The Plan: While in North Carolina visiting family, stop at the Mini dealership and testdrive a Mini Cooper S.

The Enemy: The salesman at the BMW dealership next door, which had just received their first pre-owned (1k miles) Mini Cooper S Convertible.

Needless to say, the plan didn’t survive first contact with the enemy, and what actually happened is that I ended up driving home with a almost-but-not-quite brand new Mini Cooper.