Here's to hoping that the MINI ice cream brouhaha in the PRC doesn't cause problems for MINI in that country: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65344836 I hope that MINI China has as much flare as MINI USA did when it started sending out MINI Cooper puzzles, to keep future MINI owners happy. https://www.motoringfile.com/2022/06/24/the-not-so-mini-puzzle-for-those-waiting-for-their-minis/ What would you do if you had a factory about to startup production of 160,000 MINI SEs that nobody in the local economy wanted to purchase? Designate them as available to no foreigners?
MINI Zhangjiagang can turn this debacle around by giving away ice cream with test drives (not to be eaten in car). If that doesn't sell J01s, MINI will have a reason to sell them right away in the US at below cost to compensate for the 27% import tariff.
Plenty of companies in China have had this type of issue, and are still doing business there. My wife is from mainland China and suspects that the Chinese women handing out the ice cream would likely take it upon themselves to not hand out free ice cream to locals vs foreigners as there is an unfortunate perception in China that places foreigners at a higher status level in their own minds. In addition if you hand out anything for free locals would grab it all in like 2 minutes for the same reason that public toilets in even high end luxury malls do not have toilet paper in them as even the rich will take it all. They have introduced camera based vending machines that photograph you before vending a couple of free pieces and then use Ai to not give you more to stop one person taking it all. So either the Chinese women made this decision or their Chinese manager gave them instructions. Obviously corporate did not. But that’s assuming Mini aren’t lying about the stuff being for staff only when it was intended for potential customers.
I’ve been working a bad shift lately, and the temptation to stop and pick something up on the way home is strong, but fast food odors freaking permeate car interior materials and linger for days… I remind myself this, and make more sensible choices when I get home. My nine-month-old SE has yet to transport any kind of cooked food!
When I'm carrying hot take-out food home, I bring a plastic bag to contain the odors. The plastic-bag scheme was especially useful when I had to DRIVE MY SE TO A GAS STATION with a gas can for my generator during last month's 6-day power outage. Fortunately, those short trips were most of the driving I needed to do during those 6 days, so I didn't need to charge my SE. It would take about 50 hours and 7 refills of my generator's 1-gallon tank for a full charge while I sat in my home shivering without heat, lights, TV or internet.
I figured out that with losses, our portable 2kWh battery with 2kW inverter and 700W of folding solar panels can add 4kWh per day to the car. So about 20 miles worth. Assuming it’s a bright day of course, otherwise we get nothing…
I use a food hot bag when transporting food. Compatible with the pizza storage area (from the Unauthorized Owner's Manual): Additional storage information Pizza Capacity: The passenger’s side floor accommodates four large pies stacked.
