New “Mini Cooper” :)

Posted on by Ian C.

My friends Virginie & Greg Cooper just yesterday took delivery of their new “Mini Cooper”:


“Logan Cooper” is much bigger than many similar models! Congratulations to Virginie & Greg! Mother & Baby both doing fine – Father rushed off his feet but doing OK too. Maybe soon they can order their other MINI Cooper Convertible …

Picking up MINIs at MINI Peabody

Posted on by Ian C.

I headed past MINI Peabody today, on my way to Union Jack (the British shop just south of MINI) and dropped in – I had received an email from Dennis saying he was picking up his new MINI today; well his car was there, but I did not see him. I did see John, another of Steve’s customers, and thought he was Dennis – sorry John!
Then I also met Bruce, who was picking up his new MINI – Chili Red with all the gadgets including English voice navigation.

 

Dennis’ MINI ready for pickup
Bruce’s MINI
Bruce with his MINI

Bruce owns a garage in Rhode Island, selling & servicing European cars including the new MINI – his previous MINI was sold but he loves them so much he had to get another one 🙂
I met another Bruce inside, waiting for his MINI to be serviced – I knew this Bruce from NEMO and British Marque; and I met Heather, who I had chatted with at MINIsOnTop back in the summer …

Of course I also said “hi” to Chris, Gary, Joel, Brig, John, Hrach and Steve who work there. A real family style dealership!

MINIs (again) speak British English

Posted on by Ian C.

In the early days of the new MINI, with CD-based navigation, you could have directions spoken with a British voice which seemed to many owners to be rather appropriate. Later releases, and the DVD-based version, dispensed with British accents – supposedly because American drivers could not understand!
Some MINI owners wanted their British car to still speak British – see this discussion on MINI2 for example; more recently there was a discussion that suggested that the British voice might return.

Today at MINI Peabody, I mentioned this to Brig and he very helpfully took me through the Navigation setup in a MINI Cooper Convertible in the showroom; in the setup screen, we were able to select “GB” as the voice, instead of “USA”:

Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC

(note the software version 4-1/40)

And then the car was speaking with a female British accent – I recorded a few seconds of “her” saying “louder” and “quieter” to give you an idea!

 

So can you get this on your non-British DVD based Navigation system? Presumably – Scott at MINI Peabody tells me you can order the DVD (for $225!) but maybe you should instead make friends with someone with a very new MINI …

UPDATE: Scott at MINI Peabody has gathered some more info – he has been told that an update DVD won’t be available to buy till Jan’05, and that anyway it won’t provide a British accent … I don’t know if this is correct, but it sounds disappointing.

Thanks, Brig & Scott 🙂