How dare they sell it here with a passenger door on wrong side??
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 03/11/2007 at 19:53
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Highway code says to walk facing oncoming traffic, so maybe BMW think we should also park that way, - which makes the door on the right side! ?
Billy
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On my regular walk into town, a car came around the bend too fast and grated for about 70 yards against the high stone wall behind the narrow pavement.
I`m really tuned into walking facing the traffic after seeing the outcome of that.
Regarding the Mini, I think you`re right Billy. Responsibility to some extent must be with the driver and owner.
To me its not as bad as having offset pedals in a `tight` area as a result of poor conversion to right hand drive.
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I don't get retro-styling.
The original Mini was brilliant for the '60s and '70s, the Countryman even more so.
Why, 40 years later, does anyone buy scaled up versions which have few practical merits particulary compared with genuinely modern competitors ?
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I'm genuinely not anti BMW I think they're damned good cars (2nd choice, I could easily have a high spec 5 series if they sorted the wipers out for RHD).....BUT....
I think they extract the urine immensely selling the Clubman with the door on the wrong side.
Firstly, they make enough money in this country to justify getting it right and would have the advantage for other RHD countries e.g. South Africa.
Secondly, the concept was British in the first place. It's almost like giving us 'two fingers'.
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"Isn't it a insult to UK drivers"
Only that it should be made in longbridge, uk,
by uk residents,
for uk residents,
:-)
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Thing that gets me about the clubman isn't the door on the wrong side but the fact the clubman has the standard min front end with an estate style rear.
Now i'm sure the original clubman had a totally different front end to a standard mini.....
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Yeah this should be the Traveller if they were being logical or faithful to history.
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However i don;t think BMW purchased the Traveller name - hence the clubman!
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Is anyone actually buying it here?
It looks quite odd though [even without considering wrong door].
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I wonder in which countries the most Mini's are sold. I wonder if more go to LHD or RHD. Be interesting to see a breakdown. It would be ironic if they got the door on the wrong side for the wrong reason.
When the new Mini came out I chatted about it to be brother leaving near Pacifica in California... he thought they were too small for the roads out there. I've travelled with him and with the massive trucks and SUVs I'd agree.
So do BMW sell more Mini's in mainland Europe and USA vs. UK/Japan/Australia/S Africa/etc?
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Are tgere any experts among us who can tell me why BMW, with a bit of imagination, couldn't have designed it with a rear door on each side?
I read something about a nearside rear door interfering with the fuel filler and pipe - but do BMW really design cars around the fuel filler?
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I'd heard that yes the fuel filler caused the problem, which may seem small but to swap something like the fuel tank location could mean massive re-engineering of the vehicle. BMW will have done the sums and for how many sales it would gain by having the extra door on the 'correct' side it must not be economically viable to do. It will still sell bucket loads just like when beetles and smarts were only available in LHD form.
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I don't feel insulted by it, it's just irrelevant to me. And it might turn out to be bad marketing, or not. I might feel differently if I had been waiting anxiously for the 'Traveller' to come out, as perhaps some MINI fans were - it certainly needed more space.
It's such an anachronism that I can only think it was one of those ideas that didn't quite work but they were too seized with it to discard it, so they just executed it badly.
Time will tell - I'm amazed at what people will buy. I hope they do - it's jobs in Oxford.
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