MINI’s Making A Wish 4th Annual Toy Run

If you are in the Northeast part of the US, please take a moment to check out this event that is happening THIS weekend. Thanks to zzMINI for this post!

“Mini Cooper owners from all over New England and New York will gather in Westerly, RI on Sunday December 3rd as the Miniís-Making-A-Wish organization hosts their 4th Annual Toy Run and Rally to benefit the Make-A-Wish FoundationÆ of Rhode Island. Wish Kid Hillary, who was granted her wish of visiting the Big Apple, will be leading the Mini Cooper troops from the front seat of the Wishmobile.

Miniís will meet at 9 a.m. at the new Westerly Middle School on Sandy Hill Road in Westerly, RI. At 10 a.m. sharp the Miniís will pack up and rally to the Make-A-Wish FoundationÆ of Rhode Island headquarters in Cranston, RI, to deliver hundreds of new, unopened toys for Wish children that have been donated by the public.

For more information, visit www.mmaw.org or call at (401)322-8004 or the Make-A-Wish FoundationÆ office at (401) 781-9474.”

[ MINIs Making a Wish ]
[ Event Info @ NEMINI.org ]

2007 MINI Cooper Dull?

Once again, MSN Autos featured our favorite small British car on their site. This time they preview the 2007 MINI (the R56). I can’t wait to test drive the new MINI as I want to see for myself the real difference the BMW powerplant will make. The writer at MSN Autos (Brian Laban) really did not seem to care for the “ordinary” Cooper, going so far as to call it “MINI Lite”! Yikes – that is worse than “base Cooper”!! In fact, he even called it “dull”. Having owned a “base Cooper” before, it was anything but dull. If the 2007 MINI Cooper is now dull and the only way to enjoy a MINI is to spring for the S, then MINI may have done something wrong here… We’ll see in a few months when I get to go behind the wheel for myself and see if, in fact, the Cooper has now become dull.

2007 MINI Cooper

[ Preview: 2007 MINI Cooper @ MSN Autos ]

New MINIUSA.com Website

Earlier tonight I checked MINIUSA.com but it still had the same site we have been used to seeing for a few years and then just now I checked it again and BAM – a whole new site is there! Oh – and guess what? The new configurator is online. I am happy to report it is nothing like the German version I could not figure out. It actually looks almost like the old configurator, just with the new car. If you look closely though, under accessories, you will still see the old model MINI shown sporting some of the items. Well what are you waiting for? Go and configure your R56!

[ MINIUSA.com ]

Daihatsu’s Counterfeit Mini?

I have mixed feelings on this one… On one hand I think this is pretty darn cool that a new car so closely resembles the Classic Mini. On the other hand I am like – WAIT JUST A DARN MINUTE!! What are they thinking trying to copy the Mini?? It has a 58hp engine and can do 0-60mph in 12.2 seconds. I suppose that is not all that bad all things considered, but I am still on the fence on this whole idea… Thanks to Snooter for this find!

Mini Cooper Copy
Mini Cooper Copy

[ Daihatsu Trevis @ Autoblog ]

[ Daihatsu Trevis @ Winding Road ]