Scottish Elises

Spotted this and thought about how it may interest the Mini owners on here;

New four door Mini.

http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2014/6/5/Th ... r-7720725/

Steve.

Fugly.

I reckon the designers at Mini have a bet going to see how ugly it needs to be before people stop buying it. Its hard to believe that each new model looks worse than the last and it still flys out of the showrooms.

.... and isnt it about time they resurrected the Maxi name because Mini it aint.

Shug wrote:http://sniffpetrol.com/2014/06/05/mini- ... ors-model/

They sell because they are funky and different which loads of car makers are doing nowadays. You don't need to go far back in time when all cars looked much the same. My gf has a Countryman Cooper thing and it's enormous and as ugly as but she loves it for reasons that go beyond rational thought. It is however, a mobile skip. I never been in a car quite so filthy (horses and dogs)

Kelvin wrote:They sell because they are funky and different which loads of car makers are doing nowadays. You don't need to go far back in time when all cars looked much the same.)

But they aren't different, they all look the same (in the same way all cars used to look the same).

Every street has 5 new Minis in it, and each variety is similar enough that they end up almost blending in.
In fact, I think as the move on in time, they look more and more like other cars - normal cars with a different HUGE branding grill on the front. The Fiat Giant Panda (sorry, 500L) is another example of this.

The irony for me is that when looking at modern cars, things like the Hyundai i40 stand out somehow. It's probably the most normal looking car around, but since the majority of cars now sport some sort of out there contemporary art style, it's the bland ones that look individual

I remember when the first New Mini was reveled in 99 or 00 by Rover (later to become the first BMW Mini) and it looked all wrong. Who'd have thought it'd turn out to be the best looking of the bunch!

Chris

They've just cultivated a Mini look (BMW do it across their whole range) However, it does look different from most other cars on the road. There are a few in our car park at work and they do stand out.

And they are mostly all built in the UK (although one of the models is built in Austria I think) BMW are a customer of ours and I visit them fairly regularly so it's great to see a huge number people being gainfully employed building motors.

I quite like that. We have now had 3 Minis (now on to a Fiat 500) and can't really complain about the fact that they are so popular that you see them everywhere. I don't really get the idea of the squashed looking one (coupe?) but I also never could see the appeal of the Range Rover Evoque either.

I'd probably hate it anyway, but WTF is that centre console ? - It's almost as big as the steering wheel.

Corranga wrote:

Kelvin wrote:They sell because they are funky and different which loads of car makers are doing nowadays. You don't need to go far back in time when all cars looked much the same.)

But they aren't different, they all look the same (in the same way all cars used to look the same).

Every street has 5 new Minis in it, and each variety is similar enough that they end up almost blending in.
In fact, I think as the move on in time, they look more and more like other cars - normal cars with a different HUGE branding grill on the front. The Fiat Giant Panda (sorry, 500L) is another example of this.

The irony for me is that when looking at modern cars, things like the Hyundai i40 stand out somehow. It's probably the most normal looking car around, but since the majority of cars now sport some sort of out there contemporary art style, it's the bland ones that look individual

I remember when the first New Mini was reveled in 99 or 00 by Rover (later to become the first BMW Mini) and it looked all wrong. Who'd have thought it'd turn out to be the best looking of the bunch!

Chris

Not sure if I entirely agree; I think the Fiat 500 is a fairly decent looking wee car, whereas I think the 500L is a monstrosity that is an offense to my eyes.

That picture Ross is really quite a shocker. Does not entirely suprise me. I wonder if the next niche "Mini" will go for will be the compact car.... oh, wait, they had a concept for that (rocketman IIRC) that they ditched. Pity.

Nobody wants a compact car anymore. Manufacturers are only responding to public demand.

We love our Clubman. Albeit it was function over form as our little uns no longer fitted in our first Cooper hatchback...it was Clubman or an A3 (yawn). Countryman was never on the agenda. Those really have been hit with an ugly stick.

Speaking of ugly, does that 5 door hatch mean the Clubman is discontinued? In which case we're driving a future classic!