Oh you lot have really gee'd up my gander with some of your posts about these cars!
Actually, it's all very minor nit-picking so feel free to ignore me. First, that the MINI ever got to be launched was a bit of a wonder. BMW created a real dog's dinner of a project, from their handling of individuals in both the UK and in Germany, their decision making and their at times quite unfathomable behaviour. Not the first time they have been less than professional mind you, the company has previous in treating badly companies and people it decides to no longer do business with. But anyway, basically the MINI was a Rover product, created to a set of guidelines and an engine imposed on it by the parent. And say what you like about quality, brummies making cars and all that, but it was a superb bit of work hampered by only two problems really - weight (the Mini is a bit porky) and rubbish engines.
Most of the reliability issues have usually been down to component suppliers trying to cut their own costs down on materials. A silly example here was the fuel filler cap early in their production run, which the maker was supplying with a thinner seal that saved them tuppence per unit and caused leaks. Stupid, stupid stupid.
The transmission issues afflicting Minis is a bit of an odd one. The 'box is basically the Rover PG1 unit (itself based on a licenced Peugot box) with some modified internals and I think linkage too. But it has had a bit of a chequered history, possibily as a result of the changes made as the units fitted to the Rover models were way more reliable. Oh, they were built by Midlands Transmissions too. A BMW company. Ahem.
As far as what these cars are like to drive, from personal experience going back to before they were launched I still think the early models are better to drive than most current superminis on sale. They have a lovely intimacy that the likes of VW seem determined to engineer out of their cars. In fact, the last time I drove a small hatch and got out of grinning before the Mini was a 1.6 Pug 205GTI. You'd struggle to give it better praise than that.
I find the driving position is not the most comfortable though (which means the other half doesn't get mugged for the keys to her's too often), the boot is abysmal, the rear seat just weird and it is a quite demanding car to drive in that it talks to you a lot with positive controls and firm pedal weighting. But it's an entertaining sort of attention-seeking, rather like an eager puppy bouncing along than a fully-grown pitbull hauling you all over the place. For that reason I completely disagree about the Cooper being anything like as dangerous as inferred earlier as the non-S models just don't have the power to overcome the weight they drag round and be more than a bit mischievous. And the S version ain't that much different either in reality.
Talking of power and speed, if you have truly forsaken both then get an early diesel. They scarcely worry milkfloats, although the driveline is quite good - a bit of a surprise if you knew about the utter shambles BMW made of the development process for that model.
Author
Topic: New mini (Read 4055 times)