Hi All - I have owned my mini for some 25 years - but I've been away from it for several years. I bought it while living in the Netherlands. - After I heard production was ending, I looked for one of the last Mini cooper sports in my favourite combination - Anthracite and Silver.
After almost giving up multiple times, I found one available in Berlin so I jumped on the train and got it. I got my name on it mid-September of 2000. - As all of you certainly know, production ended a few days later...
I was also very tempted by an almond green sport-pack mini available close to me in the Netherlands... but I stayed the course.
We spent some time driving around Europe and eventually I shipped it over to the Americas. We have been up and down the West coast (California) from Mexico - where it currently lives - going up the coast on Hwy 1 (a famously beautiful coastal road) to San Francisco and vicinity.
This was all before 2008 or so. Then I moved around for work to multiple countries and several continents and did not use the mini for long periods - other than to give it a run now and then when visiting home. It still has fewer than 20,000 km on the odometer...
I was recently reunited with my Mini and I am in the process of replacing all the fluids and making sure everything works properly, so that it continues running happily.
I've been out of the mini scene for a long time but I do have a copy of the appropriate Haynes manual (And the factory manual), but I know that there is no better source of information than other mini owners!
I had been active to another mini forum in the past (many years ago in the late 1990s - early 2000s) - but that forum seems to have gone sleepy. I was glad to find this forum when looking for some mini tech information - so here I am!
Edited by Blumeanie, 28 November 2024 - 09:03 AM.