Tutorial: buying and programming a new remote for your car or truck.

We bought a used truck, a 2002 Silverado, to use as a house truck. It came with one key and one remote. The remote was warn out and the buttons barely worked. I then started to wonder how to fix that problem easily and with minimal cost. The price the dealer wanted to resolve this is so ridiculous, I won't even mention it here. After researching on blogs, I decided to buy a remote on Amazon (like mostly all I buy) and program it myself. I had done that before, so I thought I would be OK.

The remote I bought on Amazon for about $15 was supposed to come with some instructions, so I thought I would give it a shot. After all, this way I was spending LESS THAN 10% of the dealer price! I went ahead and ordered this guy: Replacement 3 Button Keyless Entry Remote Control Key Fob.

Programming it is super easy:

1 - Gather the new remote ( or fob, if that's what you call it) as well as any other remotes you want to work with the vehicle.
2 - Get in the vehicle, driver's side, and close all doors. Put the key in the ignition. Don't turn it yet!
3 - Press and hold the UNLOCK button on the door. While holding it, turn the ignition ON and OFF twice. Let go of the UNLOCK button. The door locks will cycle (lock and unlock) to confirm you are in programming mode.
4 - FOR EACH REMOTE YOU WANT TO PROGRAM: Push and hold both LOCK and UNLOCK buttons ON THE REMOTE simultaneously, until you hear the doors cycle. That remote is now programmed. Do the same with ALL the other remotes for that vehicle. After doing this, only the remotes you program will work. So make sure you do it all your remotes, old and new.

This worked great for me.

PS: I cannot be responsible for procedure errors and omissions. Reprogram at your own risk. :( Sorry, I hate legal stuff...

Mini Cooper Car Cover: Get a much better product buying the genuine factory cover.

After so many bad experiences with car covers in the past I finally had a good experience and thought I'd write a review about it, so I can help others in the same situation.

I had a car cover disintegrate after one month of use, had another that was made of paper and obviously was thorn after a week of use. Another one that comes to mind was advertised as perfect fitting, but when it came it was a generic cover that would not resist any wind and would be a big eye sore on my driveway.

Last summer I bought a Mini Cooper S Convertible. What a great little car. If you have one I'm sure you agree. Anyways, when we moved to a smaller house near Seattle I had to find a way to protect the Mini as my 3 car garage was now a thing of the past. I flinched just thinking about having to buy another cover and deal with it. Guess what, this time I made the right decision. I thought I'd spend a few more dollars and buy something a little better.

When searching for it on Amazon, where I buy pretty much everything, I found many that were up in the $400 mark, but thought that was just too much. Then I saw the factory Mini cover for around 150$ and decided to give it a shot. Great decision. Awesome product, not only looks really good with the blacked out windows and wheels, it fits super snug and the material is a lot better then any other cover I ever bought.

If you are in the market for a car cover for your Mini, definitely check the factory cover out. Here is a link to the exact one I bought at Amazon: MINI Cooper Genuine Factory 82110395485 Car Cover - 2004 to 2008 Cooper Convertible