advertisement


Old and new Mini next to each other

Not to my taste that's for sure... but then nor's the one of the left either :D Thing is though I don't really care any more as modern cars are what they are, at nearly 60 I'm no longer the target market and driving in the UK with its congested roads and shitty drivers is a chore anyway so getting the cheapest acceptable mode of getting from A to B is all it is to me now. I use public transport wherever possible as even though it's crap it's less crap than driving. Was looking at going electric, car wise, but after a thread on here about it I have just decided to keep the Civic and run it into the ground as some twat will only drive into anything nice I might buy at some point anyway. Anyway back to the OP... don't like either and didn't like the original much to boot!
 
Ugh! They’re all electric now too. No more John Cooper Works version unless you go for the Countryman. Here’s my JCW from 12 years ago(!). It was a hoot to drive!

IMG-1507.jpg
 
the new ones are far prettier and interesting. New ones are funky

New Countryman JCW sits on my shortlist for the next car.
 
gintonic said:
the new ones are far prettier and interesting. New ones are funky

New Countryman JCW sits on my shortlist for the next car.
Click to expand...
I like the look of the new JCW Countryman. The interior with the massive round OLED screen is certainly interesting.
 
prev 2023 gen made it on to our long list in the form JCW Clubman, but it wasn't funky enough. Fun to drive though
 
Frank Stephenson's 2002 design was superb. The very first face-lift (after Stephenson's departure) made it look like a Chinese knock-off of itself, and it was downhill from there.

The last vestige of being "mini" was lost when BMW re-platformed the car into its UKL front-wheel drive architecture, shared with the 1-Series. The minimum dimensions of that architecture turned the Mini into a compact hatchback, without actually adding much interior room (it still had to accomodate all the internal parts of the larger 1-series).

Also, those union-jack rear lamps..? Leaving aside the fact that this flag has negative connotations in lots of places outside the UK, there's really no finer way of saying "not actually a British company" than doing this kind of thing. (See also Geely's insistence on the Swedishness of every little part of modern Volvos).
 
KrisW said:
Leaving aside the fact that this flag has negative connotations in lots of places outside the UK
Click to expand...

I cannot fathom that they actually sell (I.e. are bought) in Ireland. Whilst I’m far from a rabid republican it does have a trigger effect on me when I see it in traffic.

I suppose in general it’s a good sign for relationships north and south that there are a (younger) cohort that don’t think anything of having a Union Jack tail lamp. Apparently one has to pay extra to not have the Union Jack. Would have been the car’s death knell in in the not too recent past.

.sjb
 
Tony Lockhart said:
Don’t look at the prices of a Golf R or Civic Type R, in that case.
Click to expand...
Aha, I hate to think…

…To be fare, you get what you pay for and I’m sure they’re well engineered, a great drive and a lot of fun. I have just always found it hard to fork out such large sums on a depreciating asset. I suspect if I was absolutely minted I would have a different mindset though! :D
 
Gingerbeard said:
Aha, I hate to think…

…To be fare, you get what you pay for and I’m sure they’re well engineered, a great drive and a lot of fun. I have just always found it hard to fork out such large sums on a depreciating asset. I suspect if I was absolutely minted I would have a different mindset though! :D
Click to expand...
A used Suzuki Swift Sport 1600 is more ‘fun’ to drive on a proper road. 130 something bhp and a sorted chassis. Less than £10k used, will always be worth something. Most of these mega hatches with 300+ bhp aren’t really fun until ‘see you in court’ speeds. And their interiors are hideous.
 
I got to drive a Mini Cooper around Donnington Park racetrack many years ago as a warm up before driving a Formula Ford single seater race car.
It was planted and easy to drive if a little slow (the instructor took a dim view of ‘making progress.’)
 
There’s no accounting for taste. I’d take the unique and funky interior of the MINI over the bland infinitely replicable interior of the Suzuki Swift.

Car price inflation is insane. I can’t remember how much I paid for my JCW but it was nowhere near £40k!
 
Jezzer said:
There’s no accounting for taste. I’d take the unique and funky interior of the MINI over the bland infinitely replicable interior of the Suzuki Swift.

Car price inflation is insane. I can’t remember how much I paid for my JCW but it was nowhere near £40k!
Click to expand...
Nobody would ever say the interior of the Suzuki is competing in any way with the top mega hatches, but I’m sure I could put up with it just for the reward of mastering a quick little car with great handling, manual gearbox and a grin on the inside. And nobody points at the driver and shouts ‘****er’ as you drive by. (I get enough of that at work!)

From new, I’d guess a Golf R will lose £20k in four years. And they’re often stolen for drug-running etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top