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Is It Really Worth Keeping A Mini?


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#1 Poppet2

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 10:58 AM

In London, especially.
What with the major adding £12.50 a day to those travelling up to the North and South circular from the 25th October 2021.
Also, if your car doesn't meet the new standard emissions or is more than 25 years old, if you want to travel in London from April 2019.
It won't be too long before petrol will soon be a thing of the past.
Is it worth it?

#2 cal844

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 11:10 AM

Yeah it's worth it to do laps of the m25 or big roundabouts at 3am

#3 WillCarter

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 11:22 AM

I suppose it depends how much you use it but even if you only use it for a bit of a road trip car to the countryside or whatever a few times a year then I'd keep it if I was you. You'll miss it as soon as you sell it. 



#4 mab01uk

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 11:34 AM

If you have a garage and don't use it as a daily driver in London....= yes.

If not then in especially in London the extra costs and hassle involved as a daily driver plus the risk of classic Mini theft when parked on the street....= no.

ie. Get a cheap modern disposable small hatch as your daily driver.



#5 DomCr250

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 01:11 PM

Yes it is ... lucky to be able to drive lots of cars, still consider myself very lucky to have the mini, always puts a smile on my face as I drive along.



#6 johnR

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 02:25 PM

It wont be long before electric motors are available to retrofit off the shelf for older cars

#7 sonikk4

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 03:20 PM

If you are asking this question then the answer is no.

 

However if you are died in the wool mini owner then you take one step at a time with things like this.



#8 Ethel

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 03:59 PM

The cost of ownership is getting less. It's the cost of use you'll have to weigh up.



#9 Wise Old Elf

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 04:21 PM

It wont be long before electric motors are available to retrofit off the shelf for older cars



I think if you shop around they are already available:

http://www.everythin...ex&cPath=91_120

https://www.electricclassiccars.co.uk/

#10 Retroman

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Posted 15 August 2018 - 10:57 PM

Someone has done an electric Sportpack, it will take about 4 charges to get from London to Devon and back

 

We have been developing batteries for over 150 years and this thing can only do 65 miles on one charge its pathetic.



#11 Firephoenix

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Posted 16 August 2018 - 08:20 AM

Someone has done an electric Sportpack, it will take about 4 charges to get from London to Devon and back

We have been developing batteries for over 150 years and this thing can only do 65 miles on one charge its pathetic.

The problem is in the cars name. Mini.
The battery technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years and affordable electric cars with 100-150 real life driving is achievable (removing Tesla as their cars although arguably the best are way to expensive at the moment).
So let’s say a Renault Zoe, brand new with grants discounts etc your looking at £10k. It’s a bargain with 120-140 mile range (easily enough mileage for the every day driver). Go and sit in one though. Yours knees are around your ears because the battery is under the floor, so try and transfer that battery into a mini to achieve similar mileage (weight differences taken into consideration).They can’t go under the seat, well not as a whole package, so they would have to be split up perhaps some under the rear seat, a wedge in the boot, a tickle under the front seats and finally a squeeze under the bonnet around the drive train. I’m no expert (but I closely follow this fascinating early evolution of the car industry), I think currently the battery technology is way better than even 5 years ago but sadly we are some way off yet (10 years?) before batteries become dense enough to fit into the space of a normal sized fuel tank and give gas guzzler mileage and convenience. It’s coming, just got to be patient and wait for the oil companies so say yes....

Oh and to answer the OP question. Yes, keep it, your miss it as soon as it’s gone!

Edited by Firephoenix, 16 August 2018 - 08:21 AM.


#12 cp2708

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Posted 16 August 2018 - 03:47 PM

I'm hacked off a bit with that too, I live just outside the North Circular in W5, but regularly venture inside it. I think my old BMW will be banned too, you can wipe the inside of the original 14 year old exhaust with your finger and it will come out clean, it emits so many particles!

I'm afraid they've made cars public enemy number one and it's seems to have given the green lobby even more of voice since the Diesel gate episode.
The thing is new cars are so much better emissions wise plus going hybrid/electric, and the vast majority of old cars get broken up, so the air will get cleaner naturally as time goes on (which you can tell it has, when you attend any classic car meet and smell the exhaust fumes!).

Still it's OK for all those people living on barges on various canals and rivers, and in all the large houses to be belching out smoke from their log burners. Wasn't that banned with the clean air act decades ago anyway, when we really did have filthy air and smog?
Still when you've got the BBC reporting scientists blaming little Jonny's asthma on living next to the south circular (how on earth do they prove that?), what can we expect?

I'm keeping mine!

Rant over!

Edited by cp2708, 16 August 2018 - 06:37 PM.


#13 DomCr250

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Posted 17 August 2018 - 10:50 AM

I was told (by somebody who works in the car design team at a international brand) that a new type of 'solid' battery cell has been made available as a test product to various car makers, it's much more compact and on a medium sized car will allow a range of upto 500 miles ... so there is a glimmer of hope for retro-fitting to mini's.

 

Loads of people doing Smart Car electric conversions and only 10 years ago they were all about GSX1000 conversions, so things are changing.



#14 Retroman

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Posted 17 August 2018 - 11:17 AM

Thats fine for those wanting to buzz round at 30mph in a hideous bland euro box

 

I will stick to Minis with an internal combustion engine under the bonnet

 

I fail to see the point or appeal of desecrating a classic Mini so you can say it's electric, and 'green'

 

It will be slower, handle worse, weigh more and have less internal room and boot space

 

Stick a go-pro in it and some steering servo's its a full scale remote control scaletrix

 

http://www.theminifo...es#entry3533939

 

7UZUpnJ.jpg



#15 Simples

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Posted 17 August 2018 - 11:32 AM

Keep it, you'll regret if you don't. In terms of the whole electric debate, but it's not going away - it's got a lot going for it too (instant torque, etc) once the technology becomes more widely available I think there'll be a lot more conversions, and if the means keeping classics alive as converted EV's then I'm all for it




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