Auto Express's Ultimate guide to Buying a MINI

[ALD0]

Interesting reading in this weeks Auto Express. A section on the Ultimate guide to Buying a MINI. Made intersting reading and some of the points covered were quite true!
Issue 848 if anyone fancies a read!

[Veron781]

Ooooo I'll havea read of that tomorrow at work

[Cooper76]

Any way to get this online? Would love a look-see!

[Paul]

Quote: Originally Posted by interceptor

Interesting reading in this weeks Auto Express. A section on the Ultimate guide to Buying a MINI. Made intersting reading and some of the points covered were quite true!
Issue 848 if anyone fancies a read!

#

Is that the current issue (out now)?

[ALD0]

Quote: Originally Posted by Paul Mullett

Is that the current issue (out now)?

It is


Sorry Cooper 76-Think it is Magazine only

[Hat]

its this weeks edition paul, yes

[Cooper76]

Ah yes! I think the local book agent stocks that! Will have a lookie!

BTW...just can't help but notice again the really sharp styling that Fords get in Europe as opposed to the horrible dreck that the home market gets. Does Ford really think Americans prefer terribly ugly cars? Don't they realize what an amazing seller the Mondeo would be if they brought it over, Euro-styling and all?! Instead we get its disfigured twin stepbrother, the fugly Taurus. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....

[Dead Duck]

Ford Mondeo is the Ford Contour in the US. I think the Taurus was the US version of our 'Sierra' (now discontinued).

Funny that you find the Euro Fords better looking than the US ones, I've always thought that the Australian Fords looked nicer than both!

[DeadCanDanceR]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dead Duck

Ford Mondeo is the Ford Contour in the US. I think the Taurus was the US version of our 'Sierra' (now discontinued).

Funny that you find the Euro Fords better looking than the US ones, I've always thought that the Australian Fords looked nicer than both!

The previous version of the Ford Mondeo was what Ford likes to call a "World Car". It shared a lot of mechanical and body parts with the Ford Contour and Mercury Mistique. However, I believe that the new Mondeo doesn't have an american version aymore.
I worked in the design studios of Ford of Europe at Cologne (Germany) precisely at the time the Mondeo-Contour-Mistique project started. Actually, myself, (a mexican guy) along with a dutch, a german and an american designer (who later went on to head a Mercury studio back in the USA), did the very first concept sketches for the 1990s Mondeo-Contour-Mistique. I still have a few of the sketches that I was allowed to take with me when I quit Ford back in 1987.
About the Taurus, and its companion the Mercury Sable. They were introduced in the USA a couple of years after the Sierra, and had nothing to do with the Sierra. The Sierra XR4i coupe (the one with the double rear wing) was briefly sold in the USA using the name "Merkur". By the way, Ford Scorpios were also sold in the USA as Merkurs.
I remember being in Germany when I first saw the production Taurus station wagon at the design studio in Cologne. It was so radical and modern looking at the time that all of us at the design studios loved it!
Oh well...for a minute I forgot that this is a MINI site...

[Dead Duck]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeadCanDanceR

Oh well...for a minute I forgot that this is a MINI site...

Very interesting stuff indeed despite not being MINI related! Did you have anything to do with the Puma project? I got one when they came out here in the UK. Such a fantastic design, still one of the best looking Fords ever for me.

[DeadCanDanceR]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dead Duck

Very interesting stuff indeed despite not being MINI related! Did you have anything to do with the Puma project? I got one when they came out here in the UK. Such a fantastic design, still one of the best looking Fords ever for me.

No, I didn't work on the Puma! Unfortunately I left Ford before many interesting projects started.
When I started working at Ford I joined the "Advanced Concepts Studio". We were working on an MPV show car that was cancelled when the studio was asked to start concept development for the 1991 Mondeo (code named CDW-27).
The most exciting project that I was able to work on was sort of an in-house competition. We were asked to design a new Cobra using the windshield assembly and other parts of the Scorpio. All the designers worked on it and a winner design was to be chosen and then built in England for a car show.
The winning design (from an italian guy whose name I already forgot) ended up being a very ordinary looking car. As promised, it was built and it got to a couple of car shows. I still have a magazine where it appeared!
I still remember my boss telling me that my design proposal was far too "retro" and that it looked too much like the original Cobra!...Three years later, in 1989, Dodge showed the Viper concept car...and you know the rest of that story...!