2007 Cooper

In the summer of 2007, I found out I was going to need to get my own car. I had been borrowing my mom’s Volvo, but she was going to need it back come the winter time. Fortunately, I’d been working for a little over a year, and had saved up enough money to broaden my options while shopping around. I knew next to nothing about cars, but my mom had always been a fan of the MINI Cooper, so my searching started there.

I never enjoyed driving. It was a means to an end, and the only reason I ever went over the speed limit was to get the trip over with quicker. When I went over to the MINI dealership, and test drove a Cooper for the first time, it was -quite literally- a love at first motor experience. It was so incredibly responsive, and it gripped the road like I never knew a car could. It was FUN. I was astounded. I had to have one.

I gave myself some time to recover from the adrenaline and really think about the car, but it wasn’t long before I was back at the dealership and placing an order for my custom ‘configurated’ MINI. Everything went smoothly, but I did end up changing the color of my MINI-to-be at the very last second. Oxygen Blue + White turned into Sparkling Silver + Black after I saw the blue in person. It wasn’t bad, just really, really not what I was expecting. (Ironically, I’ve since come to love the Oxygen Blue color…. right before they discontinued it!)

My MINI arrived on November 29th, and Jason drove me over to the dealership during lunch to pick it up. Somehow they managed to forget to install the bonnet stripes (it was checked off on the paperwork that they were installed… how do you miss that?), but fortunately that was an easy fix. A couple hours later, I had my paperwork, I had my keys, I had my MINI. The only thing that could have made the day better would be if I didn’t have to go right back to work. :)

Some of the features of my MINI

• R56 MINI Cooper, 2007
• 6-Speed Automatic Transmission
• Sparkling Silver Metallic Body
• Black Roof, Mirrors, & Stripes
• White Turn Signals
• Dual Pane Sunroof
• Integrated Navigation System
• “Grille” Side Scuttles
• MINI Logo Valve Stem Caps