A good friend of mine and I drove to Colorado a little over a week ago in her MINI that I bought her a while back, and driving that thing through the mountains got me sooo hooked (and she doesn't even have the "S" model!). I hadn't really driven the thing before this trip, but man is it FUN! Plus, I've there's really no need to have two entry-level luxury 4-door sedans sitting in my garage, and the TL is a lease (business write-off) so I can't get rid of that without paying big penalties. Therefore it's time to say siyonara (sp?) to my beloved dark blue 1998 ES300. I just put a deposit down on my new MINI Cooper S last week, and it should be arriving in early December - I CAN'T WAIT!!! I ordered a one in Chili Red with a black top and black bonnet stripes, with the Premium package (sunroof, auto A/C, trip computer), fog lights, and Xenon!

I'm sad to see the ES go, but it's time for a change in scenery (& driving excitement level! ). I'll be converting it back to stock, selling all the stuff I bought for it (OEM HIDs, SC430 wheels, coilovers, etc - see my thread in the ES300 classifieds section if you are interested), and trading it in for the MINI. Farewell, old friend.

 

It's always a sad moment to see a beloved car of yours to go in the hands of someone else. I've been down that road before when I sold my '96 ES Coach Edition, but all is not lost when I traded that it for the '01

Good luck selling the ES. Have you found any prospective buyers? That ES has that rare factory color, dark blue