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Mini Cooper bares heart to do-gooders Dear Mini,    The thing is, I already liked you. No, I already loved you. Your good looks, your fearless handling. The way it seems so right when I hook you up to my iPod. Sure, you’re my brother’s car, but still I worship you from the dashboard of my bland beige Toyota Camry. Now I find out that you’re more than just style, you have heart. Not in a Remember the Titans, Hoosiers, Brian’s Song way, but in a hunk who rescues puppies from the shelter kind of way. At Minimotoringhearts.com, your call to “Be a bunch of good-for-somethings” makes me feel good about diverting energy to my climate-controlled glove box because I can use it to deliver Meals on Wheels. Would the Jaguar XK urge me to mentor an underprivileged youth? Only if one of our "fun" activities included waxing its bumper. Plus, your site offers to hook me up with one of 37,000 volunteer opportunities nationwide via VolunteerMatch. Hey, maybe I’ll throw over my sensible four-door and get one of the limited edition 214 HP Mini Cooper S with John Cooper Works GP kits, whatever that is. Can driving a non-hybrid car make you a better person? Only if your car’s marketing materials say so.    Love,    Me —Posted by Deanna Zammit

May 4, 2006 | Permalink

Comments

http://www.smartcar-usa.com/

Now this is a cool car that the EPA just about killed because of needless red tape. It's been popular in Europe for years, but only recently available in US - in very limited numbers - because it didn't meet emissions standards.

Hell, I fart more ozone depleting fumes than this emits in a year!

Posted by: snake | May 4, 2006 4:29:26 PM

This link works better:

http://www.minimotoringhearts.com/crm/motoring_hearts/motoring_hearts.jsp

Posted by: dutycalls | May 4, 2006 7:28:57 PM

yeah,

here's a company that is owned by BMW but is asking the consumer to do some good as they sit back and enjoy all the positive buzz for telling us to do something good. how about your happy corporate butts showing us the way? how about let's give 1% of all our mini sales to charity? huh? yeah, let's do that. this concept is steeped in the history of "cooper cares" but it came fromt the company and the company actually contributed, not just pontificated. i never thought mini would be a poser brand.

Posted by: borrowed interest | May 5, 2006 9:07:05 AM

Actually, last I knew about this project, every MINI employee was going to participate in a Meals On Wheels program, or some other volunteer work of their choosing, to go along with the launch of this campaign. I don't know if they ever followed through on it, though.

Posted by: dutycalls | May 5, 2006 11:28:39 AM

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