45 replies to this topic

[orcadian]

Whilst I agree with most of the comments about the rust and our over use of salt on the roads, having been around Minis for well over 40 years I can say with certainty that the build quality of the later cars was worse than any of the earlier ones. I have re-shelled 12 damaged Minis with new shells and a few others with secondhand ones; until I got the 99 sportpack to break, I had never seen so much unpainted bare metal on any Mini shell. Don't forget, AR inherited a legacy of 30 odd years of Mini building and even got into bed with Honda - but did they use their underbody/cavity protection systems?
But as I said in my earlier rant (post #5) there was no excuse for building gearboxes in the later years with case hardened chocolate components and suspension rubbers made from re-cycled condoms. They had the chance to improve stuff but these newer parts were designed by accountants - and you know where they have led us.
It's still a pity that they couldn't carry on with the Mini and an even greater shame that they sold the name to a bunch of Bavarian Monkey Wrenchers.