Most liked posts in thread: When is a MINI not a British car?

Countryman is built in Austria....

 

Based on this logic, all new gen MINI's are German Cars.

 

^^^ Yep :lol:

This is worth a watch.....

[ame="http://youtu.be/bARAs3nrTxQ"]What is the best British sports car? Clarkson's Car Years - BBC - YouTube[/ame]

 

Soooo would this Lifan 320 stolen design be considered British?

 

No, that one is definitely Chinese. Fugly too! :frown2: :lol:

 

When is mini no longer British?

When German chocolate cake is actually known for Sam German and not the country.

When polish sausage is merely only a hot dog.

When Swiss cheese is called wholly provolone.

When ballpark franks are sold at arenas.

And when Texas toast, god forbid, becomes just toast.

 

I think of the Mini as a World car, with parts and services made in many countries all over. The UN of cars! LOL

 

The classic mini was never always built in the UK...they were made globally to meet global demand...honestly i like the fact BMW owns and oversees the MINI...german anal retentive engineering and QA overseeing a marque that had a rampant history of quality issues and constant striking...

 

At this point with MINI, its not what nationality the car is (I just applied Plasti-Dip to my rims...on the backside I can see they were made in Poland), its the SPIRIT of the car.
I dont view German cars as tiny two-seaters with horrible ergonomics, but I suppose mine is. That didnt matter. MINI is a good story, fun to drive, and actually IS quite a nice car (silly interior toggles nonwithstanding).
I didnt buy it to say I have a British car. I bought it because it is a MINI. I bought a BMW X3 previously because it seemed to be a great GERMAN vehicle that was beautiful to sit in and drive. Never heard of "X3" in my life.
I bought a MINI because it kicks butt, and I HAD heard of it.

 

If one is only interested in a "real" British car Morgan is it I believe. All others are owned by someone else.

MINI hybrid for me.

 

The MINI is British IMO. My wife drives a Jaguar XF. When my Roadster arrives, we will have two British cars. :wink:

 

Every part I pull off my MINI says, "BMW" on it. A lot of parts also say, "Made in Germany" as well. I notice a lot of parts are the exact same parts found on real BMW cars, like my Comfort Access Antenna Receiver. It's hard for me to sense any British in this car, since I don't have any Union-Jack accessories. I know it was assembled there, but it's the individual parts that speak to me. I feel like the car is more German, than anything else. Sorry if that offends anybody.

 

Everyone has their own take & that's yours. Not sure why that would offend anyone???

 

A lot of parts on my Ford say "made in Canada on them", does that make it a Canadian car?

I don't think so.

Parts for cars are made all over the world. MINI is a British company that is owned my a German company. They source parts from many countries, They even assemble them in countries other than Great Britain, but MINI remains a British car because MINI is a British company.

Under Italian ownership, Chrysler continued to manufacture the PT Cruiser in Mexico. Is the PT Cruiser a Mexican car, an Italian car? No, it is an American car that was manufactured in Mexico, by an American company that is owned by an Italian company.

In this world's economy, you can't go by where the parts are manufactured or by where the car is assembled, or even where the ultimate owners of the company are based, when determining a car marque's home country. It is where the car company's corporate headquarters are and in the case of MINI, that country is Great Britain.

Dave

 

I summed this up earlier but I think this says it best... Is a ballpark frank still a ballpark frank if it is served in an arena?

I don't eat hot dogs so I'll let you processed meat lovers fight over that one.

 

My R53 was assembled in Oxford using German parts. That's British enough for me.

 

It kind of depends on the culture of the company. A French company has a 50% ownership in a Japanese company and the vehicles are manufactured in the US, but it is definitely a Japanese company.
I guess it depends on who is running things at MINI, the British or the Germans?

 

At this point, a completely ridiculous statement from our former Sec. Of State comes to mind.....

 

Yep that is true. To tell the truth I've only seen a couple of those in these parts. But I'm old & miss stuff sometimes.

 

Have a fellow in C3M that has a 1998 or 1999 Mini that was build in Japan

as a right hand drive car, then was converted in Holland to left hand drive.

He will be at MOTD again this year. Its great looking in Old English White.