I've always wanted a zippy car and I've more often than not been disappointed. In Jamaica, I was urged to get an SUV because of all the very deep potholes in the road. "If you get a Mini Cooper, the road will literally swallow you up." I listened to my friend's advice and I was glad to be riding high. Not only were there indeed deep potholes, but when it rained, there was a tremendous amount of water on the road.

But now that I was in Mobile, Alabama, I felt the time was right to get that zippy car I've always wanted. Susie Broos told me that she knew of a good agent who could help me bid on cars at auction and I thought I'd give it a try. David turned out to be a wonderful agent, sending me lots of profiles of potential cars that were looking for a new owner. I wanted something low mileage and most importantly, a car that would be zippy, which meant that I was interested in the S model. I also needed it quickly. Albert was kind enough to lend me his car, which was unbelievably generous of him, but eventually I had to start renting a car and I knew I didn't want to do that for very long. So when this car came up on the profiles, I told David to start bidding. The system is not quite as open as you might expect and even though I was apparently the only one bidding, the auction company has ways to get the price up to where they think it should be. Nevertheless, it was still quite reasonable and I became the proud owner of a very slightly used Mini Cooper S.

It has "Turbo-S" written on the side in big print. And I get stopped every once in a while by people who want to know how a turbo Cooper drives. I think turbo is just an expression, but maybe it does mean that my car is even zippier than I think it is. It also has "stingray" written on the back in metal letters, but I can't find any record of Mini Cooper making a model called stingray. So I have no idea what that means, either. Nevertheless, I'm thrilled with the Mini Cooper and I love put-putting around town in my souped-up little car.