I got a very enthusiastic wave from another MINI at a stop light when I was driving the fiancée's MINI the other day. It restored my faith for a brief moment.
When the new MINI came out, it blew me away. The R56, I lamented the slightly larger size, and loss of the flow formed bonnet. In retrospect, I overreacted--in the end the R56 looks more like an R53 than it doesn't, the average person would be hard pressed to tell them apart unless they were parked side by side. I would have liked to see the brand go in one of two ways: stay retro, with minor tweaks over the years, like Porsche did with the 911. Keep improving performance, don't do anything crazy with the looks. That would have been my preference, but the MINI isn't a Porsche, and I guess this is unrealistic. If not that, then Stephenson's suggestion of a radical departure pushing the envelope would be my second choice. It's the opposite extreme, but it would have been interesting. The option they chose--turning the car into a high priced premium compact front wheel drive BMW just completely lost me. Still, there a people buying the F56 with being a part of the MINI community in mind, and that's cool. Yes, the hardcore enthusiasts have dropped in numbers (although still remain disproportionately vocal), but there are still people buying newer MINIs then joining up for drives and what not. Ten years from now, I wonder how much of that will still be going on.
My first thought would be less and less but... I have noticed on my local club drives that I'm sometimes the only 1st Gen car there, maybe 1 other. All my 1st Gen friends when it came time to buy a new car bought something besides a MINI for one reason or another. Our drives are full of newer MINIs and they are very enthusiastic about their car just not like the 1st Gen people were with wanting to modify them. Sure they may add some vinyl, tint the windows, add a few lights or interior gadgets... No sway bars, ECU Tunes, Camber plates etc...It's just a cute/fun DD to most of them... So I say the clubs drives will continue on for years to come, it will just mainly be stock cars out driving around, and sadly more and more 1st Gen owners will be dropping by the way side as their cars get older and older and they want something newer.. The hard core enthusiasts will move on to other cars..
FWIW, I kinda like the new Clubby. I would have chosen vertical rear lights vs. the new horizontal, but the bumper cover styling is much better and the car is more proportional. As I mentioned in another thread, now that they're building a conventional wagon, they've got some pretty heady competition.
+1 to Eric's comments. This is exactly my perspective at the moment. There are other options in this segment which are potentially more appealing, including the new X1. And the tail lights would have looked better if kept horizontal. I'm sure it looks even better in person. Probably needs the additional HP and torque of the JCW to properly motivate the additional weight. Will definitely have a test drive when they arrive late 2015.
Well, I plan on using my new job to push the enthusiast side of MINI ownership beyond just vinyl appliques and floormats.