Let's Mini.

It is no longer a secret, not that it ever was. But now that I made an official-unofficial announcement about the Mini, it may make sense to confirm that yes, indeed we do have a Mini Cooper, and that yes, we love it. It does feel odd to be so excited about a car, and it does not make me proud that I have this somewhat materialistic side, but the Mini is a lot of fun to drive and it is wicked cute. It gets super-great gas mileage, and it's got air-bags galore. It's pretty darn near perfect (though I do wish that it had even just a tiny middle seat in the back), and I'm glad we're finally sharing it with the world.

Doug and I had been thinking about getting a second car for a while, as there have quite a few times, now that we're more suburban, where having two cars would have been very convenient. Doug numerous times has had to turn down hanging out with his band friends because I needed/wanted the car for the day and his band friends didn't want to drive "all the way out to Dedham" (as if Cambridge were so far away) to pick him up and then drop him back off. The decision to get a Mini, however, was made overnight. We were thinking of another Subaru, a Fit, a Versa, anything that was small and fuel-efficient (which made the Subaru a little hard to come to grips with). We visited dealers and took a few test drives of other cars, but one night while talking about what other options we had I suggested the Mini. They're not as expensive as one might think, the base model does not require high-test gasoline, they are incredibly good on gas for an all-gas engine, and they're mini. Anything mini is just naturally appealing. So Doug and I headed up to Peabody and spent pretty much the whole day test-driving and getting more info. The fruit of that labor is sitting in our driveway right now.

We photo-documented the sale and pick-up of the car. It was such a better experience than our experiences at the Subaru dealer: the dealership itself, the inventory, and the staff working there. Here's Evans, our "motoring advisor," and here's Doug drinking some dealership coffee before he signs all the paperwork.

Here's Doug looking under the hood (isn't this what you're supposed to do when you buy a car? It's not as if we know what we're looking at, though I guess it's good to know that this car, like others, has a container for washer fluid and oil, the only two items under the hood that make sense to me), here's me getting into the car to drive it home, and here's Doug behind the wheel when it was his turn to drive it.

We've driven the car through Rhode Island, to Provincetown and back, and to and from Thanksgiving dinner in Connecticut, and we only put one tank of gas in the car. I find that to be amazing. I can't endorse this little thing enough, and we look forward to a lifetime of sipping.