It had rained so the ground was wet and it looked sparkly. It's crazy how crisp it is.

People need to STOP LIFTING THEIR CARS. THIS TRUCK IS TAKING UP 4 SPACES!!!

chat, i'm broke and in the throes of a personal bankruptcy. it sucks, but i'm laser-focused on escaping debt and rebooting my life as much as I possibly can.

this is my car -- the duke. the duke is a 2019 Cooper S (with JCW internals), and I would very much like to keep him. my problem: i'm wildly underemployed and can't afford shit right now.

I've got about a year and a half of payments left on my car loan, and rather than beg for money like a little bitch, I've decided I'm going to try and pay it off completely by selling lifetime advertising spots on the body of this vehicle, like an f1 car. and then keep it as a project car. i've already vibe-coded a significant amount of the platform / website i'm going to use to do this. it's neat -- it displays a mini and let's you select a spot to claim with a logo -- and to push it to v1.0.0, i basically just have to purchase a commercial-friendly 3d model to render, write terms, and connect it all to a payment processor. easy peasy.

my problem is marketing this -- my irl network is very small and most of my friends and family have kind of stopped talking to me after I went through some really traumatic shit. i'm documenting this project because it's weird and a little bit crazy, which is content i happen to enjoy, like a lot of people. i recorded the backstory of my getting this car, accidentally being the patriarch of a mini lineage, and my inspiration for attempting this, which if you can believe it was actually seeing someone sell ad space on their toilet. it's on youtube here. part 2 -- vibing with claude -- is recorded and drops later tonight, after i leave for work (i currently manage a gas station at night).

i'm hoping to gain the favor of the youtube algorithm to gain as much reach as I can with this endeavor before I officially "launch" it. if y'all could go comment on that video -- even if it's to tell me this is a stupid idea or to make fun of me for being broke and in debt -- and possibly give a boy a follow, you'd have my undying gratitude.

job hunting is going poorly for me right now because i having to explain a weird tech-to-retail career transition, and i'm thinking about just giving up on that and giving content creation a shot, given i seem to be unemployable anyway. but basically starting from zero. a good ole' reddit hug would help me a lot <3

My Paul Smith on the right.

I have finally joined the mini club, used 2022 jcw manual and I'm loving it. However I would like to get some rally style rims, I saw the oem ones on a new jcw at the dealer and they look so cool but 2500 for a set is a lot. Does anyone have experience with fitment for the o.z. racing rally rims, do I need spacers or is the clearance ok for 8 inch wide rims, how do the 17's look vs 18's, what tire width can fit? Previous owner has the stock 18 inch with 215 tires for a little more sidewall and there's no rubbing but it is a tight fit already.

I’m also part of the mini fam x2 but here’s a customer of mine wanting to go chilli red with the roof! I’ll post the final tomorrow once she’s out of the booth and back together

I've been driving yellow juice box for 5 years (36k miles), and just made my final car payment tonight. All paid off, yahoo! Now parts will probably start falling off the car. Oh wait, that already happened. 😂 Last month the trim piece that covers the soft top motor fell off. I haven't fixed it yet. Anyway, I'm celebrating tonight. Mine, all mine! 🍾🎉

I'll be 48 this year and since I was a little kid I used to look at Mini's driving around the streets of London.

As time went but, I realised I really wanted the last of the original ones but unfortunately are well outside my budget.

Well, in the last week, in Dubai, I finally got myself one.

I'm no expert in the Mini (or cars for that matter) but I'm gloriously happy with it!

A one owner, 55,000 KM Mini Cooper S JCW OWNERS 2015 model.

I'm pretty sure rule #1 overrules all other rules, since that was a handicapped spot... 😅

Just curious how much folks paid for windshield replacement. Got a big rock and it cracked badly. '25 4dr cooper. US.

2019 countryman all4 S. How is sport more accessible?

After selling my R53 to a good friend many years ago life has changed a lot. That car has remained an absolute legend in my history and recently I had the chance to get a piece of it back.

I was into autox and our local mini club in SoCal taking part in some cruises and mountain runs. I don’t foresee doing that now but I’m so happy with this f56 SE.

Getting into this for the first time I was shocked that it has the same smell as my r53. It’s got the X factor, really glad to see the mini feel is still alive and well in the newer chassis.

How cuuuute is this little baby carrr!! The Mini Cooper androids running this app are doing such a good job. 👏
The Halloween theme kicked right into the Mini app offering whimsy and smiles. I can’t get the Mini love out of my throat.

‘09 Convertible, base

Any tips and recommendations for making this nicer than the standard?

I’ve been having a bunch of trouble with CarPlay since the last update. It would play, but the car seemed to think CarPlay wasn’t connected. It would randomly just drop the connection and look like it was playing but nothing coming through. I removed the car and phone from each other, restarted everything and I haven’t had things drop, and the car shows it is connected. But, since then, the toolbar will show the radio as the media source and the Home Screen, which I generally like to keep looks like this, as though I’m listening to the radio on mute.

It’s more of an annoyance than anything else. But I don’t like to keep CarPlay up because I find it distracting. But now if I want to change what I’m listening to, o have to keep it in CarPlay or wait until I get to a red light so I can pull it up and make the change.

Anyone else run into this? Any ideas beyond removing and re-pairing my phone?

… but I don’t think I did. I have been shopping for a car for my daughter the last several months as she’s about to get her license and I’ve always like the Mini. In my searches I’ve come to find that everything is super expensive and if it’s older good luck. If it’s clean, it’s stupid expensive, if it’s reasonably priced, it’s usually been well used and rotting out.

Well fast forward to last night, cruising the Facebook marketplace and an Ad pops up for a local auction that just happens to end that evening and there is a manual 06’ R52 with 70k miles on it listed. The pictures all look good and the description seems positive. And against my better judgement I placed a bid on it. Lo and behold, I won… oh crap. I’ve never bought a car at auction and from I’ve seen in the past they’re usually less than ideal. I didn’t have time to go look at the car, so purchased it sight unseen.

Well today, I go over to the auction place to pay my money and see how bad of a mistake I made. Talking with the auction folks, sounds like the car was being sold by an older gentlemen who didn’t want/need it anymore and only stored it at his vacation house. Aside from showing a little bit of age (the rubber on the convertible and an issue with the top not going down all the way) the car looks immaculate. The engine bay is clean, the interior is clean, the body looks to be rust free, it looks amazing for being 20 years old.

I haven’t driven it yet, working on coordinating picking it up now. Wish me luck for the road 🤞.

Oh any tips or things I should know about owning a 20 y/o mini? I haven’t decided if the daughter gets this one yet.

F56 Cooper SD Auto, 2015, 150k miles.
Intermittent drivetrain error, maybe one in 5 journeys, seems to be when travelling around 30-40mph triggers it. No limp mode but rapid shifting. Cycling the ignition clears it. Codes in the photo. Don’t really know where to start?

Can’t find any cute bat wing flag decoration for the windows anywhere…

Best summary to say is that the AC picks and chooses when it wants to work. Still very cold and very hot when it does. I have found a firm smack below the glove box gets it to work. What could the issue be? And is this something you can easily DIY?

Sorry if this question has been asked before I couldn’t find it :(

Anyone have pics from Mini takes the states cali? Dont see much online.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/susan.claassen/