Joey's Cooper Thread; Suspension Thoughts

YSSMAN

You spelled 'color' wrong...

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I think the Mini's Euroness is being absorbed into Joey!

One-year Update



November 14th is a date I always remember, it's the day nine years ago my grandmother passed away, it's the date of one of my best buddy's birthday, it's the date our house got broken into and it's the day I bought my MINI. The last two actually happened on the same day, I came home from getting my car to discover that our house had been broken into. Enough about dates though, this thread is about my car and my adventures with it.

My car had been through quite a bit this past year. Its explored the highways and biways of Michigan, its been given some un-love by a People's Car, its been "customised" with a very extra goodies, and it's provided me with 18,800 miles of driving enjoyment. I still love driving my car just as much as the day I picked it up, yes there are some issues with it and it's by no means perfect, but I still get a smile every time I get behind the wheel. The mileage this year speaks for that, with the Blazer I averaged about 11,000 miles a year.

So after a year what are the pro's and con's of the car?

Pro:
- Enjoyable to drive.
- Great fuel economy, even with a heavy foot.
- Excellent handling on twisty roads and traffic circles.
- Easy to park and manoeuvre through cities, parking areas, and campus.
- Easy to see out of, minimal blind spots.
- Hi-beam headlamps coupled with the driving lamps make back road excursions at night quite easy.
- Colour hides dirt quite well.
- Heated seats are the best thing ever.
- Great sense of community among the owners, most MINI owners wave to me when I pass by or flash their lights.
- Ample interior space despite its size.
- Dealer covers most maintenance expenses for the time being.
- Attractive girls like it and often want rides. Seriously guys, if you want a car to pick up chicks get a MINI, you want to pick up guys get a Mustang .

Cons:
- Expensive to maintain since just about everything has to be done at the dealer.
- Stock tires are awful.
- When the car has a load of people in it or the A/C cranked to max, you can feel the lack of power.
- A couple squeaks and rattles.
- Windows have a bad problem of fogging up for no reason.
- Snow driving is real hit or miss on how good the car is.
- Lack of upgrade options.
- Most IKEA boxes are not designed to fit in small cars, at least here in America.
- Idiots yell at me for buying a foreign car, despite them owning something like an HHR which is built in Mexico.
- Wish I would have gotten a few more options with the car.

As I've said, all-in-all I really like my car. I all to often hear people at school go on and on about "why would anyone buy and automatic FWD car". If I enjoy it what's the problem? Once I let them drive the car they change their mind fairly quickly, although there will always be the diehard American car fanboy that can't understand why a car from another country is good. Guess that's the beauty of the Detroit area, eh?

Hypermiling

One thing I've started to experiment with as of late is hypermilin, which is maximising your fuel economy as much as you can. While I'm not crazy enough to shut the engine off while driving down the highway I do slip the car into neutral quite a bit and get the car into sixth gear as quickly as I can without having the computer give me the e-finger. I managed my best economy yesterday while doing some backroad driving.



Yes that is 56.8 MPG, although this is just an average for that trip and will no way reflect the end mileage of the tank of fuel. I'll probably get about 40mpg this tank depending on weather and where I need to drive. Before starting the hypermiling experiment I was get about 34-35mpg with a mix of driving and running the heater. My goal is consistently pull 40-42mpg numbers.

Future Plans
Now that a year had gone by I look towards the future for my car. I do plan on keeping it for a while, although if I do come into a big bunch of money I will buy something else. I wanted to have the car paid off by the end of the year but I invested more money this year due to the tanking stock market. With low monthly payments I'm not worried although since I'm starting full time at my job December 15th I'll be able to pay the car off with little problem next year.

I am going to replace the tires next year and maybe get some different rims. I'm also still planning on getting a UK number plate but haven't really got around to it yet. Other then that I really don't have to many plans, maybe a couple of organisational things for the interior but that's probably it. And when M7 finally comes out with the strut tower bar I'll probably get that as well.



It's been a great year of ownership and I hope to have many more.

Interesting read 👍 Glad you're enjoying the car, MINIs are brilliant little cars regardless of the lack of practicality.

The comment about visibility being good made me chuckle, whenever I go in pretty much any modern car I find the visibility atrocious next to my ten year old Fiesta with it's wafer-thin pillars and big glass area. The MINI isn't bad but it's certainly not brilliant! The rear pillars are certainly quite thick and can create large blind spots. I do like the more upright windscreen though, and it's nice to sit close to the screen too given that again, in most modern cars the dashboard is very wide and you sit miles back from the screen.

Interesting mention of struggling to get stuff into the car (IKEA boxes) - again, something I've found modern superminis are hopeless with. My girlfriend's parents recently hired one of the brand new Corsas and the boot was awful. The sill was high so you had to bend down to put anything in (not good with heavy items), the wheel arches intruded massively and because they'd given it loads of rear legroom (which honestly, small cars don't really need) the actual space available for the boot was pathetic. My mate can fit as much in his Elise as his girlfriend can in her MINI. And that isn't a joke...

Nice economy figures too 👍 The best i've managed from an entire tank is about 53mpg before (UK gallons, obviously) and I tend to average around 45mpg at the moment, of which maybe 2/3 is usually motorway stuff and the last 1/3 is city driving, which is never good for economy. When I first got my car my driving split was about the same, maybe slightly more biased to city driving, and my economy was nearer 35-38mpg, so I'm quite happy with what I get at the moment. I don't really use any "hypermiling" techniques, I just make a conscious effort to not use much fuel in everyday driving.

EDIT: Re: The Brit number plate, are you looking to getting a modern one (white front/yellow back) or an old-style black background/silver text both front and back? I reckon on your car the black/silver option would look pretty good. I even think your car would carry off some striping and lettering along the bottom of the doors, like an old Mini 1275 GT.

You have to remember many vehicles in America are big and cumbersome, at least in my area. I've grown up driving things with blind spots the size of barns, the Pacifica my mom drives is awful as is my dad's G-van. I guess what I should say is the visibility in the MINI is much better then anything else I've had to drive and live with.

I don't know if IKEA boxes in America are designed differently or what, but I asked a manager why they showed an old Fiat 500 on their advertisement of "Take it with you Today!". The manager said their boxes were designed to fit in the smallest cars on the roads of Europe so I should have no problem with whatever it was I was driving. Guess no one had ever shown up with a proper small European car. All I got was a desk for Kate (the girlfriend). We ended up tying it to the roof to drive it home.

As for the number plates I think I'm going to get a white, modern one for the front of the car. I might get the yellow back plate for shows and what not. I'm still thinking of doing OX57 R56 to correspond to when I got my car. The striping along the bottom of the door would be cool though, I might have to look into that.

Thanks for the writeup Joey! Very good read!!

I just noticed the fuel gauge in the pic you posted, it looks cool.

M5Power

Thanks for the writeup Joey! Very good read!!

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Cool, thanks. I remember reading your write up on your car and rather enjoyed it too. I figure if you enjoy owning your vehicle you might as well tell its story.

Slick Rick

I just noticed the fuel gauge in the pic you posted, it looks cool.

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Ya it's neat, as the fuel gets low the gauge actually dims and when there is two bars left it turns from orange to red to let you know it's time to fill up. Typically happens with about 90miles on the range display.

Joey D

- Great sense of community among the owners, most MINI owners wave to me when I pass by or flash their lights.

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Most Mini drivers to that over here, but I've never seen MINI drivers do it - I guess that's just how much rarer MINIs are in Michigan.

Joey D

- Windows have a bad problem of fogging up for no reason.

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More retro MINIness!

Joey D

Ya it's neat, as the fuel gets low the gauge actually dims and when there is two bars left it turns from orange to red to let you know it's time to fill up.

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I'd read that as 'my tyres are toast, better make a pitstop'.

That's odd, MINI drivers don't do that in the UK, apparently it's nationwide here and there are several threads on North American Motoring about it. Mini owners are the same way as well, there are a couple in the area and they always wave or flash their lights whether you are in a MINI or a Mini. Mini owners are also some of the friendliest people I've met as they will always come up to you at a fuel station or in a parking lot.

A couple weeks ago I had a guy in an orange Mini pull into a Shell station right behind me and we ended up talking for almost 20 minutes. It was great.

Nice Mini dude. Shame it isn't a manual though . Hahaha. Glad you're enjoying it.

18,800 miles?! I only just rolled over 10,000 miles with my 5 years of classic Mini ownership!

You should get a classic Mini next Joey. There's a few places in the US selling them, and replacement/new parts a plentiful on the 'net.

It's about 30 miles round trip to work making for 150miles a week just in commuting, plus going to back and forth to school, weekend holidays, and just pleasure driving. It all adds up rather quickly. The Detroit area has zero public transport and not very many sidewalks or bike paths so you really do have to drive everywhere you want to go. The local supermarket is only three miles away but there is no other way for me to get there then get in my car and drive. It's kind of sad when I think about it.

I want a classic Mini although they always seems to be quite expensive. Most of them in good condition run $12,000 - $15,000. The MINI dealership has a couple too although they won't let any one drive them. I've sat in them a couple times though, I'd almost be afraid to drive it in Detroit area when Suburbans are still populating the streets.

I've looked into it a couple of times and it's almost cheaper to buy on in the UK and get it shipped over. There are a couple online that are going for $10,000 with the shipping and duty included. The only problem would be convincing the secretary of state to license it. Michigan has awful import laws, we even give Canadians the fifth degree when they move here with some of their non-US sold cars.

I have the money but I'm trying to get a house so making a huge purchase like that right now isn't in the cards. Someday though.

It's nice to see how hard people are trying to get the most out of their cars, especially when it comes to fuel economy. Great job Joey! 👍

Joey D

I've looked into it a couple of times and it's almost cheaper to buy on in the UK and get it shipped over. There are a couple online that are going for $10,000 with the shipping and duty included. The only problem would be convincing the secretary of state to license it. Michigan has awful import laws, we even give Canadians the fifth degree when they move here with some of their non-US sold cars.

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Plus DOT-approved parts plus money for getting it legalised, which isn't certain you will. Plus you're sitting on the wrong side.
Plus you might end up with a rotting POS. If you thought Michigan cars rust.. Although old small cars are harder to find down south, they are waaaay cleaner, and means literally no hassle compared to buying a car overseas

I've sort of given up on the rim deal, I don't want to spend $1,200 on rims and tires plus $400 on an additional set of winter tires. I do need new tires though since mine aren't going to make the winter since they are very close to the wear line...hey at least it's better then how the Blazer was.

I would like to get tires here in the next week or so, although I might have to wait till after xmas when I have some more money. I have a couple choices in tires, but it involves me going one step wider. I have 175/65/15 Continental ContiPremiumContact's on my car right now and they are awful. However, there are really only four choices of 175/65/15's out there, with 3 of them being summer only tires.

In order to get a better selection I'm thinking of going to a 185 but I don't know how well that will work with the car or if it will messing with the tire pressure monitors. I asked something similar to this before but for the life of me I can't find it.

I have a couple of choices in the 185 style.

The Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position's, about $70.00 a tire. The reviews are favourable on Tire Rack getting a 7.45/10. Snow, slush, and rain traction ratings are much higher then the tires I have on the car now. The tread pattern looks cool too!



The General Tire Altimax HP, about $60 a tire. The reviews are similar on this tire as they are to the Potenza although the Potenza's are slightly higher in some areas, but the Altimax are better in the snow. I've had a lot of people tell me General Tires are crap because they aren't name brand, but from what I've researched they've been around since 1915.



The Pirelli P4 Four Seasons, about $65 a tire. The reviews are similar to the other tires that I posted, although the dry traction seems to be a bit lacking comparatively.



Michelin HydroEdge's, about $110 a tire. They are the same tires I had on the Blazer and they worked excellent in all weather conditions and gave me great grip. My only complaint is that they are really expensive for about the same reviews as the other tires.



So any ideas? I don't really want to spend a fortune on tires.

I have experience with the RE960. That's the tire I had on my Del Sol and what it was wearing during our Dragon trip. I quickly found out that all-season tires--even ones in the high performance category like the Bridgestones--are no match for even a bottom-tier summer tire. But it performed to my liking and it is just about the highest rated all-season tire around.

I drove them hard and often, and I probably would have gotten a full year and a half or more out of them. They also did well in the rain, but had trouble evacuating heavy rain at anything above 70mph. Makes me wonder how all those supercars with their massively wide tires race aronud a track at 150mph without hydroplaning... I never had the chance to try them in the snow, just rain and dry.

Anyway, buy them. They're good all-seasons. Just remember that all-season tires are compromises by design--not a one of them is good at anything, but they'll work okay in everything.

EDIT: Btw, you'll be looking for a 185/60-15 in order to keep a similar overall diameter as a 175/65. They'll be about a quarter inch smaller in diameter--your speedometer will read very slightly higher than you're actually going. It won't hardly be noticeable unless you're pacing another car at at 80mph. Up there you may be up to 5 mph off.

How many miles did you end up getting out of them? I have to imagine I don't drive as hard as you do or did when you had the tires, but just to kind of an idea. I hate tires that don't last long, my HydroEdges I had on the Blazer had been on my truck 40,000 miles when I sold it and I think I probably could have gotten another 40,000 out of them.

I want all-seasons because as I've said I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a new set of rims and then eight tires. I would rather put that money towards other things, although a set of steelies would be really cheap. I know they are a compromise but the weather in Michigan is way to unpredictable, I mean in the past hour we've had a really hard snow fall followed by blue skies.

I don't know about tires all that much, but why would I want a 185/60/15 instead of a 185/65/15? They don't seem to make the Potenza in that size either.

My speedo is off any ways and reads fasts to begin with. I don't know why and the dealer told me not to worry about it. I just use my GPS most of the time though.

going to a marginally larger size will being you closer to your indicated speed. most cars come from the factory with a speedo that reads a little bit higher. DOT regs state it cannot read less than the indicated speed, or 10% more than the indicated speed. most cars are about 3-5% over.

on my car, going to one size larger (195/65-15 to 205/65-15) meant i was doing exactly the indicated speed. but thats on a 1990 mercedes 300E. may not be the same with you.

costco has the hydroedge tires for $110 each, installed, and right now there is $60 off if you buy a set (4)

Joey D

How many miles did you end up getting out of them? I have to imagine I don't drive as hard as you do or did when you had the tires, but just to kind of an idea. I hate tires that don't last long, my HydroEdges I had on the Blazer had been on my truck 40,000 miles when I sold it and I think I probably could have gotten another 40,000 out of them.

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The tires would have lasted me at least 30,000 miles. Any tire in that category should last a typical driver at least 50,000 miles.

I want all-seasons because as I've said I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a new set of rims and then eight tires. I would rather put that money towards other things, although a set of steelies would be really cheap. I know they are a compromise but the weather in Michigan is way to unpredictable, I mean in the past hour we've had a really hard snow fall followed by blue skies.

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I bought my Blizzak WS60s as sort of an experiment. I want to see what kind of difference they'll make in the snow and cold weather in general compared to other tires I've driven on so far. I'm already thinking I should have gotten a "performance winter" tire instead of these. But we haven't had any snow yet. These tires might be too little a compromise!

I don't know about tires all that much, but why would I want a 185/60/15 instead of a 185/65/15? They don't seem to make the Potenza in that size either.

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The "185" is a measurement of the tire's section width (from sidewall to sidewall). The "70" is the aspect ratio--it's a percentage of the tire's width. Sixty-five percent of your stock tire's 175mm width is 113.75; 185 x .65 = 120.25; 185 x .60 = 111. The 111mm sidewall is much closer to the stock 113.75. Plus, the higher sidewalled tire will probably weigh a tiny amount more, it will flex more and be less communicative, it will make your speedo read higher than stock, and it will lower the amount of torque that gets to the road because of the bigger diameter. All negative effects in my eyes (myself and police radar haven't mixed well in the past, lol).

My speedo is off any ways and reads fasts to begin with. I don't know why and the dealer told me not to worry about it. I just use my GPS most of the time though.

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It should. It's the safe way to go. All their errors will be slightly different, but it's safer for you and more importantly the company's legal department to have it on the high side.

EDIT: To complicate things unnecessarily:



EDIT: But since the RE960 only comes in the 185/65-15 size you looked at already...I'd say get it. All the differences really would be so small nobody would hardly notice.

Keef

The tires would have lasted me at least 30,000 miles. Any tire in that category should last a typical driver at least 50,000 miles.

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true keef, but there is no such thing as a typical driver. whats typical for you is not typical for me, or my brother, or my mother, or your mother.

my mom drives 10 miles a day on average.
i drive about 30.
my brother about 80. all irrelevant because it depends how your drive.

my mom is a very slow driver (better wear characteristics.) my brother average. (avg, if there is such a thing) im average/ aggressive (depends on my mood.) (obviously the more aggressive you are the faster you wear them out.)
my mom is anal about maintenance. but knows nothing about it and leaves it to the dealers. (good or bad. good if the dealer does what they are supposed to. bad if they pretend to and they did in my moms case)
my brother is good, but only about doing the oil change. he gets surprised when his car needs brakes, coolant, a battery, etc. (bad for tire wear, and car maintenance in general. but good for his engine.)
i tend to leave the maintenance past the recommended intervals. but i know exactly what needs to be done on my car. and i do most of the maintenance myself. (which is good for tire wear, but bad for oil change intervals and so on.)
my mom does mostly urban driving.(bad) my brother mostly freeway. and i do mostly freeway too. (both good)

paradoxically, my mom needs her tires replaced sooner than either my brother or i. its the urban driving. and the fact that she goes by whatever the dealer tells her.
my brother needs his the least (milage wise) but he tends to drive them beyond the point where he got his monies worth. they replace em every two years or so.

and i replace mine every three years or so.

Thanks for the explanation. A member on NAM posted this visual calculator thing from miata.net that explains it decently well. You can also compare tire sizes and see what affect they will have.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

After spending all day at work researching tires I found that the Generals are probably going to be the best for me. They are light compared to other tires and they also offer really good light snow traction. I know no tire other then winter tires will be good in deep stuff but if it's snowing that bad I'm staying home. One of the hypermiling forums I go to recommend these quite highly, apparently some guy with a TDI Jetta got a couple more MPG's when he switched to these tires.

I'm going to run to Discount Tire tomorrow and see what sort of deal I can work out with them.

michelin claims they have the most fuel efficient line of tires.

why dont you call a toyota dealer and see if they will give you the list of tires they recommend for the prius. same size youre looking at (185/65-15)

neanderthal

michelin claims they have the most fuel efficient line of tires.

why dont you call a toyota dealer and see if they will give you the list of tires they recommend for the prius. same size youre looking at (185/65-15)

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I don't think you want Prius tires, especially if you are considering snow at all. I was on a Prius forum for kicks and giggles once and read how people weren't even able to get up some wet driveways because they would slip and the over-cautious traction control would activate, essentially stopping the car.

The Prius uses Goodyear Integrity's, which are awful.

Joey D

The Prius uses Goodyear Integrity's, which are awful.

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Right. Don't even bother with anything lower than a "high performance whatever" category tire. Anything less is just plain dangerous in my mind. When I want my car to avoid that dog, buddy, I want my car to avoid, and now. Tires are a driver's first line of safety, and the most important, and they are nothing to be skimped upon. I don't know how people sleep at night knowing their tires are going to last the full 4 years of their lease because they're made of hard plastic.

Oh I've always been a fan of putting good tires on my car since it really is the only part that touches the road surface.

Eco-tires are pure crapola. I've driven two or three different marks of Michelin "Energy" tires (I got a set for my pickup just because... and I've driven it on one or two German cars and the Prius) and braking performance is absolutely horrid, even on bone-dry asphalt.

In winter, you might as well have PVC pipes wrapped around your rims (neat trick RC buffs use to turn their RCs into "drifters")... the hard silica compound is that bad in cold weather... or even warm weather, for that matter.

and on the contrary, ive also used michelin "energy" mxv4 tires (luxury touring) and i have yet to come across better (quiet, smooth, fuel efficient, wet and winter traction) tires. they are patently NOT performance tires. arent the best winter tires but they did alright for me here in so cal.

ymmv

$1200 for wheels and tires?

I just bundled some decent wheels with RT-615s for under $750 dollars...

Snow tires in that size should run under $400 dollars.

Nothing compares to real snow tires... all seasons have no way to touch a dedicated winter tire. And you live in an area where I would say you need real tires for snow. I feel more comfortable driving my MR-S several inches of snow than I do with the Outback turbo. Why? I have snow tires and it has all seasons.

I know you don't drive hard really, but having dedicated summer and winter tires makes a huge difference.

I know they would make a big difference but I don't really want to spend the money on them right now mainly because I want to put the money into other things like my investments.

I need tires though as I'm close to the wear lines on both the front and rear (I rotate them often). I figure until I make sure I'm going to have my job secure and get a fair bit of money coming in, I'll just have to make do with a good set of all-seaons. I went to Discount Tire yesterday and out the door with the General's is $427 although I'll probably take the old tires and give them to a buddy of mine who works at a go-kart track so that will save some money as well.

The wheels I've been looking at, Konig Rewinds, out the door they are $650-ish plus the tires would add another $500-$600 depending on what I got.

This week will really tell the tale on what I need, we are supposed to get 12" over the next couple days and it's going to be wet stuff. If I can tolerate the awful run flats that are on there now, and they will last me to spring, I'll wait. But if I have to much trouble I'm buying tires ASAP.

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A completely off topic question, and this is directed more at the Classic Cooper owners. Would it look funny if I put John Cooper's signature decals on my bonnet stripes? There are guys doing it on NAM and I like it but I'm looking for thoughts.