What did you do to your MINI today?
- Thread starter SameGuy
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Outagas
Member
Ok….and this one took a deep breath and some masculinity reaffirming mantra…
The backstory is that, for the first time in 28 years of marriage, my wife has taken an interest in any of the cars in our driveway. She absolutely loves the Mini, calling it “her little lady bug“ and squabbling with me to grab the keys first when our schedules conflict.
When she produced a red ladybug fridge magnet exactly matching the livery of our Chili red and black SE, I thought I would surprise her and install it in the cabin somewhere.
So there’s me smearing crazy glue on this bug magnet and sticking it right to the pristine piano black surface of the dashboard on a jaunty angle - like it just crawled out of the vent. Well, she loved it and was surprised and grateful I’d stoop to defacing our new car to humour her.
The backstory is that, for the first time in 28 years of marriage, my wife has taken an interest in any of the cars in our driveway. She absolutely loves the Mini, calling it “her little lady bug“ and squabbling with me to grab the keys first when our schedules conflict.
When she produced a red ladybug fridge magnet exactly matching the livery of our Chili red and black SE, I thought I would surprise her and install it in the cabin somewhere.
So there’s me smearing crazy glue on this bug magnet and sticking it right to the pristine piano black surface of the dashboard on a jaunty angle - like it just crawled out of the vent. Well, she loved it and was surprised and grateful I’d stoop to defacing our new car to humour her.
Outagas
Member
noticing in downtown Toronto, you get a green walk sign for pedestrians that lasts three or four seconds before the light turns green for cars. I think this is to allow people the chance to get into the intersection before someone squeals around the corner and runs over their toes
MrSnrub
Well-Known Member
They started that here in some areas, where I live they have a couple intersections that allow X crossings on all corners. I asked my borough to rethink pedestrian and car relationships. Ie raised crossings forcing cars to slow down, same for narrowing streets with planters as a cheap solution.
I’m strange, I’m very anti car
SameGuy
Well-Known Member
All of this. I am on several urbanism and active transit forums, and follow dozens of urbanists and active mobility gurus on social media. It’s unfortunate that it’s impossible to survive in Montreal without a car, unless you live in the Plateau or RPP.
MrSnrub
Well-Known Member
Montreal isn’t horrible there is somewhat reliable public transit even “somewhat” in the west and east. People don’t like the bus but it’s there and REM will close a big gap. Even Brossard and Laval isn’t bad. Go to a place like Orlando or even outside GTA proper..
i live in the city and yea just got my tax bill….
I agree the triangle would have been too much--the lightning bolt looks good without the triangle.
Hopefully, MINI won't send you a cease-and-desist letter about adding a yellow accent to a Chili Red SE. I'm guessing the only reason MINI doesn't sell Energetic Yellow mirror caps is to prevent owners of Chili Red and BRG SEs from overriding the company's ban on ordering those color combinations. MINI forgets they stick one or more yellow S's and a yellow MINI-E logo on every SE.
I deleted the fake hood scoop on my SE because MINI's hood scoop (even fake on their ICE cars) was intended to emulate a car with a powerful gas-burning engine that needs more air. When I begged to pay $1,500 for a factory scoop-delete option, MINI's head designer sent me a letter suggesting it was marketing, not his design department, who insisted on the hood scoop. Indeed, none of the electric MINI Cooper cars or car sketches leading to the SE had hood scoops.
I also chose a license plate and license-plate frame that hint my MINI is electric:
[Apologies to longtime forum members who have tired of my anti-hood-scoop rants.]
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MrSnrub
Well-Known Member
The hood scope doesn’t bother me that much but I just don’t see a point for it. I guess they tried to keep the “S” thing going
We got into Mini because it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a 1er hatchback in North America. Otherwise I’d have one of these. But prob not. We sorta fell in love with Mini now
We got into Mini because it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a 1er hatchback in North America. Otherwise I’d have one of these. But prob not. We sorta fell in love with Mini now
Michigan even allows LEFT-on-red, as long as you're turning onto a one-way street that goes in that direction (you don't have to be coming from a one-way street). However, Ann Arbor is starting to install No Turn On Red signs at every downtown intersection to protect pedestrians from clueless drivers.
inferno10
Member
Just installed a wireless charging pad where the 12v and USB ports are located on the lower dash. I paid around $75 ($68.50 + tax) for it on Amazon.
Overall, the install succeeded, but I encountered three issues:
Here's what the finished install looks like:
Another thing I did today was use BimmerCode for the first time to unlock the acoustic pedestrian warning toggle. I got a little worried after seeing all the warnings in the app regarding the coding process, but everything went fine. Now I can toggle the warning sound on/off with one of my shortcut buttons!
Overall, the install succeeded, but I encountered three issues:
- On the new wiring harness, the part that the old lighter/12V plug inserts into to wouldn't accept the connector from the Mini. The plug orientation matched, just it was a wee bit too small to accept the power plug from the Mini. I'm guessing the fitting shrank after being formed or they didn't size the plug correctly (you get what you pay for). I ended up using an exacto knife to trim away a bit of the inner wall from the connector on the wiring harness to make it more accepting of the plug. After some shaving and some forceful persuasion, I was able to finally shove the power plug into the new harness.
- My '23 SE had two USB ports: one USB-C port, and one USB-A port. However, the removable rectangular portion that transferred to the new panel only contained the USB-C portion; the USB-A port was a completely separate connector. I haven't used either port yet, so I just taped up the USB-A port and shoved it into the void, while the USB-C port went into the new panel (though it only went in "upside-down" with the battery facing downward). I didn't want to risk ruining the panel trying to cut open a hole for the USB-A port, so I'm actually down 1 USB port after the install. Hopefully the USB-C port is the one that does data transfer as well, otherwise I'll need to pull open the panel again if I ever need to access the USB-A port for software updates in the future.
- One other thing was that I didn't bother trying to transfer was the existing 12V/lighter socket, which the new housing had a space for. Instead, I bought a replacement socket from eBay and used that instead, leaving the old 12V unplugged and hidden behind the new housing. One problem was that the housing didn't have any place for the clips from the 12V socket to secure into, so it would just slide out. To fix this, I just shoved a ziptie through some notches at the back of the socket to "lock" it into place and wrapped a little bit of electrical tape around the outer diameter of the socket to fill in some tolerance and prevent rattling.
Here's what the finished install looks like:
Another thing I did today was use BimmerCode for the first time to unlock the acoustic pedestrian warning toggle. I got a little worried after seeing all the warnings in the app regarding the coding process, but everything went fine. Now I can toggle the warning sound on/off with one of my shortcut buttons!
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inferno10
Member
Here's the link to the exact one I bought, but they're showing unavailable now: https://a.co/d/5Vu1XxR
Amazon will show some results now and then if you search for "mini f56 wireless charger". Your best bet though is to search for that on Aliexpress; there's a bunch of listings there, and I'm pretty sure the shipping times will be about the same as my order took.
Would your local T-shirt shop put your words onto a real MINI T-shirt, such as https://www.shopminiusa.com/PRODUCT/1733/MINI-MEN-S-LOGO-CUT-OUT-T-SHIRT-GREY. That way, there wouldn't be a logo issue, and your three year wait for SE swag would be over.
teslarati97
Well-Known Member
Yes and you can DIY an iron on t-shirt transfer for the text.
SameGuy
Well-Known Member
Yeah with Ali shipping they work out to the same thing more or less. Ok thanks!
Puppethead
Well-Known Member
The USB-C port in the SE works fine for everything, and is actually far superior to the USB-A port having a much faster data rate and higher voltage for charging. USB-A really is a dead technology, it's a shame companies still waste effort making USB-A connectors. I think a handful of USB-A to USB-C adapters is more useful than spending money on USB-A items.
That's a good idea that I'll consider.
I haven't had good luck with T-shirt transfers going through the wash even though none of my T-shirts go into the dryer. However, I might be able to get a transfer-maker to ignore the risk of MINI's ire. I could get a few transfers made and rotate the T-shirts to keep them looking good.
Thanks to both!
If you don't mind me plagiarizing you, I may follow suit. I like both the
- exchange the range for a ton of fun, and
- bounds about roundabouts, quietly acting out