This past weekend we enjoyed un-seasonably warm temperatures around 60 degrees, with lots of sunshine too! Then today, we were reminded what winter in New England is supposed to be:
No big deal. Plowed roads (and even a plowed driveway at work, eventually), and 40 minutes of heavy snow shovelling to clear our driveway and paths at home, and we can pretend the snow never happened!
On my way home from work last night, there was an unexpected “bing” (the same sound as for low temperature or low fuel); looking around I spotted a yellow light on the center speedometer and eventually figured that the picture might be for the “flat tire” warning (it’s not very intuitive to me!)
So I stopped and walked round GBMINI, but all (aftermarket non-runflat tires) looked perfectly OK … so I headed home:
Once home, I went round the car and pressure gauge checked each tire … 33psi, 33.5psi, 33.5psi … really starting to think I had a new gremlin in GBMINI but then … 27psi!
The last tire I checked (left rear) was down 6psi – not enough for me to see even though the tire was not runflat (with runflats you can’t really see when they are completely flat) – but GBMINI knew the tire was down and told me.
I am newly impressed with GBMINIs low tire detection – good job MINI!
Another interesting article recently in Automotive Design & Production, which mentions the various MINI concepts seen recently (interior, Detroit, Tokyo, Frankfurt) and the contributions of Chris Bangle:
With the BMW brand work essentially complete, Bangle will focus his attention on another automotive icon, MINI … a partial glimpse at the next iteration via the MINI Concept Frankfurt … Bangle is mum on specifics when it comes to the future of MINI design … but he is willing to say that MINI is more than the car itself: “MINI is a brand, not a car. To me it’s less a question of what kind of MINI will be out there, but how will MINI make a jump to the next paradigm,” Bangle says. “There’s a lot of room to work in”
I don’t know about you, but “a jump to the next paradigm” does not inspire me 😉
