Arrgh just typed it all and the page for some reason reset!! Oh well take 2!

So what car did you move from and why and what other cars did you test drive? Also show us your picsof before and after!
Me, I had a Smart roadster (not available in the US) and unfortunately 4 days after my warranty finished the clutch exploded taking the engine with it!! The dealer was most unsympathetic and wanted to charge me $5000 to fix it and since the car was only worth $10000 then I thought NO!!! So after a little bit of persuasion about his reputation within the Smart community he agreed to buy it off me for $10000 and I went to buy another car. Now I needed a car that was fine doing 100 miles a day with a mix of freeways and small country roads. I love small nippy cars, so I test drove a Mazda RX-8, lovely car but I didn't fancy the rotor tip rebuild at 80000 miles costing $4000! i test drove the lotus elise. Fantastic car, very very nice, but TOTALLY unpractical. then I test drove the Cooper S and it was great not quite as well handling as the elise, not quite as much power as RX-8 but more important it ticked absolutely every box for me so was the only car I wanted. So December 06 I became the owner of a 2002 Dark Silver Cooper S which has proceeded to become slightly modified (but nothing engine wise until mini warranty runs out!) and still ticks every box I need. My friend came up this weekend and had only passed his test 4 months ago and has a peugeot diesel (slow noisy horrible!!) He has always mocked my mini but this time I let him drive it. I have NEVER seen such a big smile and he loves the pocket rocket now!!
Anyway give us your story!!
Cheers
Straff aka S18AFF



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