The Nothing Car

[Rocket88]

33 minutes ago, grogee said:

I think there's a fair few Mini owners who would take issue with this. One of its strongest suits is the interior packaging. 

I had a friend who was 6'7" who had a Cooper S, he just cut the back legs off the driver's seat and was fine. 

Normal sized people like me had enough headroom to wear a stove pipe hat. I'll concede the pedals are a bit close together though. 

Driving position always gave me chronic back ache

[RayMK]

1 minute ago, Rocket88 said:

Driving position always gave me chronic back ache

I like Minis and found the driving position ok - no back ache....but the suspension on the rubber cones is way too lively.  I usually needed 30 minutes to settle my internal organs back in the correct places after 25 miles commuting.

I would have happily bought a Nano.  I'm used to low powered cars (2cv, Dyane, Reliants). Rear engines don't bother me. I've owned many Skodas and thoroughly enjoyed their handling.  However, I owned a Mitsubishi i (turbocharged, petrol 3 cyl 660cc conventional automatic) from 2007-2014, covering 83K including holidays in Scotland and Wales with 3 adults aboard.  It easily cruised at 70mph (topped out at 93mph).  It was a superb bit of packaging as although it was fractionally shorter than a Citroen C1, rear legroom was fine, as was boot space.  The C1 was disappointing in those respects, as was the later rear engined Twingo.  The Mitsubishi was a Japanese Kei car, much better built and executed than the Nano but about 4 x the price.  I'd probably be happy with any of them as a Nothing Car.

[MrBiscuits]

3 hours ago, grogee said:

I think there's a fair few Mini owners who would take issue with this. One of its strongest suits is the interior packaging. 

I had a friend who was 6'7" who had a Cooper S, he just cut the back legs off the driver's seat and was fine. 

Normal sized people like me had enough headroom to wear a stove pipe hat. I'll concede the pedals are a bit close together though. 

Indeed, I'm compact and bijou, but I never had passengers complain about being cramped in my mini owning days. Driving position was vastly improved by a 13" wheel and steering column drop bracket. One of mine also had MG metro seats which took a fair amount of 'bounce' out of the ride.

[EyesWeldedShut]

On 30/07/2025 at 10:20, Rust Collector said:

I found their website so baffling that I gave up though, as I couldn’t really find out much about the phone bar a load of marketing wankery and confusing terms.

I allegedly* teach undergraduates shite about site design, accessibility, blah blah. This ^^^ site (provided it does not get a makeover) is now in the October listing for a roast. Thanks to AS, so is that Jaguar wankpuff one a few months back.

I digress, back to the topic....

@Bear has hit the nail on the head as regards my wants here  - I'd just not quite go for the ' Citroen GSA's PRN barrels' type controls - rotary switch for lights, another for P-R-N-D and stalkies for wipers/indicators/dip/main. 
 

Other than that - some sort of rear ramp affair for my (future) access needs and (current) bikes/tat/wheelbarrows

[MrBig]

8 hours ago, alcyonecorporation said:

The fit and finish on that Slate thing is wonky. I hope it's a prototype. 

Yes. They were very keen to point out that it was a hand built pre-production prototype. 

[Missy Charm]

4 hours ago, grogee said:

I think there's a fair few Mini owners who would take issue with this. One of its strongest suits is the interior packaging. 

I had a friend who was 6'7" who had a Cooper S, he just cut the back legs off the driver's seat and was fine. 

Normal sized people like me had enough headroom to wear a stove pipe hat. I'll concede the pedals are a bit close together though. 

Old Minis, to me anyway, have always seemed quite spacious inside - I suspect that the interior design being 'two chairs in a sitting room' rather than the familiar racing-car cockpit evocation helped.  I am 5'6" with size 5 feet, however, so ergonomically dead-on average.  Someone larger might have difficulties, although remember that Issigonis was a tall man and drove little but Minis in his own life.  

The Mini probably is the archetype 'nothing' car, given that its success came from not trying too hard to be anything other than a small city car.  Neither the Beetle nor the Deux Chevaux quite achieved that, somehow.  Both were too eccentric in various ways, whereas the Mini was beautifully normal*.  

My 'nothing' car?  Probably some sort of three or five-door hatchback with windy-up windows, a hard-wearing, tweed-cloth interior in a nice blue colour and a thin-rimmed, black plastic steering wheel.  There would be a completely normal four-cylinder engine with fuel injection and, possibly, a cam chain rather than a belt.  It would also have a five-speed gearbox driving the front wheels, a CD player and a glass sunroof.  Also, provided as standard, would be a system of integrated shopping baskets.  The boot would be big enough to take three or four, which would be rigid and made of tough plastic.  The baskets would have feet that sit in little apertures in the boot floor to stop them sliding about.  

*in retrospect, which largely comes from Austin-Morris-BLMC-Whoever having won the argument about how cars would be laid out in the latter part of the twentieth century.  One has to appreciate that the Mini was, in fact, really weird in the context of when it came to market.  

[grogee]

8 minutes ago, Missy Charm said:

a CD player

 

[Metal Guru]

20 hours ago, grogee said:

Normally I'd agree as nobody has made a decent rear engined car yet, but I think it's the 'minimum viable' aspect of the Nano that appeals. I mean, it's better than walking... Isn't it? 

Also it looks a bit like this 

That’s mid engined.