Am I the only one who goes through "the checks" before I go on the motorway? Clutch, seems ok, fuel, plenty, oil light, not on, temperature, ok, brakes, work, no new funny noises, ok, lights on, ok? All before the sliproad so I can stop if necessary!
nope i do too
give it some water, check the oil, roof, tyres, wheel nuts (suprisingly needed to tighten them once lol!), screen wash all that

nature of the mini's
mine has been fine though!
above 70 cruising and will easily take a car doing 85 in the middle lane

appealing is akward though
ANYWAY...

took my mini to brighton for a quick 2 day beach holiday with the gf
parking is a nightmare on maderia drive and i have a convertable so wasnt gunna leave the parking ticket on the windscreen (they do go missing!)
put it in the boot and went for a swim
came back and had a ticket for 2 mins before the ticket expired (even though i turned up 5 mins after it had expired)
had the ticket in the boot, appealed and won
lucky for my sake as if i had the ticket in the window he would have waited = i would have deserved it

yours on the other hand is abit more difficult to prove