51 replies to this topic

[happydude2012]

Ive noticed a pattern to what people say when they see you have a mini, usually on a petrol station forecourt or carpark somewhere, its not a bad thing, its just funny how the same things keep coming up.

What are the things you hear most often, my Mrs laughs now whenever i get out for petrol...because we know the questions will come?

 

Ill start with some of the most frequent things i get - 99% of the time, these are usually said by men of a certain age.

 

1)  "....We used to have Minis!"

 Whos we? and how many minis did you have?

 

2) "We had a Cooper S's".....

Ive never heard anyone say they just had a standard mini. Always had Cooper S.

 

3) "..Mine had a  (part ive never heard of)........ on it, with a  (part ive never heard of) cam and a super mega double (part ive never heard of_)....we adjusted the.... (now your making this up)..... and tweeked the (other bit that fits onto the super pipe)....which we took off a Morris 1100"   .........and so on....  

 

 

4) " We used to have a hole in the floor to let the water out......"  i also have a hole in my floor....but thats a natural hole, thanks to rust. :0

 

5) "Why dont you buy a big boy car?"

This was literally yelled at me across a forecourt  by this bulging fat arse with 4 chins with cheap knock off sunglasses on sat in a midlife crisis mobile, some convertible Merc - at the time he was sat next to his bright orange blimp of a wife,  i smiled and asked loudly if his car was new? he replied yes and worth 50000 times more than my "clapped out rust bucket"...fair enough, so i asked him if it came with a hairdryer or a nice silver plated shovel to help his wife get her slap on. 

Im sure if he could have got out of his car quickly without looking like a buffalo stuck in a wire fence, he would have slowly and tiredly mad his way over to wave his piggy fist at me.....but he just drove off......and yes you guessed it....foot to the floor and a nice crunch into second....what a cool guy.

Edited by happydude2012, 01 February 2018 - 08:23 PM.

[alex-95]

Usually get, How long have you had it/ Have you had it long? They're usually surprised when I say I got it when I was 14.

[pusb]

"I bet it doesn't cost much to fill it up"

 

"Its in great original condition" (whilst being a mismatch of parts ranging from a 40 year period).

 

I did have an elderly Gent recite to me the full history of British Leyland whilst in Morrisons car park. He was a very nice ex-Triumph worker, however I was on my lunch break and needed to end the conversation as quickly as possible and get back to work!

[Magneto]

what kinda mileage does it get? really? Only 30 mpg?

 

I had one of these in college/my roommate had one in college/my dad had one in college........

[Northernpower]

I had one of those, I had to scrap it, it rotted away.

[ukcooper]

how much tell em can have it for 6k hey walk away laughing

[Will16]

someone: "Your bonnet dosnt fit"

 

me: "Its meant to be raised at the back mate"

 

[1984mini25]

When the bonnets up even for simple things like checking the oil, witch hardly anyone does any more on any 'modern' car, "trying to fix the engine/broken again?"

 

Over the summer prepping the body work "when are you getting it on the road?" me: it's been taxed, tested and used daily on the road for the last 12 years...

 

"what sort of mileage are you getting?" me: around 40 - 45mpg if really careful (witch isn't bad considering all the sodding roundabouts/stop start round mk) "yeah right, at least my car do more than a 100 miles on a tank of fuel...". Of course a modern car will go further on a tank of fuel, the tanks are twice the size for a start.

 

 

Although the 3/4 most recent seam to be "that's nice" or "that's cute" and "you'll wash/polish the paint off that" or "my cars dirty, but at least I use it" (that's why I did their monthly mileage in a week and still found the time to give the mini a wash)

Edited by 1984mini25, 01 February 2018 - 10:31 PM.

[Lord Oversill]

“ My mate had one of those with an Austin Maxi engine in it”.....please

[Pauljb]

There's a guy walks past my house every morning and if I'm outside he always asks 'is she running yet?' Always makes me chuckle.

[Vinay-RS]

Normal question from work colleagues is: "How's the Mini doing?" - Which I've always found to be kind of cute, like asking about a member of the family :)

My response: "Needs work" - because I've always had some job or upgrade that I wanted to do.

 

At the petrol station or in a car park I've been told: "That's a lovely car" or "beautiful Mini 'Cooper'.", To which I would initially respond with: "Thanks, but it's not a Cooper, it's a standard Mini", now I just say: "Thanks". It's too much effort to correct people.

 

Older folks tend to also mention that they had one or more before when they were younger. If neither of us is in a hurry, I usually ask a bit about the car, like when they had it, or what motor was in it. They usually know a bit about the cars as I'm guessing many of them tinkered on their own vehicles. One woman told me about 3 Morris Minors that she and her husband had over the years. 

 

The standard combo is: "Beautiful Mini, sell it to me", and they're completely serious about me selling it to them. I used to get annoyed by this statement, but now, I just tell them, "sorry, I can't. It's my daily drive". The annoying part is when someone lowballs you with an offer of R10k, assuming that because Minis are small cars, they 'Must' be cheap too. 

 

My favourite story of a chance encounter was when I went to visit a friend at their house, as I was leaving, someone across the street comes to the car and starts asking me about it. Turned out he'd just purchased a Mini project a few weeks ago and was struggling to find information about spare parts, mechanics and local clubs. He invited me into his house, offered me a cup of coffee and we spent a good half hour chatting about all things Mini, including his plans for his project, my car and the local Mini scene in the Cape. We exchanged numbers, I gave him some of the contacts I'd accumulated and asked him to join our local club Facebook group. 

[Colinmac1330]

The usual one I would get to start with is 'What year is she?'

[minisilverbullet]

Is it original? 

[miniireland]

My wife normally says what are you doing with that pile of Shi7 

[mister bridger]

"Is that the original paintwork?" Er, after 50 years, probably not!