Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

On Friday morning, a car in front of me kicked up a big piece of plywood off the road, which came spinning at me and hit my windshield.

Aside from the sudden shock of a smashed windshield, I was also disappointed because I was in the running for the longest lasting original MINI windshield. Everyone else I know has had several replaced because they cracked on their own. I did have hundreds of tiny chips that made it look dirty even after a good polishing, but I never had a crack.

So after a quick call to insurance I called MINI of Peabody, and spent most of Friday afternoon up at everyone’s favorite MINI dealer. Chris took me right away as usual, but to my surprise this is the first time I had seen their service bays almost empty. It’s also the first time I’ve seen them with a lot of inventory; sales is certainly slower this month while everyone’s wallets try to recover from Christmas. I spent the next few hours chatting with all the MOP employees and watching rushes of sales business come and go. Before I knew it, my MINI was back in one piece again, nice and clean, and a brand new windshield. I forgot what it was like to have a clear windshield, just like the first time I tried on a pair of glasses.

Perfect timing actually, because I have Aquapel coming in next week, which I had planned to face off with RainX, and now I don’t have to wait till the spring for a clean windshield. Stay tuned for the results in several weeks.