Top 10 Reasons to rent a MINI instead of a Jeep in Honolulu

#1 - You'll Feel Like You're Driving A New Car

When deciding on a rental car for your Hawaiian vacation, there are plenty of vehicle choices. There are also quite a few both national and private rental car companies in Honolulu to choose from. So why rent a convertible MINI from Little Hawaii?

We want you to feel like you're driving a brand new car when you get into one of our MINIs. We spend over a hour washing, vacuuming and detailing your MINI before it is delivered to your hotel. We make sure the fluids are full, the windows are clean, the glove box is empty and the carpets smell like something you actually want to smell. We will 99.99% guarantee you won't get this kind of service with any other car rental company on the island.

The last thing you should have to think about is what the last driver did to make the car smell so bad. Or why our vacuum can't get ALL the previous customer's sand out. Or how you're going to remove those used napkins from the glove compartment with who-knows-what on them.

YOU'RE on vacation. Let us make you feel like it!

Top 10 Reasons to rent a MINI instead of a Jeep in Honolulu

#2 - They Stick To The Curves Like Spandex

There are quite a few drives here on the beautiful island of Oahu that were made to be driven in a MINI (there are a bunch that were made for Jeeps, too, but you're not allowed to drive rental Jeeps on them, so what's the point).

One of the best is located on the south shore of Oahu. When leaving Waikiki, head east on the H-1 and keep following the Kalanianaole Hwy (or K-Hwy) to a little city called Hawaii Kai. Just before you head up the hill to Hanauma Bay, have your co-pilot get the camera out, and check to make sure you're not following a tour bus. The road winds around between the lava rock cliffs and the crashing waves of the Pacific. There are quite a few scenic lookouts along the way, but if you've got no traffic, I recommend just cruising through until you get to Sandy Beach, then turn around and do it again.

But please be cautious. The urge may be overwhelming to throw both your arms into the air and scream like you're on a roller coaster. If you're the co-pilot, make sure the one behind the wheel keeps 'em at 10 and 2.

Top 10 Reasons to rent a MINI instead of a Jeep in Honolulu

#3 - MINIs Have Cool Toggle Switches Like Fighter Jets

Yeah, they looked weird to me at first, too. But now I think they're pretty sleek. They're one of the many interior features you'll find on our MINI rentals that sometimes make you forget you're driving a car.

The shiny, silver toggle switches in our MINI Cooper rentals control the driver and passenger windows and the door locks. On our Cooper S models, there's also one to turn the traction control system on or off. I've even seen pictures of some MINIs online that have switches for lots of other necessities, like rocket boosters, ejection seat and smokescreen. But no need for those things here in Honolulu.

Top 10 Reasons to rent a MINI instead of a Jeep in Honolulu

#4 - MINIs Are Easier To Park Than Jeeps

Parking spaces are an expensive, highly-valued commodity in Waikiki. They're also ridiculously small, just like our MINI Cooper rentals. If you're driving a large or wide vehicle, like an SUV or Jeep, you'll find parking in and around Waikiki and Honolulu to be very difficult. What may be even more difficult is having to deal with door scratches by not-so-careful neighbors.

In most states there are official regulations as to the minimum width and depth of a parking space. Not here. If a parking lot doesn't have enough spaces, we say "no problem, bruddah" and just make them skinnier. It's so much easier than trying to make the lot bigger!

So if I had the choice of parking either a clunky rental Jeep or a sleek, sporty, convertible MINI Cooper with parking sensors, it's a no-brainer.

Top 10 Reasons to rent a MINI instead of a Jeep in Honolulu

#5 - Push One Little Button And The Sun Is All Yours

If you've been on Oahu for at least a few days, you've seen this: a Jeep on the side of the road in the rain with the top half-closed, one passenger is in their seat getting soaked, and the other is trying to figure out how the heck you close the thing (and also getting soaked).

In our convertible MINI Coopers there are no latches or secret tricks, and no voodoo magic or advanced degrees are required. Just two buttons: CLOSE and OPEN. The buttons are so simple they don't even say "close" or "open." They just have a little picture of a closed top and an opened top.

Now THAT's a care free vacation car.

Top 10 Reasons to rent a MINI instead of a Jeep in Honolulu

#6 - MINIs are 49.85% Better Able to Handle Honolulu's Roads

Believe it or not, the beautiful, exotic island of Oahu does have a few imperfections. One of those are the roads. Those of you who have been here know what I'm talking about: narrow, potholed, one-way roads with names too crazy for most visitors to pronounce. Although we at Little Hawaii can't do much about the condition, direction or pronunciation of Hawaii's roads, we can provide you with one of the only rental cars that can flip a U-turn in roads as narrow as 18 feet.

With a turning radius of just 17.4 feet, our MINI Coopers blow away the large, clunky competition's radius of 34.9 feet.

You may ask yourself why small turning radius is such a big deal when considering a rental car in Honolulu. Well, when you get here and make a wrong turn and find out you need to be going the opposite direction, you'll be glad you rented a MINI.

Top 10 Reasons to rent a MINI instead of a Jeep in Honolulu

#7 - Free 24-Hour MINI Roadside Assistance

When you rent a MINI Cooper from Little Hawaii you'll be able to relax. This seems like a necessary thing to do while on vacation, right? You'll be able to relax, because if you accidentally lock the keys in the car, run out of gas or run over an nail, all you have to do is dial the 1-800 number for MINI Roadside Assistance, and they'll come rescue you anywhere on the island. For free. No, we're not kidding. For free. You don't even have to purchase our insurance coverage to receive this excellent service. Here's a sample scenario:

-You drive our convertible Cooper S to the North Shore
-You go to the beach and relax
-You get tan and return to the MINI
-You see the keys on the seat & the doors are locked
-You laugh & say "silly me!"
-You call the 1-800 number for MINI Roadside Assistance
-You go back to the beach for a few minutes until someone comes to unlock the door
-You go out to dinner and have a great rest of the day

No panicking.

No worrying.

No crying.

(and no complaining from your spouse or kids!)

Top 10 Reasons to rent a MINI instead of a Jeep in Honolulu

#8 - We Deliver Your MINI Rental To Your Door

Renting a convertible MINI Cooper for the first time may be one of the more exciting, and easy, things you do on vacation. Not only can you quickly & easily book one of our MINIs directly from our MINI Reservation Website, we'll also deliver it directly to your hotel or vacation rental. We'll give you a call when we're 5 minutes away to give you enough time to roll out of bed, grab your license and mosey on downstairs to the lobby. It only takes a second to sign some forms and then we'll show you a few of the outstanding features of your finely-detailed MINI. I don't know of any Jeep rentals that come with this kind of service.

This means you can be wearing your PJs when you book a rental and when we deliver it to you.

Now that's vacationing.