| [This is a long post. To get the gist of it, you can just read the bold.] I have daily driven the Z since May 2003 when I was in my senior year in high school. I took it with me to UCLA (50 miles from home) and for my last quarter I lived at home and braved the hour+ one-way commute up and down the 405 freeway (the most travelled freeway in the US). The car originally had 67k miles and now it has 153k miles. I named my car "Eliza". The car has been hit multiple times, one time when a teenager ran a red light, luckily just ruining my bumper, and four times in a parking lot just sitting there:
#1 night-time - my friend didn't know how to back out of a spot and scraped my entire door
#2 night-time hit-and-run - someone parked too close to me and scraped the hatch and rear quarter panel
#3 hit-and-run - someone backed out of their parking space across from me and went too far and scratched my bumper
#4 night-time hit-and-run but got license plate - someone did a three-point turn in a parking lot and backed into my bumper The car has had 3 different engines: the original NA, a rebuilt stock TT, and a Stage 1 IPP short-block with all that you see in my profile. I dropped the new engine in early last year and the car has been running perfectly since then. So perfectly that I scheduled a dyno-tune with SpecialtyZ for April 4th. But just recently it sprung a giant oil leak. I haven't been able to trace the problem down exactly but it doesn't appear to be a hose. I replaced the front main seal and it wasn't that. I originally thought it was the oil pan because the drips of oil were pretty much everywhere on the right side of the engine bay. It is becoming more evident that it is the rear main seal. The last thing I did to the car before this problem? Overfill the oil. This difficult to trace oil-leak is what drove me to getting a new car. The Z is down quite often for maintenance, detailing, modifications, smog checks, etc. so I'm often driving the "other" cars available to me: a 4-cylinder Camry that isn't enjoyable to take on a 20 mile commute work; my mom's automatic G35 that I'm thankful is RWD, torquey, and with a LSD but, alas, it's an automatic. Yeah, I know, I'm very lucky to have other cars to drive while the Z is down and I'm always thankful and grateful, but I do a lot of driving and being happy while you drive matters. Also the incredible financing deals available, the 1% sales tax increase in April, and talks about a new-car sales-tax deduction helped decide the fate of "Eliza" being a weekend-only/once-in-a-while car. So on Saturday March 28, 2009 I got a 2009 Mini Cooper S as a daily driver!
That's me in the car and that's my girlfriend, Jessica. Mini Cooper S (1.6L DOHC, turbocharged, intercooled, direct injected)
6-speed Getrag transmission
limited slip differential
Bluetooth + iPod/USB adapter
Premium Package
-Electric sunroof with twin glass
-Auto AC
-multi-function steering wheel
Sport Package
-dynamic traction control
-xenon headlamps
-white turn signals
-17"x7" wheels I'm planning to get some 17x7" Enkei RPF01s. I named her "Madeline".
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My new daily driver... - 
