Where is the love, people?

As some of you may remember, I had been planning a trip up to Big Bear Lake a couple of weeks ago. Well, I just got back and I would like to share a little story about one of the best parts of the trip - the car.

I felt great just cruising around Big Bear in my car... only, it wasn't the tC. It was a Mini Cooper convertible which I rented for the duration of the trip. The convertible aspect was nice, but this wasn't the main reason I enjoyed the experience so much. The best part of driving the Mini was the love I got from all the other Mini drivers on the road.

That's right, Mini love. Mini drivers actually love each other and show it. Every time I passed another Mini on the road, the driver either waved or honked, and sometimes both. I received at least 15 friendly waves from other Mini drivers during a 5-day period. I got waves from men and women, young and old. I got this from drivers of Coopers, Cooper S's, convertibles, and a Clubman on one occasion. In my 20 months of Scion ownership, I have received zero waves from other Scion drivers.

So after the first couple of Mini waves I decided to start waving back, and by the end of the 5 days, I felt like part of a warm community. I felt proud of my Mini. In fact, I actually started to feel bad because I felt like I didn't deserve all the love from other Mini drivers, given that I was only driving a rental. Would they still love me if they knew I was actually a Scion owner?

The whole experience got me wondering why there is no Scion love. It's a crying shame...

 

Did you tow anything?

It's a bit of a quandary with the Mini following vs. the Scion following. I guess Mini drivers assume the person driving the opposing Mini is friendly, whereas I usually assume anyone driving a random Scion on the road is either indifferent or a jackass.

 

The Scion community is what got me to stay with Scion when I wanted to get rid of my xA. I got a tC instead of a TSX. . . unfortunately, I feel that the community has deteriorated in the past year or so. Especially with no exciting new models coming out, I dunno (no disrespect to people who love the current line up). . .

I bought a motorcycle and am part of a new community now. Almost any rider will pull over for another rider if their bike is broken down on the side of the road. THAT'S, community. Good luck with a Scion. . .

 

That's funny, I usually make the same assumption about other Scion drivers. Most of them are jackasses and I don't much feel like being friendly when I see one.

As for towing anything, no I didn't. Just had a couple of bags in the back seat. The Mini was surprisingly fuel-efficient and a whole lot of fun to drive. I had to fill 'er up with 91-octane, but the good mileage made up for it.

 

Eh? Why?

It doesn't really help my particular case for not being friendly to most Scion drivers when they're mostly middle-aged people around who don't care around here. I actually get more love from my auto-x community whenever I see them on the road than I do other Scion's.

 

The 91-octane is needed because of the high compression ratio of the Mini's little motor. For a tiny engine, it was powerful enough to get the job done and have lots of fun at the same time.

 

Aha, that makes sense then.

This makes me want to pick up a cheap Mini for a DD.

 

awww

 

it used to be like that.....

 

But I also think that Scions now are a dime a dozen on the roads. Especially here in CA. Whereas I only see minis once in a while..

 

When I'm in my tC I get occasional honks but only from older people. probably because they think their hip young cars and now their cool because they have one. Which is total true haha. But when I drive the xB and pass another xB get waves, honks and parked next to all the time. I guess its because its that people say, id never buy one, but everybody has it.

Scion eticute (spell check) :

Always honk and wave!

Always park next to another scion.

All ways give the other scion the right of way by a simple hand gesture or high beam flash.

But dont be one of these guys... Imagine this...

You come to a red light on a nice sunny day and you look over. As you look over you see a heavy tinted xB pull up. You stare for a matter of 1.8 seconds and then you see the window open. As the window goes down you expect to see somebody but you don't. The window goes down some more and then you see a short balding guy behind the window holding a thumbs up with a big smile. As soon as the window goes down it pops back up as the middle aged balding man keeps his smile and right hand thumb up...

It was an interesting experience and very uncomfortable sitting there with untinted windows for the duration of the red light. I ddint know if he was still looking at me or not.