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Old and new Mini next to each other

RJohan said:
Parts on my Porsche are clearly labeled for other VAG brands. The instrument cluster on my neighbours Seat looks suspiciously alike. Terrible but true.
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It could be worse. The Lotus Esprit had Morris Marina door handles.
Famously, the clutch for a Ferrari 246 was the same as one for a Fiat tractor. Same part number, same manufacturer(s). But Fiat agri dealers wanted about £40 or equivalent at some time, and Ferrari wanted £400 for the same parts in a different box.
 
Jezzer said:
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Old blokes getting pedantic about mini/MINI. The MINI is just a modern interpretation of an old car. Safety standards mean they simply can’t make these things to be small! Fine from the front but they’ve ruined those rear light clusters.
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The front of that thing looks like Pob/Michael Gove.
 
I think the front manages to retain the classic lines of the Mini which they did so well with the first BMW iteration. The rear looks to have moved away...which is a shame.
 
stevec67 said:
It could be worse. The Lotus Esprit had Morris Marina door handles.
Famously, the clutch for a Ferrari 246 was the same as one for a Fiat tractor. Same part number, same manufacturer(s). But Fiat agri dealers wanted about £40 or equivalent at some time, and Ferrari wanted £400 for the same parts in a different box.
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Our daughters 2010 Volvo has the same external door lock button as our 2016 Discovery, which is the same as many Ford Explorers, I guess hardly surprising as Ford owned all 3 companies at one time. In fact many of the items on the Disco have 'Fomoco' part marking.
 
stevec67 said:
It could be worse. The Lotus Esprit had Morris Marina door handles.
Famously, the clutch for a Ferrari 246 was the same as one for a Fiat tractor. Same part number, same manufacturer(s). But Fiat agri dealers wanted about £40 or equivalent at some time, and Ferrari wanted £400 for the same parts in a different box.
Click to expand...

In my very brief career as an Italian car mechanic (a few months...), I had to put a new steering rack on a Detomaso Pantera. The replacement cost the very earth, until we discovered that it was identical to a Ford Pinto rack. A Pinto rack from TRW was dirt cheap, fit perfectly, and the owner was happy.

That Pantera was also the easiest clutch job I ever had to do. The whole operation could be done from the topside, without ever having to put the car on a jack.
 
Jezzer said:
Yes I did. The new 500 is 10cm narrower and 25cm shorter than the MINI - so it’s smaller but not small. They’re both massive compared to the originals.
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The 500 remains in the same market category of has always been in: City cars, or A Segment.

The original BMC Mini was in the same category as the 500. The BMW/Rover revival (the project was started before BMW took over) jumped up a size to B Segment.. ironically this category used to be known as the "supermini" class in the UK press, because they were cars that were "bigger than a Mini" but smaller than a compact car (e.g. Renault 5, VW Polo, Ford Fiesta)

The replatforming a couple of years ago now has the MINI right at the upper bounds of the B Segment, and nudging into C Segment (Compact cars). The new MINI Aceman EV is a little bigger than a VW Golf, the classic C Segment hatchback.

So, even the latest 500 EV is still the same size as it always was, relative to the market average size, but the MINI has grown by at least one size, maybe even two.
 
KrisW said:
The original BMC Mini was in the same category as the 500. The BMW/Rover revival (the project was started before BMW took over) jumped up a size to B Segment.. ironically this category used to be known as the "supermini" class in the UK press, because they were cars that were "bigger than a Mini" but smaller than a compact car (e.g. Renault 5, VW Polo, Ford Fiesta)
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Weren't R5, Polo and Fiesta "subcompacts"?
 
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Yank said:
Weren't R5, Polo and Fiesta "subcompacts"?
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In American naming, yes. The American market makes no distinction within the "subcompact" category, but we do in Europe. Here's the general translation from smallest to largest :

A Segment, City-car = Subcompacts
B Segment, Small car = Subcompacts
C Segment, Compact = Compact
D Segment, Family = Compact or Midsize
E Segment, Large car = Midsize
F Segment, Luxury = Full size

There's no market for "non-luxury" full-size cars like Dodge Charger in Europe, so F is things like Merc S, BMW 7, Maserati Quattroporte and Audi A8. Similarly, the only European A Segment cars sold in the US were Smart cars and the FIAT 500.

(S)UVs follow the same naming, but a B UV is generally half a size bigger than a B car, and so on up the categories.

Unlike the US, this is just an informal industry categorisation, there's no legal definition of what each class is.
 
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