[NewOne]

I think its so sad.The reason I bought my MINI was I had always wanted one of the old minis but needed a car that was good on the motorway and that i could use everyday.
The new one has everything the old one had except atrocious build quality,bad reliability,poor driving position,and unforgivable crash performance.
If it wasnt for BMW there wouldnt now be a MINI of any kind because european legislation would have killed it off.
I harbour no animosity towards the old mini whatsoever but the same cannot be said for classic mini drivers,towards us.If the way those people carried on at that mme meet is anything to go by i think europe is better off without us.
Those people should remember the man responsible for the new mini was the great nephew of sir alec issigonis!!

[HarryHBMCC]

MINIs in 6 months outsold Minis in 6 years during the time they were sold here. I doubt the number privately imported amounts to much so from that perspective, you can see why they are feeling squeezed out. Doesn't excuse any behaviour at an event where MINIs were invited but could still go some way to explaining their feelings.

Harry

[NewOne]

No i think its the typical British 'not invented here' syndrome,and probably a little anti-german feeling aswell sadly

[queen B]

We have had minis of many varieties for 30 years and have a van restoration at the moment. I am a daily MINI driver; it is my company car at my request. Husband has an S for fun. We have attended MME on many occaisons and hosted twice (1986 and 1996). There are people who enjoying making trouble and conflict and will find a reason to do so. There are so many more GREAT mini owners who do enjoy MINIs too. Let's look for them and have fun and ignore the others.

[Twobit]

I'm really sorry that happened to you. That really is bogus. What was their freaking problem!?

[cooper4us]

The Mini was produced practically unchanged for 42 years. Imagine how upset classic owners must be when a badly needed redesign was made available to the public and on top of it all, made by a German company.

I love the classic Mini and the car has a very rightful and well deserved place in automotive history, but other than that the car was in dear need of some updates and quite frankly 4 decades of juicing the same design time and time again gets very tiring. Imagine if the '55 Chevy Belair had been produced for 45 years unchanged?

[Kinster]

Just the other day I couldn't believe my luck when a classic mini flashed his lights at me

I think that the ones that aren't happy with the new MINI are the ones that can't afford it!

[Chum Racing]

I had similar experiences on the Miniworld Riviera Run to Newquay.

Having taking part in the London to Brighton a couple of times in my 1977 1275GT and several other events (usually with the wife and kids). As we all have a great time, we decided to go on the Newquay event.

Meeting at Reading and the lunch stop at services near Bristol we encountered a number of people saying that my John Cooper Works was not a real mini. Also several 100% BMW FREE stickers on classic minis.

The animosity to new Minis was clearly demonstrated at the camp site. Whilst trying to find somewhere to park a Classic mini driver partially blocked my path and held up a sign with "Forgery".

When driving into to Newquay with the friends in classsic minis we come across more examples. No classic mini would flash its lights or wave, classic minis would let other classic minis out in traffic, but not our MINI.

Speaking to an MCS owner, he had to move his car off site, as eggs were thrown at the car.

In the end I too bought a 100% BMW FREE sticker and made a slight adjustment. I now have "100% BMW!" on the back of my car. Childish, I know, but it made me feel better.

I am going to the British Mini Showdown this weekend and expect similar behaviour. Like last year I will be racing on the track and hope that there are other MINI drivers this year.

[Dark Silver S]

Quote:

Originally posted by cooper4us
... quite frankly 4 decades of juicing the same design time and time again gets very tiring. Imagine if the '55 Chevy Belair had been produced for 45 years unchanged?

Oh, you mean the Mustang?

[Mike & Donna in Ca.]

This is exactly why Mike & I didn't go. We ran into a very similar experience at MME in Charleston SC last year

It's a very sad thing when people get SO childish over a car - I mean - it's a car!!!!

Chow!

Donna
donna@dcmetrominis.org

[RedUn]

Isn't the MINI just a modern day equvilent of the Mini???

I don't get what all the fuss is about?

You could always settle it with a quick challenge down some back roads

[larry paquette]

I don't see what there problem is so far my 68 sprite has used less parts than my 03 MiNi has. That means that one is just as good as the other right ? And don't get me started about little healeys and those big healeys. Lets go for a ride and get along.

[zgokart]

Quote: Originally Posted by larry paquette

I don't see what there problem is so far my 68 sprite has used less parts than my 03 MiNi has. That means that one is just as good as the other right ? And don't get me started about little healeys and those big healeys. Lets go for a ride and get along.

_______________
Yes we should all enjoy what we have. Mini/MINI... it's all part of the same heritage. Both are loveable. Cheers, Larry

[BRGreenie]

Quote: Originally Posted by larry paquette

I don't see what there problem is so far my 68 sprite has used less parts than my 03 MiNi has. That means that one is just as good as the other right ? And don't get me started about little healeys and those big healeys. Lets go for a ride and get along.

Thats funny Larry - I had a 100/6 once and when I joined a AH club I found that the Big Healey people never spoke to the Sprite people .....odd

[EBMCS03]

Good lord... first time I seen this post... Ok I guess I knew Mini owners dont like new MINIs but the heck?!?! its a gathering a meet... lets just fun... *pheesh*

[CooperS4us]

This seems to be, unfortunately, an universal problem. We are thinking of separating the MINIs and Minis in our local club and have two independent organizations. There are some classic owners that seem not to like our presence (New MINIs). Very stupid and idiotic way of thinking but if we want to have our club survive we are going to let the classics go on their own.

[pappillon]

Old Minis, New MINIs, Old Beetles... (sorry not new Beetles )... they're all individual, fun cars, and many are owned by good people. I'd say play the nice guy with all of them and the miserable ones will eventually come round when they see how lovely we are...

[ecl3x]

same where i am. i used to own a '61 austin mini and was a member of the classic mini club here and club members were always turned their nose up and called the new mini the "bini."

[antsmini]

Same way over here. Went to Octcooper Fest in NJ. All the classic minis displayed stickers saying "The is no BMW in the word mini", or "the REAL mini". All the classic owners stayed on thier side of the parking lot, while MINI owners went over there to look at thier cars. Its pretty sad. People love to divide and hate. Gives them a reason to feel better about themselves. You though race was bad enough, funny how it can even get so petty as to be done with cars.

[milliethemini]

Quote: Originally Posted by ecl3x

same where i am. i used to own a '61 austin mini and was a member of the classic mini club here and club members were always turned their nose up and called the new mini the "bini."

Yup, that was what I was told some of the members of the local MINI club I belong to were called when they took their MINIs to the local British car shows here in Vancouver. 'It's a BINI', they were told, 'that's not a REAL Mini!!!'

Well, let's gauge the 'Britishness' of today's British-branded automobile, shall we?

- MINI is owned by BMW (the design for the new MINI was penned by Rover, and BMW finished the job and got it into production - so the new MINI would pretty much have come out the way it is now if it was made by Rover)
- Jaguar is owned by Ford; (try and convince me that the old Lucas 'Black Box of Death' is desirable in the old Jags - I bet you can't )
- Aston Martin is owned by Ford (Do Vanquish owners get snubbed by DB5 afficinados?)
- Land Rover was owned by BMW, and now by Ford
- Bentley is owned by VW
- Rolls-Royce is owned by BMW
- Rover in the old days sold Honda Accords under the Sterling badge (wouldn't that be a travesty to the Rover 'purists'??? hmmmm......)
- Lotus is owned by Proton, a Malaysian national car company. Hasn't stopped people from buying and loving the Elise (a great car is a great car, regardless of heritage)
- McLaren makes cars with Mercedes-Benz now (Does Mercedes own McLaren now?)
- Of course, GM has owned brands like Vauxhall for quite a while now.

It's a sign of the times. On the plus side, these marques are still being built in the UK, and their foreign owners have tried hard to keep their British uniqueness intact. If the purists are going to discriminate against the MINI, they might as well do so against every modern British car being made today.

I'm glad Mel Gibson didn't make "Passion of the Mini" - it would be a lot bloodier