Would BINI have...

[steve_earwig]

Before anyone else says it, the Bini should have been called the Maxi.

Austin 7-Up

 

Anyone got a picture of a Bini next to a Maxi? Or a landcrab even.

[forddeliveryboy]

 

 

[steve_earwig]

Jeezus H! New landcrab is right! All the Bini needs now is a smile.

[steve_earwig]

Looks better to me anyway...

[xtriple]

My missus had an original mini which I did up (with all new panels, floors. sills, engine, wheels, suspension... ) and loved the little horror; used to carry four kids around in it to various schools (only two were ours) and it was both fast and practical.

 

When the new MINI came out it should have been a 'no brainer' onto the shopping list... and it was until she actually saw one. They are fooking massive and she hated them on sight. I was... indifferent.

 

However, over the years I have known loads of people with them (and heard of the horror stories some of them have had with them) and 'most' people with them are total fucking knobs/knobesses! Sorry to anyone that has one on here but most people see them as a lifestyle choice, not a car!

 

My now irrational hatred of them is down to the same reason I won't have a BMW, Audi or any VW product for that matter, the people that drive them.

 

They may, for all I know, be really good big cars, but I will never own one. It may be a regional thing but here it's all estate agents and 'yummy mummys' that drive them appallingly!

 

I feel better for that rant however undeserved it may be!  

[The Moog]

I walked past one today parked next to a W Reg Avensis. It was pretty much the same size, which surprised me.  I knew they were big but that seems a tad overkill 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I saw a 5 door hatch MINI yesterday, not a model I even knew existed. It was a weird bluey grey colour with skinny steel wheels,sort of reminded me of an ADO16.

 

 

 

Mmmm... Maybe not. Anyway looking on the MINI site they appear to have stopped making the lopsided Traveller/ Van things- they were my favourite and if houseroom is ever given to any form of BMW mini that's the one I'll probably get, not for me you understand for some of the womenfolk.

[MarvinsMom]

so the dreadful BINI, what is supposed to be a small, thats S-M-ALL car is all but the same size as a landcrab, and they count as a whopper!!

 

i'd not have one either been german shite, as i hate and loath all germans, and german cars.

[forddeliveryboy]

To be fair, the original Bini/Bidi/Baxi was largely a Rover contrivance, within BMW's request for the Z rear axle and front struts, along with the shape. BMW knew there was no money to be made in small cars if manufacturing was to take place in the UK, so went for something which was high-profit and set up the keen marketing campaign. I think they've been very clever, however much the car doesn't appeal to me. Wanting to sell it in the US probably had a bearing on its design, too.

 

http://mk1-forum.net/viewtopic.php?p=26970&sid=0b3a9cd8652b4a483eff88193451b170#p26970

[steve_earwig]

Do they sell well in the US then?

 

i'd not have one either been german shite, as i hate and loath all germans, and german cars.

So negative! I'm extremely distrustful of German cars but German people? Why, I know several Germans, they may be large, hairy biker types but they're splendid fellows. Also, turns out my and one of my mate's grandfathers were in Africa at the same time in WW2, possibly shooting at each other too.

[forddeliveryboy]

About 60k a year, they say.

 

Agree - Germans are fine people.

[MarvinsMom]

oh i could never forgive them for how they treated my grandfather during the war....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

......passing him over time and time again for promotion.

[New POD]

My missus had an original mini which I did up 

 

Sorry to anyone that has one on here but most people see them as a lifestyle choice, not a car!

 

 

I feel better for that rant however undeserved it may be!

 

I don't think you are wrong in most cases.

 

Between me and the wife we had a 1974 998, a 1978 847 and a 1976 Clubman 1098.  If I add up the work, I've done a full restoration, Sills, Floors, A panels, front valance, suspension, brakes, head gaskets, 2 re sprays.

 

Then in after a space of 17 years I purchased a very nice 1988 998 mayfair, for me and the 17 year old son, to enjoy. It was an unreliable nightmare.

It was sold after a year.

 

Then in 2013 my wife saw a yellow BINI cooper with a black roof.  Just the same colour as her 850.  So for £3K we thought "fuck it .why not?" - I could give you a few reasons why not, but so far so good.

 

Purchased because of the colour.  What I've noticed on various Bini website's is that there are very few owners who actually do any work at all on their cars, which means often the response to "I have a problem with the airbag light being on" is met with - "Have you taken it to a main dealer ?"

 

When I replaced the bonnet on Sunday, I was amazed at how 'Austin like' the design of the clips and fasters is, and how much cheaper to assemble through better attention to detail it might have been. Typical fucking BL shite if you want an opinion.

 

Ironic that Lucas Industries had a consultancy leg in the early 90's which sold a tool called design for assembly. The basic premise of that is that every part is either an A part and has a useful function or is a B part and any decent designer could get rid.  WE sold Rover the rights to use this tool in all it's design offices. 

 

Take the grill. I lost count of the number of shitty pressed steel "nuts", and nylon washers I had to remove, but it was more than the number of self tapping screws on the original mini, and infinitely more than the one piece moulding of the grill on a mk3 astra, which takes 4 seconds to fit with no tools and about 25 seconds to remove with a couple of flat screw drivers as levers. 

 

In terms of design efficiency astra = (1) A Parts/total number of parts (1) = 100%

and MINI = (1) A Parts/Total parts (50) = 2%

 

Fecking shite !!!

 

As for people who want a lifestyle choice ? Well the thing is, that I think it's got a "good" image, because it's dynamically quite nimble. Just because most owners wouldn't get the tyres screaming or the engine to bounce off the rev limiter, doesn't mean that they should have chosen a Honda Jazz.

 

It's like me buying a bottle of vintage malt scotch and adding coke to it when I drink it.  My visitors are impressed when they see it in my drinks cabinet, but who cares if I would have been better off buying kwik save blended (a bottle of which I once swapped for a mk2 Cavalier)

 

My wife's friend has an 06 cooper S that is completely shagged.  Last time it was washed was 2013. It overheats but they have no idea why.  I have offered 1st refusal when she sell it. It won't be a high offer.