Excerpt from Chapter 2 - What Kind of Motoring Do You Want to Do

Where Do You Want to Go in Your MINI?

A wise person once said that there’s a cost for everything, and the price in the catalog isn’t the last word in helping you decide what you want and don’t want. When you’re designing your car, keep in mind that you migh have to give up some capabilities in order to get other capabilities. A car that will go faster, or turn quicker may not be as comfortable to drive. A car that has a variety of appearance accessories and a comfortable interior will weigh more and go slower than a stripped-down version.

Let us ask you a few questions about how you plan to use your MINI. First, are you buying the car as your primary mode of weekday transportation with the idea that you’ll still want to use it as a major source of weekend fun? Or are you fortunate enough to already have a functioning transportation unit that can take care of the day-to-day stuff, so your MINI will only be taken out to have fun?

If you do plan on using your MINI for workaday tasks, will you be commuting on the highway to the same office each day, or will you be out in the car all day, making sales visits or trouble-shooting calls to places you’ve never been before?

Second, when you do see yourself having fun in the MINI, where do you see yourself? Will you be on a back country road with your friends, taking a long tour to a secluded picnic spot, or will the curves you take have braking and apex markers, a rumble strip, and a flagman watching the race track for you?

If your pulse does quicken when the green flashes, will you be racing against the clock on a parking lot marked off with yellow cones, will you be more interested in how fast you can beat the other car to the end of the quarter-mile, or will you only be satisfied if you’re going wheel-to-wheel on a real race track?

The nice thing about the MINI, of course, is that it can do any of these things. For example, we know at least one company that maintains a fleet of MINIs for its service reps to use to keep their customers’ office networks in operation, but then takes the whole fleet and the reps to the race track a couple of times a year to do hot laps just for fun.

But nevertheless, when you’re making your buying decision, and when you’re laying out your modification and upgrade strategy, it helps to focus on where you’re going to want your MINI to really shine. Take the time to read the rest of this chapter and you’ll be in a better position to consider your options when you do sit down across the desk from the sales manager at the MINI dealer to place your order for your very own MINI.