[gazzaman28]

What do the UK people think of Top Gear's review tonight? I thought it was a bit naff but it was cool to see the car rather than just read about it. The bloke was obviously looking for things to complain about - bring back jeremy clarkson he would have liked it!!!

[digidelia]

is there a place to view the story on the internet? i think that would be the only way people in the US could see it.

scott

[Twinsun007]

Hmmm...

The Topgear review was a mite confusing. At first all he seemed to do was pick faults with the thing, especially the dash board, and then he went on to prattle about how expensive it was, which after much waffling, turned out to be a good thing!! He started on the engine, saying it was gutless at lower revs, but picked up nicely when revved (WHAT DOES HE EXPECT!??! SHOW ME ANY SMALL CAR WHICH DOES NOT NEED TO BE REVVED!??!?!?).

At the end, he decides he likes it, a LOT, and that it is good value...

Hmmm... I think it was a good review... just started off badly!!

Io

[Jnr_Seahorse]

What about all the positive comments???

I think we are all trying to pick out every negative comment. On the whole the report was hugely positive. Nobody is ever going to make a car that is perfect for everyone. Most of his negative comments were personal comments anyway, I love the dash board and who cares about the rear leg room if you want to carry 5 people buy an espace.

So what if he didn't like the central speedo (which I love) he said the car handled excellently and as for 'gutless at lower revs', he said the engine was very good, and anyway its designed that way to be manageable in tight situations while still having the power when you want to have fun.

Personally I thought it was a very positive review and he summarised things very well. My only complaint was it was too short!

[Jakx]

I thought generally the review came across very well . . they always nit-pick about something!

When referring to it being expensive, earlier on, I think he was trying to point out that it all felt like good stuff and was clearly built well (solid heavy doors etc).

But what about HOW IT LOOKED though - I purposely set my TV screen size mode to 14-9 (ratio) ie `normal`, and not `widescreen` so as not to exaggerate the MINI proportions. BUT it still looked W-I-D-E, all squat and all fired-up!!

For our friends who were unable to see TopGear, the Cooper shown was red/white and was shot at the Italian launch last week, a great sunny day, and the scenery was fantastic with some views of the car `hiding` amongst the trees looking even cooler!!

I`ve e-mailed the BBC asking if it will be possible for them to put out an Online Video for our overseas enthusiasts - how about `swamping` them with requests out there?????

http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/contact/feedback.shtml

Remember (sweeny!) that old saying - you don`t get `owt for nowt` or something like that?

[rob]

One intersesting point Top Gear mentioned was about the one piece bonnet/headlight unit - a front-end shunt could be expensive! This brings us back to the question of insurance group (quoted before as 7)? Like Jakx I too asked my insurance company about the MINI and they too had no information.

[Twinsun007]

Hey there!

Yeah, I think I cam across a little negatively with my last post... proably something to do with the impending 11 hour day at work ahead... JOY!!!

I did not mean to imply that his personal feelings about the styling of the car were any particular fault, because, yes, they are personal feelings! I, along with just about every other person who uses this board, love the styling!! It is just something not found in todays marketplace!

Aye, the review was FAR too short, especially for such an eagerly awaited release... and where was Tiff chucking the thing about on a race track?!?! I was looking forward to that!!! }:O

No, the car looked ace, in fact, beyond ace!! It took some explaining to my dad (don't live with him, but made him watch it!!) as to why it is relatively expensive... His own words were "Over-priced and over-engineered"... Hmmm... but he did like the look of the thing!

I basically said, it has not been built, designed or will be marketed as a mass market product, but a premium product in a very competative sector, hence the price. As for the over-engineering, :O= hopefully it will make the other car manufacturers get their backside and start to build their cars like they *should* be built, i.e. not use cheap, nasty plastics in place of not too much more costly soft touch, nice materials. The new MINI shows how cars could, and should be built, within ANY sector of the car market!

The comment about the clamshell bonnet was valid, BUT, what an amazing feat of engineering!! Read Autoexpress' review and they go into it in a it more detail, but it is just quite incredible!! 8D

Did you hear the sound the door made when it shut??? Mmmm... that is the sheer sound of quality! Most car manufacturers strive to get a sound like that, that which is normally only found on £25k+ machinery, or on a VW... arty:

All in all, yeah, it was a good review... just a shame the Cooper I want is gonna cost about £15,000 with the options I want!! Ah well, a boy must have his toys!!!

Insurance... no word about that either!! Could be the only hurdle in my master plan... 21... MINI Cooper... Erk!!! :r

We shall see - but I am just itching to get a test drive at my local dealership!!!

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!

8)7

[sweeny]

The review was pretty good. True he did say it was over expensive to start with but the review ended by saying that the MINI "Looks good, feels good & good value for money." Nuff said!

[RickB]

15,000? When I was in London last Spring, the exchange rate was $1.58 to the pound. So, your MINI will cost almost $24,000US. Hmmm; what happened to the Cooper S that was going to be priced $3,000 more than the $18,000 Cooper?

[BruceK]

Quote:

On 01-06-2001 22:09 RickB wrote:
15,000? When I was in London last Spring, the exchange rate was $1.58 to the pound. So, your MINI will cost almost $24,000US. Hmmm; what happened to the Cooper S that was going to be priced $3,000 more than the $18,000 Cooper?

You can't compare car prices just by doing a currency conversion. The Brits pay way too much for cars compared to Europe and way way too much compared to the US. (think gasoline prices)

I've compared virtually identical cars sold in both the UK and the US (e.g. Ford/Mercuy Cougar, VW Golf, Chrysler Neon, Mazda Miata MX-5) and the difference is very clear - UK prices are about 30-50% higher than the US.

[MINIAC]

Quote:

On 01-06-2001 22:09 RickB wrote:
15,000? When I was in London last Spring, the exchange rate was $1.58 to the pound. So, your MINI will cost almost $24,000US. Hmmm; what happened to the Cooper S that was going to be priced $3,000 more than the $18,000 Cooper?

There you go again Rick, playing "devil's advocate".

Here's an example of a MINI approaching a price of £15,000:

Base MINI = £11,600
Chili Package = £1,000
ASC+T = £100
Metallic Paint = £250
Xenon Lights = £350
Auto Air Conditioning = £830
Single Slot CD = £70
Sunroof = £500

IMHO, the base Cooper S will be a "Chili" MINI with ASC+T, a supercharger and 6 speed transmission. How much extra for the SC and tranny ... £2,000? Using £15,000 as the base Cooper S price and an actual exchange rate of $1.42 ($1.58 is what a bank charges you for £1) gives just over $21K. The base price for the car will be reasonable, but BMW (in their typical fashion) is providing all those extra goodies which will drive the price up if you choose to "load" up your car.

I've been driving a 1973 BMW 2002 tii for the past 28+ years which is air conditioned via opening the windows and sunroof. Heck, I just replaced the stock radio with a Blaupunkt CD player early last year. I could get by with a base Cooper S with one form of air conditioning and a single slot CD player. 8D

[Jakx]

Quote:

On 01-06-2001 23:46 BruceK wrote:
[...]


The Brits pay way too much for cars compared to Europe and way way too much compared to the US.

We pay way too much for just about everything here in the UK it seems!?

I had to replace a part on my Honda S2000 this week which cost me £11.46 (£9.75 + £1.71VAT).

Checked it out on US owners website - and was told same part = $6.95 excluding tax - does anyone over there know what that would be gross (inc. tax)?? Owner lived in Olathe KS.

As it turned out my cost was refunded as a warranty issue (I`d learned on the net that the part had failed in the US and told my Dealer!!) - BUT that was the (Honda Dealer) price in the UK!?

I`d be interested to know the exact difference US - UK!

US UK

[MINIAC]

Quote:

On 02-06-2001 0:50 Jakx wrote:
We pay way too much for just about everything here in the UK it seems!?

I had to replace a part on my Honda S2000 this week which cost me £11.46 (£9.75 + £1.71VAT).

Checked it out on US owners website - and was told same part = $6.95 excluding tax - does anyone over there know what that would be gross (inc. tax)?? Owner lived in Olathe KS.

As it turned out my cost was refunded as a warranty issue (I`d learned on the net that the part had failed in the US and told my Dealer!!) - BUT that was the (Honda Dealer) price in the UK!?

I`d be interested to know the exact difference US - UK!

Sales tax differs between States and even within States. Don't know what they are in KS, but where I live in CA they are 8.25% and in OR there is no sales tax. If you buy something out of state (there are no outlets for the store in your State) you don't pay sales tax.

[BruceK]

Quote:

On 02-06-2001 0:50 Jakx wrote:
[...]

Checked it out on US owners website - and was told same part = $6.95 excluding tax - does anyone over there know what that would be gross (inc. tax)?? Owner lived in Olathe KS.

You should figure a sales tax of about 8% (varies from city to city, state to state throughout the US) -- but it is at least half of your national VAT of 17.5%.

So the part you paid £11.46 for is about $7.50 or £5.25 with tax in the US.

However, this is the EXACT opposite with parts prices for classic Minis. The UK price for Mini parts is always about half of the price for the same part in the US. After shipping to the US is added, the UK price is about 60-80% of the US price for most Mini things. It pays to buy from the UK unless shipping something big and/or heavy (like a subframe).

[Jakx]

Thanks for that Bruce - I thought it must be around half price over there!

Regarding the Mini parts - you see, we have to claw back some dollars somehow or other!

Anyway I`m sure you`ll agree that`s a little different.

Fact is I`m talking about a Japanese produced part selling at around (say) £5.50 in the US, and for £11.46 in the UK!

My Honda runs on 98 octane fuel, ("super-unleaded" over here) I`d be interested to know how much you`d pay for that, per liter, in the US?

[BruceK]

I think we measure octane differently, but the best gasoline is priced at about $1.63 per US gallon in my area. Many places in the US are over $2 per gallon.

Let's see, there are 3.78 liters in a US gallon, so one liter costs about $0.44 or about 30p per liter here in Texas. This is reflective of a huge (relative) price jump in the past month or so.

Last time I was in the UK petrol was about 75p per litre - I bet it is much higher now, right?

By the way, the latest issue of AutoWeek magazine has a reader feedback section discussing the high price of fuel here (everything is relative). At the top of the column is a picture of a new yellow MINI COOPER with the caption "Lean, mean, fuel-sipping machine". At least one of the readers responded that fuel prices have him waiting for arrival of the new MINI COOPER.

I just hope the MINI doesn't get characterized as an economy car like a Chevy/Geo Metro by the idiotic press in this country.

[jfunkhouse]

You boys in the states have it easy when it comes to gas. North of the border gas is about 78 cents a litre here in toronto. I know its not even close to how much gas is over in the UK and Europe but it is weird how just across the border into Canada it is like double the cost.
Ouch!

Jay

[MINIAC]

Quote:

On 02-06-2001 2:16 BruceK wrote:
I think we measure octane differently, but the best gasoline is priced at about $1.63 per US gallon in my area. Many places in the US are over $2 per gallon.

I just hope the MINI doesn't get characterized as an economy car like a Chevy/Geo Metro by the idiotic press in this country.

Just filled up with Chevron Super (92 octane) yesterday in San Francisco ... $2.39 a gallon. 8)7

Maybe if the press characterizes the MINI as an economy car, the insurance companies might be duped and charge lower premiums. :!)