31 replies to this topic

[CityEPete]

surely the clubman filled this gap though? or was it the fact of only having one rear side door on the road side if in the UK  which caused people to be put off? interesting that its only a £1,000 cheaper than a 5 door golf or if you want a 5 door polo the starting price is £11,000 so nearly £5,000 cheaper than the mini. 
 
i don't think this is going to be as big as BMW think i could be wrong, we will just have to wait and see when they go on sale

I don't buy the clubman door on the wrong side stories, loads of people have a three door car and let people out either side, you can still do that with a clubman, if you are parking at the supermarket or at home etc it makes no difference which side it's on, the driver in all countries gets out into the flow of traffic anyway. It's nonsense peddled by bini haters

Edited by CityEPete, 06 June 2014 - 09:47 AM.

[mab01uk]

mab01uk  What happened in 1981 for manufacturing to drop off so fast? Anybody know the reason?

 

The Metro was launched in 1980 and most new small car buyers therefore opted for a brand new Metro instead.

 

BL also trimmed the Mini range back to just the City and Mayfair models. The Mini City was slightly cheaper than a basic Metro while a Mini Mayfair was slightly more expensive. The Mini Clubman and 1275GT models including the Estate were all dropped at the Metro launch as it was to replace them in the higher price and performance BL small car range.

 

BL barely advertised or promoted the Mini from that point on and only updated parts that were common to the Metro like the A+ engine, etc.

Many at BL and in their dealers hoped the Mini would die a slow death but it hung on despite many thinking it was not in production.....until the John Cooper inspired Japanese Mini Cooper revival in the late 1980's early '90's.

Edited by mab01uk, 06 June 2014 - 11:55 AM.

[surfblue]

surely the clubman filled this gap though? or was it the fact of only having one rear side door on the road side if in the UK  which caused people to be put off? interesting that its only a £1,000 cheaper than a 5 door golf or if you want a 5 door polo the starting price is £11,000 so nearly £5,000 cheaper than the mini. 

 

i don't think this is going to be as big as BMW think i could be wrong, we will just have to wait and see when they go on sale

I can see the appeal but Im afraid I'd go for a golf without hesitation.

[mab01uk]

 

surely the clubman filled this gap though? or was it the fact of only having one rear side door on the road side if in the UK  which caused people to be put off? interesting that its only a £1,000 cheaper than a 5 door golf or if you want a 5 door polo the starting price is £11,000 so nearly £5,000 cheaper than the mini. 

 

i don't think this is going to be as big as BMW think i could be wrong, we will just have to wait and see when they go on sale

I can see the appeal but Im afraid I'd go for a golf without hesitation.

 

 

Quote from the interesting Haynes book 'New MINI' by Graham Robson:

Back in 1994 when BMW became the new owners of the Mini they were in early discussions with their new marketing colleagues from Rover.......BMW said, "we wanted to make a success of the Mini range and stop the steady decline in sales, Rover replied, "Why? Forget it....." - they were not really interested in this little jewel and had plans to end production by 1997 with little fuss. BMW said " but it is a jewel - one which just needs to be polished up once again." (The MPi Mini was the result with production extended 4 more years to 2000).

No-one at Rover appeared to have a feeling for how valuble the Mini range was or what it could still be for them. There was no emotion there - emotion was a key essential for buying a Mini, especially in later years when it became more expensive and out dated compared to other rival small cars. You have to get that certain gut feeling - I Want This car: And that's the big difference, say, between a VW Polo and a MINI or Mini."

[CityEPete]

Like it or not though there is no denying that part of the appeal of the new mini and all that followed was the baby bmw connection and shared showrooms etc, its hard to imagine those same buyers rushing into the run down MG Rover showroom to try one. And im an mg rover fan, imagine the views of the rest of the uk never mind the USA or european buyers!

[mab01uk]

The USA is now the number 1 market for MINI sales ahead of the UK with huge future potential for sales based on size of country and population.......sadly there is no way Rover could have achieved that with BL and Rover's previous reputation for their cars in the USA and it would have cost millions to set up a Dealership network from scratch again without using the existing BMW Dealer network alongside MINI showrooms. Even now American MINI owners often complain how far they are away from a MINI Dealer, often a couple of hundred miles or so to the nearest!

Edited by mab01uk, 06 June 2014 - 07:40 PM.

[minivan1976]

 

surely the clubman filled this gap though? or was it the fact of only having one rear side door on the road side if in the UK  which caused people to be put off? interesting that its only a £1,000 cheaper than a 5 door golf or if you want a 5 door polo the starting price is £11,000 so nearly £5,000 cheaper than the mini. 
 
i don't think this is going to be as big as BMW think i could be wrong, we will just have to wait and see when they go on sale

I don't buy the clubman door on the wrong side stories, loads of people have a three door car and let people out either side, you can still do that with a clubman, if you are parking at the supermarket or at home etc it makes no difference which side it's on, the driver in all countries gets out into the flow of traffic anyway. It's nonsense peddled by bini haters

 

yeah i was just trying to think if you wanted a bigger mini or MINI why you wouldn't go for the clubman it has lots of space for a pushchair or pram and shopping 

[xrocketengineer]

The USA is now the number 1 market for MINI sales ahead of the UK with huge future potential for sales based on size of country and population.......sadly there is no way Rover could have achieved that with BL and Rover's previous reputation for their cars in the USA and it would have cost millions to set up a Dealership network from scratch again without using the existing BMW Dealer network alongside MINI showrooms. Even now American MINI owners often complain how far they are away from a MINI Dealer, often a couple of hundred miles or so to the nearest!

 

This is true. The nearest MINI dealer is about 50 miles away from me in Orlando (same as Subaru). Amazingly there are plenty of both around. One of the appeals of the new MINI is that it looks different from other cars. Most people here don't even know about the classic mini. One time when fuelling up mine, some guy asked if they were making them even smaller.     

Edited by xrocketengineer, 06 June 2014 - 09:36 PM.

[megamini_jb]

I think it'll sell really well. I like it anyway

[mab01uk]

 

Concepts and prototypes : Mini four-door

The launch of the MINI 5-Door Hatch has sparked memories of a similar product that BMC could have launched, right at the dawn of ADO15 production, in the early 1960s. A more practical Mini seemingly has been on the cards ever since Alec Issigonis devised his clever 10ft (and a quarter inch) long baby car.

According to John Pressnell’s epochal book, Mini: The Definitive History, the idea of a four-door Mini had been floating around Longbridge since 1957, once the ADO15 project was underway. However, little work was done on the car, as the priority was just to get the two-door to market, but it was the arrival of the commercial and load-carrying variations that had the designers thinking more seriously about the idea of a more practical Mini.

The 1960-1961 Morris Mini van, Countryman, Pick-up and the Austin Se7en Traveller’s new underpinnings would potentially form the perfect basis for the new four-door Mini. They received a much-needed four-inch stretch of the wheelbase (from 80in to 84in), giving the car more rear room and a worthwhile extension in the luggage area.

According to one ex-Austin apprentice who helped with the Mini’s 20th anniversary celebrations in 1979, when he was researching the Mini’s early life, he came across the above interesting image of a four-door Mini produced by the Longbridge engineering team as a possible upwards extension of the Mini saloon range.

He said that the approach back then was very much a case of ‘suck it and see’, with many one-offs being produced as the result of a ‘good idea’. The four-door Mini in the image was built in 1962-1963 and,  as can be seen from the accompanying image (note the gap between the rear wheelarch and the rear corner flange), it was based on the longer-wheelbase platform and was photographed at the Longbridge development shops behind Austin’s HQ, known by one and all as the Kremlin.

The fate of this car is unknown, but it almost certainly did not survive. There was a rather unfortunate policy at Longbridge of scrapping most ‘non-standard’ prototypes like this, so it probably didn’t survive very long, or was stuffed into one of the infamous tunnels and got burnt in the fire in the late-1980s.

John Pressnell said that Ron Dovey of the experimental body shop remembered the single running prototype. Consideration was also given to a long-wheelbase two-door saloon and it seems possible that a car was also built to that specification. The fate of that car remains unknown.

More on AROnline:

http://www.aronline....mini-four-door/

[CityEPete]

Tbf the ADO16 models pretty much covered what that car would have and with all the various badge engineered versions covering the base spec similar in price to what that 4 door mini would have cost up to the riley and vanden plas spec cars and the tasty (on my wish list) MG 1300 or an Austin GT Version :-D

[mab01uk]

[mab01uk]

Tbf the ADO16 models pretty much covered what that car would have and with all the various badge engineered versions covering the base spec similar in price to what that 4 door mini would have cost up to the riley and vanden plas spec cars and the tasty (on my wish list) MG 1300 or an Austin GT Version :-D

 

True. The BMC 1100/1300 range went on to be the UK's best selling car for many years in the 1960's outselling the Mini and Cortina......styled by Pininfarina rather than the functional design favoured by Issigonis for the Mini as it was thought buyers would expect this on a more expensive and larger car.

http://www.aronline....opment-history/

[xrocketengineer]

Back in the 70's college days in Puerto Rico, I had a 1964 VW beetle, my cousin had first a very rusty 1964 Austin Healy Sprite (later a 1972 Midget) and my future wife had 1970 Austin America with the automatic transmission. I was envious of my cousin with the Sprite and the Midget but I found the Austin America almost as fun to drive as those two on the hilly terrain of the island. Manually shifting the Auto was very satisfying as I went up the hills going around the turns. And the ride was so much better than in the Midget. My VW had very little power, probably the reason why during a spirited drive after bit of rain (stupid!) coming back from school  my cousin spun out on the Midget in a turn and I did not. I was right behind him in the VW and my car got tail happy but did not spin out. Luckily for him, there was nice flat area that had been prepared next to the road to build a house so he did not slide off the side of the hill. 

Those were the memories that drove me to get a Mini after these many years.

Edited by xrocketengineer, 07 June 2014 - 02:03 AM.

[surfblue]

 

 

surely the clubman filled this gap though? or was it the fact of only having one rear side door on the road side if in the UK  which caused people to be put off? interesting that its only a £1,000 cheaper than a 5 door golf or if you want a 5 door polo the starting price is £11,000 so nearly £5,000 cheaper than the mini. 

 

i don't think this is going to be as big as BMW think i could be wrong, we will just have to wait and see when they go on sale

I can see the appeal but Im afraid I'd go for a golf without hesitation.

 

 

Quote from the interesting Haynes book 'New MINI' by Graham Robson:

Back in 1994 when BMW became the new owners of the Mini they were in early discussions with their new marketing colleagues from Rover.......BMW said, "we wanted to make a success of the Mini range and stop the steady decline in sales, Rover replied, "Why? Forget it....." - they were not really interested in this little jewel and had plans to end production by 1997 with little fuss. BMW said " but it is a jewel - one which just needs to be polished up once again." (The MPi Mini was the result with production extended 4 more years to 2000).

No-one at Rover appeared to have a feeling for how valuble the Mini range was or what it could still be for them. There was no emotion there - emotion was a key essential for buying a Mini, especially in later years when it became more expensive and out dated compared to other rival small cars. You have to get that certain gut feeling - I Want This car: And that's the big difference, say, between a VW Polo and a MINI or Mini."

 

I got, and still have the "gut" feeling for classic minis - we bought a sportspack new in 98 - I know others disagree but I just dont feel the love for the new ones.