You autox'd in a leased car? Damn... Just asking because of your profile pic. Sad to see you leave man!

We're waiting.

OP, what are you driving now?

Relax. Drink a few glasses of water in a row. It'll pass.

2011 Mini John Cooper Works.

So sorry.

How short are you?

My heart goes out to you

Driving the piss out of it? That's all that matters.

We're the same height.

What are The odds of two 9 foot guys in the same area?

You'd be surprised how much room there is inside these things. I'm 6'2" and it's easy. The guy I bought it off is 6'7".

Ok, I'm a teeny bit taller.

Like a furlong taller?

I wonder why he sold it? I had a loaner Mini for a week once. I was immensely happy to turn it back in. Fitting inside is quite different from being comfortable, and I'm just 6'. The worst was getting in and out. It killed my knees.

Also I think the ride on the Works minis is just brutal. But it's cute and it handles well.

When people tell me my car is cute.

:suicide:

A parsec?

Yep, ran it hard for three years. It's a great car for autocross, especially with a few subtle mods.

Interesting. This is our second Mini (we had a Cooper S for a few years), and I've never had an issue. I'll admit that getting in and out can be a challenge. Just goes to show that YMMV, I guess.

And yeah, the ride is hard, for sure. But I have a short commute on reasonable roads (by Portland standards), so I can put up with that for the fun factor.

Is there any other way?

He's way more handsome and has that adorable Aussie accent.


Not proper but we have to share the road with all the yahoos that snooze their way around town.

Don't drive a mini or a Fiat.

Oooh! Sexy!

Wait, SapphicProstitute, what do you do when somebody calls your accent adorable?

I think the twins are cute as hell. Sports cars & go karts are cute.

I don't have an accent.

That's not the point.

Come to think of it, I have had someone call my accent adorable. When I was 15 I spent a day at a high school in Melbourne. Chicks loved my NorCal accent.

That must have been horrible.

Yep

At least now you have us.

Wait, what?

For moral support.

Former 2010 JCW owner here. Was my wifes car, which we loved. Only had one major issue and that was the plastic throw out bearing gave out at 50k, cooking the clutch. Was a complicated enough job I refused to do it myself. We sold it shortly after getting it fixed, turned around and bought an CX-5 and imported a classic cooper from Japan after that.

Was a super fun car.


Our classic for reference:
https://imgur.com/5LyoPQC.jpg

R.I.P.

I might actually pay money to see Ultramaroon in that car.

Hey, I fit in our little homemade race car in college. That's where I figured out how much room I can gain by driving in socks.

Wow, not a lot of love for the Mini around here.

I love the old mini's

The new, not alot of anything feeling wise

From knowing people who had them they were not really reliable

Everyone I know who got one sold it pretty quick

Pretty poor bang for buck really, but it is a niche vehicle, I look at it like those new VW "beetles", which really should be killed by fire

That car was much bigger than a mini!

To each their own, I guess. We had a 2004 Cooper S from new, put about 120,000 miles on it over 12 years, and never had any major reliability issues. And it was a hoot to drive. It's the main reason I went for another Mini when the BRZ lease was up.

I love the Mini, I bought one as my first car. Alas, I didn't do my research and bought a 2007, and apparently the R56 generation prior to 2009-2010 was super unreliable. I felt like I got the worst one. It had 96K km on it when I bought it. Broke down first week, engine had 2L of oil in it. Fixed that leak, then the whole timing chain assembly had to be replaced, then a coil went, then handbrake cable (!), all of the brakes had to be replaced, then clutch and flywheel plus a leaking valve cover ($4000!!), and then at 136K km on the odometer, it finally died on the highway. Compression tests showed 0% in one cyl and 50% in another. Traded whatever was left of it for the 86 a few days later. I assume the innate poor reliability of the Renault (I believe) supplied engine coupled with the previous owner using regular gas and never checking oil led to the outcome. It was hilariously fun but not much above 4500 rpm, which is why I love the 86 cause that's where the fun begins. It was a horrible experience but I consider it a crash course in auto ownership. People go through a lot of cars to learn all the lessons I learned, the little Mini taught me all of them in one go.

But I know the later cars are pretty reliable. One guy I knew sold his with 250K km on it and it still ran strong and never had any problems.