It was close in style/performance/weight/sportiness of the Elan S2, but nowhere near a copy by any means.
^^^ That was exactly my thought. Appears to be true too. Being a dead nuts copy of a Lotus Elan is an urban legend.
MINI should have stuck with making MINI's that were true to what made original Minis so special, popular and the best selling car in Europe for years and years and years. In my opinion MNI did sell out and let the market and BS research on trends dictate what the road of MINI should take be rather than breathing more life into the soul of a car brand they brought back from the dead. MINI /BMW did cave in and sold out to making butt ugly little SUV's and 1/2 Ass station wagons. If you want those cars go buy a small over priced BMW or Audi. The MINI is a minimal car and a drivers car PERIOD. Less is more and it analysis has been. I don't know why people cannot understand . You don't need nanny this nanny that, seat heaters, blue tooth, SAT Nav and all the other driver assist crap and MINI connected. Jeez people, until you have driven a car like an R63 that is more mechanical than nanny controlled try to understand why is R53 owners are so passionate about how MINI has killed the car we love so much. Carry on or MOTOR ON the choice is up to you.
I was saying last night that it would be great if MINI would offer a stripped out version of the hatch, sort of like Porsche occasionally does. However, you would be crazy to think that the company could survive on that type of model alone without the price going up even more. Let's say the R53 was still in production, would you trade the Mistress in on one? Would you continue to mod the new one and repeat the cycle every 5-6 years? Do you really think that there are enough enthusiast like the ones here to support the business case to continue to make the same car year after year? I don't know a lot about the history of the classic, but it seems that part of the mystic was also that it was an affordable car for the masses. I wouldn't say that has ever been the case with the modern version. To many other options in small fun hot hatches out there that are cheaper. Maybe not here, but definitely in Europe. I think it is great that there are passionate owners out there, but let's face it the majority of the owners are not. Would you alienate the majority for the sake of the few? Would you downsize your company and turn it more into a niche business like Caterham or Morgan?
One thing you have to remember...MINI was not originally built as a cash cow, that came later. It started as a labor of love, and a one-off for BMW--it wasn't for certain there was going to BE an R56, that only came AFTER the R53 exploded. And why did it explode? It had an iconic design, the base cooper, and even more so the One (remember, MINI was global in the beginning, and the U.S. didn't dominate as it does now, which is a huge part of the problem) WAS affordable, it's retro design, added to it's quirkiness, pulled in a ton of people who'd rather own Mac's than PC's. And it was renowned for it's performance AND the ability to mod it--it was the passion of the initial buyers who got MINI off the ground and formed a community around the car, and the performance enthusiasts who kept it there. BMW's profit margins on the car were negligible or nonexistent, depending on who you talk to--and to get the car profitable, you lose things like the water formed bonnet (which is why the R56 bonnet looks more like a VW than a MINI), the wrap around glass that was gone on the R56 and now is back, and a unique platform, unlike the shared M2/R56 chassis... Now BMW has made it a luxury subcompact, with all the electronic nannies you'd ever desire (or not), and you can't easily modify it, they've made sure of that with the ECU and internals that are already pretty much maxed out. The retro look is gone, replaced by something futuristic. It's a car for the masses, instead of a car for the fanatic. Economically it makes more sense, but if you can't see many of us miss what the car was initially, all I can do is scratch my head. They'll sell a bunch, that's the goal now. Those of us on board from the start remember what it was, and why we bought it. It isn't what it was when we initially got on board. That's why many of us wouldn't buy an F56, or even an R56. Yeah, I know many of you are tired of hearing it, but many of you complaining about those who prefer the earlier MINIs weren't THERE in the beginning, when the community and the priorities of BMW were much different than they are now. It's evolved, and not in the way many of us would have preferred. What you call progress, with all the technology, is a step backward for anyone who wants a car as a platform to modify and tune. Those people will not be buying new MINIs, and it's a shame. I remember the days when someone would try something with a pulley, or intake, or IC, or brakes, or suspension--I could go on and on and it was a huge deal. That doesn't happen with the new cars. I miss that. If you don't get that, Motor On. Like I said, I'll welcome F56 owners, even if I don't like what the MINI has become. I still like the community a great deal, but I liked it better in 2006.
You consider 2006 being there in the beginning? I bought a 2003 JCW, so I DO understand what you're saying, however as was pointed out above, that's not a viable business model. There would be no new MINIs if they didn't expand and grow. What's causing the increase in "nannys" is customer demand, it's not originating with MINI. They're just trying to go where the market is, and I assure you they didn't build the R53 just so people could modify it. But this entire discussion is pretty silly really, they're gonna do what they're gonna do..... And you can buy a nanny free (to a point) Cooper S still......you don't have to have comfort access, or any of the other high tech add ons.....so if you don't want them, don't buy them. but the reason they're on there is that most people do buy them and want them, and it's a cash cow for any manufacturer today.
Well it looks like the some above and others have completely missed the point so keep buying the mass produced "viable business models" cars. Keep feeding the BMW "Cash Cow" and enjoy driving a Nanny and BS loaded washing machine car. P.S. We all know 2006 was not the beginning but it was the year MINI stopped making MINIs with a SOUL.
Sex and fear are the biggest sales motivators. Fear that you are going to crash your car is what is responsible for all the nannies on todays cars. This fear is created by consumer reports and other "safety" organizations where their people don't know how to drive nor enjoy it. If they really wanted to make driving safer they would work on better driver training and stricter testing.
No, I consider 2006 the end of the beginning. 2006 was the last year the community was what it initially was. Even the base models are essentially unmodifiable. Funny, Subie and Toyota built the FRS/BRZ SPECIFICALLY to be modified. MINI touts a billion different combinations of modifications so that you can PERSONALIZE the MINI; i.e. they are promoting doing what you want to the car, like we all did with the first one. With the R53, you could do that yourself, which was a great part of it's appeal. With the R56/F56, MINI does it for you, they've made it virtually impossible to do it yourself. Nanny free "to a point" is not what many of us want. More importantly, the initial R53 didn't come with a million different combinations, there were only a few, surprisingly few--we took that upon ourselves, with roof graphics, different stripes, air intakes, motor mods, etc. Some of us actually remember when "JCW" was aftermarket, before BMW bought it, remember those days? BMW caught the wave, saw what modders were doing to the interior/exterior, both cosmetic and performance, and only then came up with the roof graphics, interior changes, mirror caps, funky stripes, etc. So BMW has jumped on the individual modification wave that sprung from the R53 initially, but has taken it away from the individual and made it corporate, as an option. That's ok, but in the process they made the car VERY difficult to mod aftermarket, which is where this all was born, and that's not ok. Toyota and Subaru got it right, BMW is a cash grab at this point. These are just a few reasons why many of us are disillusioned with the course BMW has charted with the MINI. I understand the mass appeal, I get why BMW did what they did, I understand why someone would want to buy a MINI now, even an F56. If you want to complain about us complaining, fair enough, but what I don't get is how many people don't see where we are coming from.
Lest we forget that BMW has finally screwed up the "ultimate driving machine," what had been for years the very benchmark for anyone trying to build a sports sedan, the 3 series. They are now loosing in comparisons in all the magazines to the likes of Lexus and Audi, even putting....steer by wire in what is supposed to be a driver's car....and making the car bigger than what a 5 series used to be.... Now they promise the new 2 series will be the answer....to what? 3 series lovers never asked for a 2 series, all they wanted was the gradual evolution of their platform whilst maintaining the essence of the 3... BMW is going down the same worm hole that the big three did years ago, producing way too many models in the quest for more profit and forgetting that there is a lot of folks that aren't interested in car that just gets them from point A to B...... BMW got to the big dance by making a handfull of models very well. Hey BMW, take something to kill your bigitous virus. Rant over. PS: ......forgot the 4 coupe.
Weight. BMW forgot how to make light cars. The M1 was damned good, I'll grant that, but BMW went from lightweight great handling cars to high HP heavy cars, with all the nannies to keep the average Joe from killing himself. Just like everyone else. Even Lotus is heading in that direction, if they survive. I miss the "Piss and Vinegar" R53, and earlier BMW's. "Piss and Vinegar" has been replaced by "Refined". They could do both, if they really wanted. Stripped down doesn't make money--it's the options that they get their profit margin on--but a limited number of "drivers cars" really isn't a bad idea.