Let's Hear About Your R53's

My Clubman has a "PSA Doom engine" in a delightful diesel flavor and it great!

I get what you mean about the latest Mini F series. They are probably really great cars but they're certainly not edgy and their dimensions/ weight makes them more Maxi than Mini. But I guess the same is true of the Gen 1 & II R series compared to the original 60's cars.

 

I don’t have an R53 but do have an F55 (as in 5 door hatch) 2.0l Cooper S with the Steptronic gearbox. It’s a hoot to drive. Love it.

 

Now I’ve done the clutch the Mini is so much nicer to drive. Light pedal, no juddering, the boy didn’t like it at first but getting better. Unfortunately it has a black box fitted so I can’t throw it about like want to.

 

As explained to me by the salesman when we declined a dealer night due to the newer R’s being larger ‘customers demanded a larger ‘small’ car’ hence the enlarged mini after the initial BMW release.

We’ll keep our smaller/narrower clubman until it dies.

 

I think BMW lost the plot re Mini, and have probably just taken a larger BMW chassis/ engine and stuck a large Mini stylised body shell on it -which is fine. But its not a Mini - its too big.

It reminds me of when Ducati took a simple bike, with a zero frills design concept and added all the riders aid gadgets -which is also fine. But its not a Monster.

BTW I will keep my Clubman until its banned for being a diesel or dies.

 

I believe this is exactly what they did, I believe the new mini is the same floor platform and chassis as the 1 series FWD’s, hence allowing 5 door options, and the engines are aligned to the BMW series cars also

 

I totally agree. They are nothing like the original Mini except for being styled after them but they are good cars and fun to drive. If you have an original Mini, and I wish I did, you are going to need a more practical car too.

 

as hinted at, i see it more as a really well-thought out market exercise Jez, and liken it to a "Trojan horse". Fiat have done the same with their 500. For me it's all about later fans/buyers identifying with the initial concept, identifying with a model and not just the brand and relying on buyers either deciding it's not that important or not even realising how far removed from the original your bloated version appears in the flesh, as the extra capacity still appeals/ticks a box.


if Fiat had marketed this "500L" before they marketed the second gen*, chic little number instead of the other way round, you can bet that sales figures for the former would have been much lower.





It looks like Fiat's attempts haven't worked as well as the second gen Mini but the approach was the same.

EDIT * arguably third gen.

 

I think the new bloated Cooper S looks awful tbh - those overhangs!!?!?! And don’t even get me started on the Union Jack rear light clusters, which are an embarrassment, as if the designer took their inspiration from the Austin Powers film without realising it was meant as a send up rather than documentary reportage. They’ve tried waaaaayyyy too hard and jumped the shark into unintentional parody and piss take. FFS…..it’s a German car pastiching one that was designed by a Greek bloke who was born in Turkey and the only remaining connection with Britain is that the Bavarian owners graciously allowed some of them to be built in Oxford, so drop the cringey Cool Britannia/Carnaby St schtick, ‘kay?

 

Please do

 

I think they’d be just about acceptable as a tongue in cheek aftermarket accessory, but speccing them as OE fitment for every car in the range kind of bludgeoned people over the head and came across as cynical and a bit naff. Not surprisingly, the Union Jack design taillights weren’t fitted as standard to cars destined for the Republic of Ireland market, but people from Northern Ireland had to pay extra to have them swapped for plain ones if they were of a nationalistic bent or they just wanted to avoid inadvertently making a potentially provocative political statement that could result in keyed paintwork and slashed tyres.

 

Go faster Viv!

 

If anyone here has a Fiat Abarth 500L please stop reading my post.

FFS, that bloated red pig looks more like afterbirth than Abarth...

Still the losing the plot comes -imo- in that there is a certain group of people who like compact, functional everything. These folks may not be in the majority, but they've always been a significant minority. Which of course is why the Mini exists, along with compact 'phones, bungalows and dare I saw compact Hobie Cats...

The people who want functional, compact cars with some pizazz, won't all end up with a BMW 4 door saloon just because it has Mini lights, badge & stripes; despite what the accounts department says. Most people who buy F series Minis are from an entirely different market section. £33K for a Mini JCW? They're having a laugh.

 

I’m all for freedom of choice, it’s just not something I’d purchase. I too like the door lights.