2004 Mini Cooper Auto No Reserve Free Carfax Sunroof Leather Clean on 2040-cars

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Mini is sending some buyers a car-sized puzzle to apologize for delivery delays

The ongoing chip shortage has wreaked havoc on automotive supply chains around the world, causing a diverse selection of side effects including long delivery delays. Mini has found a clever way for some of its customers to pass the time: It's sending them a giant Mini puzzle. Created by advertising agency Pereira O'Dell, the puzzle's full name is the "we're-working-hard-to-get-you-your-car, waiting-is-the-worst, in-the-meantime-happy-puzzling Mini puzzle." It sounds like the company has created several designs, though the only image it published shows a red hatchback with white stripes on a red background. It's huge; the dimensions weren't published, but it looks like it takes up a car-sized spot in a garage. The pieces look relatively big, but completing the puzzle will likely require several days of trial and error. Mini notes that not every buyer who is waiting to take delivery of one of its cars will receive a life-sized puzzle; only "select new customers" will get one. It's sending normal-sized puzzles to some of its other customers, however. There's no word on how recipients are selected. Delays have plagued nearly every carmaker in the past few months, so Mini isn't alone. The company has temporarily stopped building cars equipped with a manual transmission to simplify its range. While it hasn't revealed precisely how long customers need to wait before taking delivery, its consumer website warns that "due to increased customer demand, production availability of model year 2023 Mini models is limited." It adds that the estimated delivery time for custom-built orders varies "depending on trims, packages, options, and location." Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Utah man builds iRacing simulator inside 2005 Mini Cooper S

Brent Cheney is an artist and part-time racer who used to own a tuning shop for time attack cars. That's why, when he decided to get into iRacing and wanted an immersive simulator, he wouldn't settle for mere technical excellence. As first covered by Salt Lake City's KSL news, then in more detail by Motor Authority, Cheney decided he wanted to cut a car into pieces, and rebuild it in the basement of his Salt Lake City, Utah house with a racing sim inside. He needed "the right aesthetic," ruling out something like a Toyota Corolla, but he refused the sacrilege of cutting up anything too precious to an enthusiast. After narrowly missing out on buying a 1999 BMW M3 convertible, then turning to a Mitsubishi Eclipse done up in splashy green like Brian O'Conner's car in the original "Fast and Furious," he ended up with a Mini Cooper. The Brit was a better choice than the German and the Japanese, in fact, thanks to a hardtop that would create a dark enclosure, and seams and shutlines in the right places to hide the necessary cuts.  Cheney found a 2005 Cooper S that had been junked over an engine issue, getting the coupe for $1,000 and parting out the internals he didn't need for the same $1,000 he paid. After watching a YouTube video on how to cut a car, he dismembered the Cooper into seven pieces with a cordless reciprocating saw wielding a Diablo Steel Demon 6-inch blade, and carried the pieces into his man cave. He reassembled those pieces on a wood base with the aid of 200 brackets and many more sheetmetal screws, nuts, and bolts. Once the car was put back together, body parts and trim pieces hid all the seams. Before reinstalling the interior, the artist laid in the sim equipment. After doubling the minimum requirements for iRacing, Cheney's system included an Intel Core i9 8-core processor NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB Founders Edition video card running Windows 10 inside a Thermaltake PC case under the Cooper S hood, as the new "engine." A Fanatec Podium DD1 direct-drive steering column and wheel and Fanatec V3 pedals went in the cabin, along with a Harman Kardon home theater 5.1 surround sound system. He mounted the wheel on the Mini's steering column with a fabricated adapter, put the Fanatec pedals where the car's pedals had been, put a ButtKicker Mini transducer in the original Mini seat for extra realism, and hid all the wiring beneath the carpet and interior trim components.

Mini Cooper Hardtop 4-Door configurator is open for all

The Mini Cooper five-door hatchback, which the company insists on calling the Mini Hardtop 4 Door, doesn't start arriving at US dealers until January 2015. However, if you dig the latest model's styling but can't live without the two extra doors, you can start speccing one right now in the recently launched configurator.
The new five-door hatch isn't just the standard model with extra doors squished in. It rides on a 2.8-inch longer wheelbase and is 6.3-inches longer overall. That means more room for rear passengers and extra space to haul stuff in the boot. The engine options are shared though with a 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder with 134 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque for the Cooper or a 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder with 189 hp and 207 lb-ft in the Cooper S. Both are available with a six-speed manual or automatic.
Prices (including destination) for that extra space starts at $21,450 for the Cooper or $25,100 for the Cooper S, which is $1,000 more than the three-door in both cases. However, like any modern Mini, these guys are extremely customizable from the factory. There are an array of colors, 10 option packages and a ton of other add-ons to choose from.