MTTS 2018 route starts in Florida!

Posted on by Ian C.

MINI USA today announced the official route for MINI TAKES THE STATES (MTTS) 2018. The legendary rally for MINI owners, which runs from July 14 – 22, will start from two separate locations on opposite sides of the country and meet in the middle for a weekend celebration of everything MINI. The starting cities will be Orlando, Fla., and Portland, Ore. The final destination is Keystone Resort in Keystone, Colo., approximately 75 miles west of downtown Denver. Once arriving at Keystone, MINI owners from both routes will have the weekend to trade stories, share their experiences, show off their MINI, explore the area on curated mountain drives, support our charity partner and enjoy fun activities planned by the MINI USA team.

E725F4E6-0D50-4DE7-A7DE-689B8CAEDF9B

I guess they want me to join in!

 

Third repair attempt!

Posted on by Ian C.

I’ve never really had significant issues with MINIs I’ve owned, at least not since the early days of SES lights and “bad gas” behavior … but my 2016 Clubman seems determined to be annoying with it’s repeated electric parking brake failure (here, here) and it’s back again today! The behavior is to report failure of the parking brake – even though the brake is actually applied and the car can’t move.

IMG_5941.HEIC.jpg

Since the car believes there’s a problem, it now won’t release the brake so no more driving. Luckily, a tedious sequence of turning off and on, applying / releasing / re-applying / re-releasing the parking brake, gets it sorted … for a while at least.

So back to Orlando MINI again this afternoon; they’re only half an hour away, friendly, and ready with a loaner vehicle each time – but it’s honestly getting rather “not fun” to keep doing this. I’m starting to get an understanding of those MINI owners that are so infuriated with repeated failures (and many of those no doubt are much more frustrating than my car).

One bright spot this afternoon though, is that the latest loaner is electric blue, reminiscent of Ed / Maxamini and a time to re-introduce my duck to the new car (although I have to admit, this new electric blue is quite a long way from the original color!):

 

Hopefully, this latest repair attempt will be successful!