Anyway, after the dealership looked over the battery connection and tire light, I thought I was good to go (aside from a blinking flat-tire light). Not even a week later I was driving home from work, in the dark, when a "thump, thump, thump" noise began to come from the back right of my car. Yes, you guessed it - I had a flat tire.
I had been meaning to get new tires for winter anyway (there was an unfortunate incident after Margaritas at the Rio one night in the snow when I was trying to drive home and went horizontally down one of the main drags in Fort Collins; of no fault of the Margaritas I might add... the sport tires are NOT made for Colorado winters).
With the tire filled with air to get me to the tire store, I hobbled in and was one of their first customers for the day. Would you like to guess how much a Mini Cooper snow tire costs? I really didn't have a clue, but after dropping $1000 on Firestone tires (I felt like they should have come with a bottle of wine, handsome man, and made dinner for that price!) I was on my merry way again.
Yes, he would do...
The second round of snowy weather hit with a little bit of sleet and snow... little did I know that Mini Cooper doors freeze in the earlier models. Yup. The snow fall here in Colorado really was quite mild, but not mild enough for me to get out without incident... My drivers side door froze shut!
You would freeze at that temperature, too!
I went to my car to go to work, unluckily wearing a skirt for the day, to realize that I was unable to open the door. Fantastic. Good thing the car has two doors... But not such a great thing that it's a stick shift... Climbing over the seat in a pencil skirt, over the stick shift, made for quite a few laughs as I maneuvered my body into the small drivers seat. I hoped the door would release by the time I got to work... or at least the passenger side wouldn't freeze... I got the latter.
Climbing in and out of the car was quite fun that day, and as I was vaulting the stick shift for the third time in a matter of hours a terrible thought went through my mind - what IF they both froze shut and I was inside? As you may have gathered from all the fun I've already had with this car - the situation was not out of the question.
I hopped online and checked out the Mini Cooper forums, and I looked up the emergency hatch release. There I found great diagrams of the back seat of the car with the seat lifted to reveal a cable with a ring attached that would conveniently release the back hatch should the need arise. I felt armed with information and was better able to sleep that night, especially when the door defrosted and worked again! If only I knew...
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