A Stereo Shop Flooded And Totaled My Mini Image: Mini My first new car was a 2004 Mini Cooper S. I did a factory order and waited three months for it. Three years later it was declared a total loss due to flooding, but the terminal water damage inside wasn’t a result of the usual causes. Advertisement Long before I came up with the idea of becoming a professional car shopper, I was a kid fresh out of college making “real job” money. It was nothing too impressive, as the starting salary for an English teacher was about $45,000, but it was more than I ever earned. Naturally, I wanted to spend a chunk of my income on a car payment. This was not the smartest financial decision, since my 1995 Prelude Si was running just fine, but I wanted to treat myself to a “grownup” purchase — and having recently seen