The quaint, and very British, wooden frame may be missing. But the two split rear doors on the new Mini hark back to a classic of the 1960s.
This "grown-up" version of the car will be unveiled on Sunday and is aimed at young couples with families who like the excitement of the popular hatchback but need the flexibility of an estate.
tinyurl.com/34ew5c
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A slight improvement on the 0-60 in 33.8sec for the old Mini even if it is a little heavier at 1.3 tonnes vs 0.66.
Ah! The good old days :-)
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A slight improvement on the 0-60 in 33.8sec for the old Mini
People tend to forget (or are too young to know) just how gutless cars used to be.
--
L\'escargot.
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aimed at young couples with families who like the excitement of the popular hatchback but need the flexibility of an estate.
Blimey, Chris. Do you work in marketing?
The modern Mini van depicted doesn't inspire me at all.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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doubtless, it will be a hit, but I wonder how much rear leg room passengers will get with this one ..
>>As well as the two main doors at the front, the passenger side includes a half-width door to allow easier access to the back>>
sounds like only a small person will get thru!
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Hawkeye, I just quoted a bit of blurb from the article ;-) Maybe I missed my calling........
I haven't seen the car but I'm not too sure you'll be able to call it a flexible estate (I don't imagine boot space is going to be 'estate' size....)
Chris
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The comparison shows 27mpg for the original estate. We had 3. More like 37mpg.
So I treat it with the respect it deserves:-)
madf
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"Rear door on passenger side" in Germany, which translates to drivers side for us. Hardly the safest way for your little loved ones to get in the back seat!
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"Rear door on passenger side" in Germany which translates to drivers side for us. Hardly the safest way for your little loved ones to get in the back seat!
Ah, but they won't mind because they will be fashionable, and that's the most important thing after all.
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the silver frame around the rear door looks really clunky as if its covering a whole mess of seams behind...Not very clean or sophisticated.
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Looks like a hearse for Pygmies.
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Looks like a hearse for Pygmies.
Pygmies need hearses too, you know. Show some respect. I don't think many of them will want to be seen dead in this one though.
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The orginal clubman was an attempt to broaden the minis market, a natural extension that naturally included the mini van. In the process something practical, stylish cute and fun was created. And yes I include the mini van in this.
This new abomination is crude and ugly and useless. A natural extension of its crude ugly and exessive sibling.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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What can we expect next? A 4x4 SUV Mini, a 7-seater MPV Mini. A large executive saloon Mini!
The original 'New Mini' was a pastiche on the original, but for me it was let off the hook slightly when I discovered that the original Mini was based on a style for a larger rear-drive BMC prototype called, I think, the XC 9000, built in the mid 50's. This had something of the proportions of the New Mini about it.
As our roads fill with Toyota Aygos, VW Foxes, Peugeot 107s and of course Smarts, the new Mini is a bit like an older child in a kindergarten. If I owned BMW I'd axe the brand when the current range needs updating.
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As our roads fill with Toyota Aygos VW Foxes Peugeot 107s and of course Smarts the new Mini is a bit like an older child in a kindergarten. If I owned BMW I'd axe the brand when the current range needs updating.
And market the new model as a BMW, by omitting the headlights off switch and the indicator stalk? ;)
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This new abomination is crude and ugly and useless.
Good heavens! Am I actually in agreement with TVM on an aesthetic issue? Or am I dreaming?
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what a truly awful looking car
the no-no for me is the small back door that will only be accessible on the driver's side in this country.......what utter contempt for the country that inspired the original.
there are enough RHD markets in the world (UK, Eire, Aus, India, Japan, South africa etc) for them to sort that one out......the same reason why I could never own a 5 series... as good as that car is i could never have acar with the wipers going the wrong way
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They'll sell by the bucketloads, especially in Europe and the States.
The MINI is a success whether you like them or BMW or not.
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I don't dislike BMW.......in fact i think they are one of the best cars in the market......it's just that for the amount of money this country spends on them (e.g...3 series outsells Mondeo), you'd think we'd be worth having things done correctly.....such as: RHD set up.
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Sorry WP not having a pop at you more a general one. People have car prejudices and are blind to the attributes of other makes, don't think you get this sort of stuff going on in the bike world.....you know, I know that a Triumph Tiger is probably a better bike than the R1200S and that a Honda is better made than most bikes but you just don't seem to get this blinkered opinions on two wheels. Why is the car world so different ?
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Awful looking car. As someone who owned a string of proper minis quite a few years back though, I'd say giving this car a Clubman badge sums it up - the original Clubman was the square fronted mini, which looked nearly as bad as this effort from BMW. The Clubman estate had the strips of wood effect plastic down the side that served no other purpose than as rust traps.
The original was at least cheap new and used (I remember buying a Clubman 1100 for £25).
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but you just don't seem to get this blinkered opinions on two wheels. Why is the car world so different ?
generally enthusiasts i.e. people with a degree of subject knowledge, ride them......if you're a purely A-B man on a bike you're on a small one
whereas a fair few car owners are clueless........and clueless = uninformed opinions
e.g all Skodas are carp, X type is really only a Mondeo, all (name your manuf) are rubbish because your dad had one 15 years ago that let him down once
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Snipquote
the same reason why I could never own a 5 series... as good as that car is i could never have acar with the wipers going the wrong way
Latest 5 series BMW (and Pug 206s and a few others) have a wiper arm extension to clear the screen properly on the driver's side à la Mercedes 190. (South African made BMWs, Golfs etc. always had wipers properly set up for RHD, and the bonnet release on the driver's side, by the way.)
And on the subject, didn't you notice nearly every single BMC/BL car had its wipers the wrong way round until the 18-22/Princess ? To help prevent wiper liftoff at high speed, apparently. High speed in the rain in a Marina... interesting proposition.
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>...wiper arm extension to clear the screen properly on the driver's side.
Doesn't work well enough, though. Just turns a circular arc into an elliptical arc, or something like that. It still can't clear up to the pillar and into the top corner - the bits just in front of a tall driver's eyes - like a proper RHD setup. If it was that good, BMW would reverse it for LHD markets! I'm with WP on this - I rather like the 5 but wouldn't have one.
Citroen, Mercedes and Jaguar have all abandoned their one-wiper setups - eccentric or otherwise - in favour of doing the job properly with two. Apart from BMWs (and the 3 gets proper wipers anyway), the only cars I can think of with LHD wiper patterns are MPVs and similar with cross-over wipers, where you want the driver's wiper on top - a subtler distinction but still useful. Citroen even sets the Picasso up for RHD.
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>And on the subject, didn't you notice nearly every single BMC/BL car had its wipers the wrong way round until the 18-22/Princess ? To help prevent wiper liftoff at high speed, apparently. High speed in the rain in a Marina... interesting proposition.<
NOooo that was because when they built the cars they looked at the blueprints upside down. The flying wedge only looked right one way round so they go it right.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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never thought I'd see the words 'high speed' relating to a Marina....
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"Rear door on passenger side" in Germany which translates to drivers side for us.
Do you have extra information then bb?
I sort of assumed that the extra door would be on the other side on right hand drive versions
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Re the silly door. Why didn't they simply follow the idea set on the AMC Pacer and make one door longer than the other? That was a hideous beast too.
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commerdriver, read it in one of the car mags, and the photos back it up that there is only one door on the off-side (to us).
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Just wondered since the photos only seem to show a left hand drive car
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Anyone had a look yet? Is it a retro step too far? Or is it a modern small car with an acceptable boot?
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Not had a look at one 'in the flesh', but have seen all the magazine articles on it, and...in my opinion is a total dogs dinner from the B-post back. I don't know why they didn't go the whole hog and stick some fake wood down the sides. Retro design - don't you just hate it?
S6 1SW
Put in here to be kept company - PU
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On reading reports further it seems the culprit preventing a near-side door for RHD cars is the fuel filler.
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>>Retro design - don't you just hate it
The american stuff is all a bit, as they would say, lame. But I love the new 500 from the outside. Madly expensive for a load of Panda gear set on a Ka chassis (at least I think it will be when it turns up in Blighty) but it looks just great from the outside.
I had an old new MINI so I'm a bit biased but I do think it was a good progression from the original; parked next to our classic Mini it certainly looked the part and felt safe enough on our roads filled with lorries posing as cars.
This Clubman doesn't really work in my mind - makes little sense if unloading children means unloading them onto the road, just because they couldn't be bothered to do a version for RHD. The price works, somethling like only a £1200 premium over the hatch, but practical-wise it loses out, as the americans would say, TO THE MAX.
-- Biggedy biggedy bong
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The Mini Clubman - an abomination in my view since apart from wind-up windows it added nothing to the Mk 1 Mini except an ugly snout - never had any wood did it?
The "Traveller" was the original estate version of the Mini without wood (with wood it was call the Countryman). Perhaps Clubman was chosen because the new car is also plug ugly and superfluous.
I lost inerest in the new MINI "Clubman" when I read that they had rejected as "too hard" (=expensive) putting the passenger door on the passenger side of the car.
Incidentally - doing a quick dig on this, I stumbled across the factoid that BL, or whatever it was called that week, hired some Ford stylists to do an upmarket Mini to replace the Riley and Wolseley versions with a range-topper that was cheaper to make. They succeeded in one respect - the Wolseley and the Riley were certainly a bit eccentric looking, but the Clubman definitely looked cheap!
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It'll still sell like hot cakes !
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added nothing to the Mk 1 Mini except an ugly snout - never had any wood did it?
Quite right Dugong.
New MINI carp, Clubman even carper.
Not that one would really want a standard original Mini these days.
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"The "Traveller" was the original estate version of the Mini without wood (with wood it was call the Countryman"
I'll be really nerdy now....Actually it depended on the badge - it was the Austin Mini Countryman (originally Austin Seven Countryman, complete with retro 1930s-style starter button on the floor) and Morris Mini Traveller.
Whenm we were married in 1974 I got SWMBO a 1965 Mini Traveller as a second car - it did her very well for a few years. The advantage of the original Morris version was that the grille had narrower slats so that water was less likely to get in and flood the engine than on the Austin version.
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