RE: 10 million Minis made!

RE: 10 million Minis made!

Author
Discussion

Jon_S_Rally

3,382 posts

87 months

Thursday 15th August 2019
quotequote all
I do have to have a little laugh at how upset people get by the modern Minis. Yes, they get more ugly with every iteration, but who actually cares?

It's a bit of a laugh in a way really, given that the original was sold under multiple brands and was just recycled over and over, so hardly has a perfect, blemish free history.

I guess I must be missing something though. I remember getting carted about as a kid in my god parents' Mini traveller, and my mum had a mid-90s Mini Sprite at one point, which was automatic and therefore terrible. She did nearly buy one of the run-out Cooper S models, but decided they were too expensive.

Not a car I ever really feel inclined to own though. I can admire them from afar to some extent but, growing up when I did, they were just old and had long been overtaken by the hot hatches and sports saloons of the 1980s and 90s.

I'd sooner have an R53 JCW than any classic to be honest.

P5BNij

15,764 posts

105 months

Thursday 15th August 2019
quotequote all
I only drove a BMW Mini for the first time a few weeks ago, albeit a quick spin round the black in a mate's 17' plate 2 litre Cooper, nice enough car I thought but I'd need a proper test drive in one to decide if I really wanted one to replace my current Alfa. Perhaps I'm just too entrenched in the old Mini to want one, who knows!

The three log book recreations of the Italian Job Cooper Ss I mentioned earlier at a recent show, along with replica Ford Thames van, Harrington coach and the Italian gold bullion van...


Drekly

748 posts

57 months

Thursday 15th August 2019
quotequote all
Jon_S_Rally said:
I do have to have a little laugh at how upset people get by the modern Minis. Yes, they get more ugly with every iteration, but who actually cares?

It's a bit of a laugh in a way really, given that the original was sold under multiple brands and was just recycled over and over, so hardly has a perfect, blemish free history.

I guess I must be missing something though. I remember getting carted about as a kid in my god parents' Mini traveller, and my mum had a mid-90s Mini Sprite at one point, which was automatic and therefore terrible. She did nearly buy one of the run-out Cooper S models, but decided they were too expensive.

Not a car I ever really feel inclined to own though. I can admire them from afar to some extent but, growing up when I did, they were just old and had long been overtaken by the hot hatches and sports saloons of the 1980s and 90s.

I'd sooner have an R53 JCW than any classic to be honest.
Agree on all that. My first car was a mini 850 but I wouldn't want one nowadays. I think the R53, well looked after S and JCW ones at least, will be surefire classics in their own right eventually. Unlike most rival small cars from the early 2000s which have dated horrendously. The used prices of the sought after models speak for themselves. The difference today is that the classic mini prices are now higher than the MINIs in many cases.
I remember when the later Rover 1275cc Cooper came out it was slagged off as a cynical and pale imitation of the proper old Cooper S and could be picked up for peanuts only a few years back, but as genuine 60s cars head into the stratosphere the tide lifts everything.

We have a terrible history of failing to develop good replacements for all our classic popular and successful cars without foreign investment.
Look at what happened to MG Rover, and JLR would have gone the same way without outside investment. You will get all the beardy types moaning when the new Defender comes out, "its not a real Landrover" but it will be a cracking vehicle regardless. I love the old one, but that was another case of flogging a dead horse for about two decades after they were due a replacement.



crofty1984

15,830 posts

203 months

Thursday 15th August 2019
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CABC said:
the original BINI R50/53 is a fantastic rebirth honouring everything about the original at the start of a new century. of course it was different, but it was also quite distinctive from anything else on the road and took over where the original left off. i find some of the later BL iterations far more of a letdown. Frank Stephenson's design is a modern classic. The original and R53 are both great cars. the latest 5 door is plain sad to look at though.
The latest new MINIs look like the wrong end of a dog. But I do find myself drawn to the early 2000s models (and originals, but I think the price/rust ratio has passed me by).

Johnspex

4,330 posts

183 months

Thursday 15th August 2019
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Not ten million anything. Except ten million cars all with a similar name. Whether it's Mimi or MINI it's not ten million. It's like the ludicrous figure they come up with for Corolla. It's Xmillion cars called Corolla of hugely different design, engine and drive train.
About the only cars these sky-high figures can be applied to are the Model T, the original Beetle, the 2cv and Renault 4 and of course the original Mini.

Rugbyman

1,625 posts

202 months

Friday 16th August 2019
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My g/f has had 7 so far we are now in a one off 1994 1300i cabriolet


cookie1600 said:
Damn, beat me to it. In fact haven't BMW differentiated their oversized offering by naming it all in capitals?



I must have owned, converted, repaired or driven a large % of the real Mini's made, how sad.

Rugbyman

1,625 posts

202 months

Friday 16th August 2019
quotequote all
Time to squeeze in a Cabriolet ? all that fun with the wind in your hair ...................... magic

edited for speeeling

P5BNij said:
Those Italian Job replicas are based on much later cars than the Mk1 originals using completely different shells, but there is another set of perfect replicas built by a guy who managed to buy the three original reg' numbers from the DVLA, long after the cars themselves were scrapped, here's one of them...



I've owned a few...

1964 Mk1 Austin Mini 850
1965 Mk1 Morris Cooper 1275 S
1966 Mk1 Morris Mini Minor 850
1967 Mk1 Austin Mini 850
1968 Mk2 Morris Cooper 1275 S (current)
1969 Mk2 Austin Cooper 998 x2
1970 Mk2 Morris Mini 1000
1972 Mk3 Mini 1000 (joint project with a mate)
1977 Mk4 Mini 1000 (my first car, came with an Innocenti interior)
1979 Mini Clubman 1000
1983 Mini Mayfair 1000
1993 Rover Mini Mayfair Japanese market 1275 automatic
2000 Rover Cooper Sportspack 1275

Plus a few others in between, it's a disease, and I still want another one!
Edited by Rugbyman on Friday 16th August 12:57