Sojin Park

I did occasionally think about wanting a nice car. But it wasn’t something I felt I had to have. A nice car was, to me, simply a nice car — nothing more, nothing less.

For a long time, I drove an AD Avante. Over the three to four years I owned it, I had no particular complaints. Whenever the topic came up with people, I’d say, “The Avante is a good car too.” It was a solid car with nothing to hold me back on the road.

People around me would recommend things like the Genesis G70 or the BMW 3 Series, but my passion for cars wasn’t quite that strong. I’d reply with something like, “I’ll get one someday,” and leave it at that. Looking back, I had more financial breathing room then than I do now, yet I simply didn’t feel any need to change cars.

It must have been the second half of 2022. Reading Hwang Seon-woo’s The Courage to Say I Love You, I found myself growing interested in convertibles. The book described it like this: “My second car was a 2011 Mini Cooper Convertible. … When I picked up speed on the Gangbyeon Expressway at night and let the wind hit me, I fell more deeply in love with the city I lived in.” What an evocative passage.

Back then, I was balancing university and work, which meant I passed along the Gangbyeon Expressway often. Every time I did, I’d imagine how wonderful it would be to drive that road in a convertible.

As time went on, conversations about cars with car-loving colleagues at work had me thinking about convertibles more and more. I began to understand what I actually valued in a car.

Something small and compact. Something with a distinctive design that set it apart from everyone else. A car that grows on you the more you look at it, one you become more attached to every time you drive it. But not one that costs a fortune.

That was what I wanted.

I started noticing Minis on the road. The newer Minis have Union Jack taillights — at night, the shape of the British flag glows softly. The design was charming and unique. A brilliant little car in a world full of big ones. The driving feel is lively, almost like riding a go-kart. Somewhere along the way, the idea of a Mini seemed to etch itself into my mind.

I decided that my next car would be a Mini Cooper Convertible.

For about half a year, I couldn’t make up my mind whether to buy one. I knew which car I wanted, but I kept wondering whether I really needed to buy it right now.

Every so often — commuting to work, or heading out on a date with my girlfriend — I’d picture myself behind the wheel of a Mini. Since I drive to and from work every day, it would be fun to drive a car I loved each morning. It would be wonderful to hop in my favorite car and just go whenever my girlfriend and I went out.

Seeing a Mini pass in front of me on the road especially made me want one.

In a class I was taking at AC2, I asked one of the mentors whether I should buy a car. One of them said: “Ah, that’s a big decision. Before making a big decision, it helps to make smaller ones first. Why not test it on a small scale to see if it’s really what you want? I believe you can do a test drive at the BMW Driving Center.”

So on March 1st, I went to the BMW Driving Center to drive a Mini Cooper. Since experiencing it together with my girlfriend mattered to me, I brought her along. We drove the Mini Cooper Convertible JCW model around the track for about forty minutes.

Right up until the test drive, I wasn’t entirely sure the car would be as good as I hoped. What if it felt smaller than I expected? What if driving it wasn’t much different from driving the Avante?

But the moment I got behind the wheel, those worries melted away. The Mini wasn’t as cramped as I feared — it actually felt cozy. It was cold enough that day, March 1st, that you needed a puffer jacket, but driving with the top down felt absolutely wonderful. Body warm, head cool — like lying under a blanket with the air conditioning on.

I made up my mind on the spot: I was buying a Mini Cooper Convertible.

Since foreign cars depreciate quickly, I decided to save on transaction costs by buying a used one through a private sale — a car driven by a private owner for about a year. I was lucky to find a listing in exactly the color I wanted, with exactly the options I was after.

And so, the very following Monday, I started driving a Mini Cooper Convertible.

The color sits somewhere between yellow and green, which makes it wonderfully cute. Even from far across a parking lot, I can spot my car instantly by its color. It’s been over a month now, and I’m still just as attached to how it looks.

It’s been about a year since I got the Mini Cooper, and I have no regrets. Driving with the top down, the lively feel of the road, the sense of driving something different from everyone else — all of it is deeply satisfying. Cruising down the cherry blossom path in Yeouido with the roof open, at the height of the bloom last March, is an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Even long after I stop driving this car, that memory will stay with me.

There are drawbacks, of course. It costs roughly twice as much as my old car, so the insurance and taxes are higher than I expected. Maintenance adds up too. The Mini Cooper needs premium fuel — run it on regular and the engine vibrates noticeably, so premium is non-negotiable. And the back seat is more decoration than anything else, which means that with three or more people in the car, someone is in for a rough ride.

This is the first time I’ve spent a significant amount of money on myself. My financial situation right now isn’t entirely comfortable, but I’ve gained the confidence that, as long as it’s within what I can manage, spending money for my own happiness is something I’m allowed to do.

I’ve been driving it for about six weeks now, and overall I’m extremely happy. This year, I’d like to ship the Mini Cooper over to Japan and drive it on a trip around the country.