The BL attitude towards the Mini reminds me of the old joke, how many brits does it take to change a lightbulb? What do you mean change the lightbulb, that's a bloody good lightbulb that is, they don't make them like that anymore...
British Cars! The cars people love to hate! Please tell me why in a country where it rains all the time car's can't have a windshield wiper that works with window defogger fan going?
Its always funny when the original car outlives its replacement, or is discontinued years into the life of the car that was meant to replace it. Like with multiple Volvo cars in the 80s/90s
Another example of this is the Porsche 911/928. The 928 was meant to replace the 911, but was discontinued a few years later. Also, Ford with the Mustang/Probe. The probe was to replace the Mustang, but Mustang fans revolted when the news leaked, so ford had to keep both vehicles. They eventually discontinued the Probe and replaced it with the Cougar, which was also discontinued soon after. I would have included the G wagon/ Mercedes M class (later known as the GLE), but both are still in production.
Honestly, I feel like a true Mini reboot, and reboots of popular affordable cars like the Fiat 500 and the Volkswagen Beetle in general, should embody the affordable, utilitarian and charming aspects of the original. If a manufacturer can't retain/improve what made the originals great while eliminating further weaknesses in the design, then it's most likely nothing but a nostalgic cash grab.
When I was stationed in West Germany in the mid 1980's, there were many old Minis on the road there, so I'm not surprised, that BMW was able to make it a success, without taking it's soul, because Germans were already familiar with the Mini and liked the original for the same intangible reasons as the Brits, enabling them to transfer it's essence to their modernized version.
Yeah, but only in the looks. The new car handles like any other European hot hatch. The original mini was relatively cheap, although their production was costly. BMW made sure this wouldn't happen to them and placed the car as a "lifestyle" car with premium price and a mile-long options list, that can easily add a 50%.
@@drumsmoker731 True. But without it's essence, I'm sure; the sales figures wouldn't be high. In fact, it likely would have been a complete failure. Ironically, the VW Beetle, a native German, was pretty much a failure as a new release. Apparently, it's intangible essence wasn't brought forward.
@@sparky6086 The new beetle didn't catch on, because the old one had nothing to love besides its looks. It was already half forgotten, when the new one hit the market. The golf had replaced its place in people's hearts, especially in Germany. And everyone knew, that it was just a pricier, less reliable & unpractical vw golf with beatle looks.
@@drumsmoker731 The orginal Beetle was a definate cultural icon in the United States, and rightly or wrongly, fairly or unfairly, good, bad, or indifferent, people had fond memories of it. The US being such a big automotive market was the primary reason, that it was brought back as a New Beetle. If VW had gotten it right, they might have hit a home run in sales, but instead, as you point out, it was just a bad version of a Golf. I'll add, that although the original Beetle might be termed "cute" in a way that could appeal to buyers of both sexes, the new one looked too feminine to appeal to most male buyers. Plus, it had a front engine, which made it just too far removed from the original to seem credibly related. Maybe, if VW had used a modern Porshe 911 as a starting point when developing the concept, then devolved it down to a Beetle, they may have had success? Instead, they took a Golf and gave it major plastic surgery. The Golf's roots came out of VW's merger with Audi anyway. At least the Porshe 911 is a blood related cousin of the Beetle. Like the original Mini, the BMW Mini had fun written all over it. The New Beetle had lame loser pretender written all over it.
@@sparky6086Although i never owned one. I agree, the original beetle is definitely an iconic car. As was the original VW combi van - mini bus. Stylistically i don't think the new beetle is without merit. It's an interesting 'little' car. But it was definitely a niche vehicle. Anyway, from a design balance perspective. As a true mini car. The original Mini got the package right! The Clubman version lost it a bit, in terms of increased frontal overhang. Which was a tad awkward. Perhaps a skillfully designed hatch version of the original Mini might have added to the model range. However to me the new Mini, like the new Fiat 500 is not a true mini car. Not saying either, are bad cars as such. But like topsy they grew! And yes, i know, the dull hand of legislative overreach played a part in that.
Erratum: The dashboard for the "Minki" came from the Honda Beat car, not motorcycle. I recorded the script before Euro 2020 got started, so the "England losing to German" thing is already out of date!
I really love your content, some vids I watched several times, subscribed to your second channel as well. However I have to point out an unfortunate annoyance. It seems (sounds...) you raise your speaking volume too much at the end of sentences, paragraphs. I understand that modulating the volume is a speaking technique, but you overdo it. I don't even want to image how disturbing it might be on headphones.
Small thing- the dashboard in the 'Minki' prototype was from a Honda Beat, but the early 90's sports Kei car, not the 80's scooter. In fairness, the Beat's instrument cluster does take a lot of inspiration from sportsbikes of the time.
Hearing these stories, it's no wonder British Leyland crashed and burned so hard once the government stopped keeping them afloat at the end of the 1980s.
The government stopped keeping them afloat because the unions ruined the British motor industry, let’s face it the only real survivor is JLR and that’s mainly thanks to Ford and Volvo keeping it alive and it starting to flourish again for a few years now owned by Tata who to be fair has made more massive investment than any previous owner, worth watching Clarkson Car years death of the British motor industry tells it straight, the i9x leyland never built kind very much looks like the original fiesta hey?as most of British industries including the steel industry the Unions brought the country to its knees thanks to Labour governments in the 70s , power cuts, uncollected bins for weeks, you name it they were either working 3 day weeks or on strike , people particularly younger people seem to be aware of this, and largely a lot of people who do with half a brain would never trust lunatic labour leadership like Corbin as they too would end up bankrupting the country with unrealistic socialism crap
@@DrewLSsix Not sure, english isn't my first language nor do I use it daily. I mix them up always, hasn't cemented in my mind yet. Dont mind my inadequecy (spelling?). Take care.
@@Lot76CARS Leyland also produced or assembled cars, buses &/or trucks in a number of other countries: India, Australia, NZ, Italy, South Africa, Portugal, and I think Denmark.
@@oliverkalamata2753 For what it is worth, I drive a 2016 F56 mini, which is practically a micro-car compared to the monster trucks that people drive around here in the Midwestern USA... Sometimes my mini plays hide-and-seek in parking lots when he is parked between two American mega-trucks where the roof of my F56 Mini does not even clear the base of the door windows in the passenger trucks parked beside him... Nobody around where I live in rural Ohio has ever thought of my car as 'big' lol... but I also drove a 2002 Beetle and a 2007 Toyota Yaris 2-door hatchback so I am used to 'small' cars...
@@oliverkalamata2753 but I was once parked next to a classic MINI at the local MINI dealership and was utterly shocked at how tiny it was compared to my F56... Ive been parked next to quite a few R-series MINIs and while my F-series is to me noticeably bigger, I'm guessing most non-MINI people wouldn't notice much difference unless they got really close to them... but that classic MINI... that would be certain death even in a low-speed collision against a modern American SUV or Pickup truck...
My Dad drives a 2009 Mini Cooper S Hatch, and despite that generation's reputation of being unreliable it's still working quite well and he bought it used in 2011, at a dealership in Athens, Ohio.
I had a 77 Clubman SS built in the Zeetland assembly plant which is now where the 2000 Sydney Olympic stadium is located. Great little car had many years of enjoyable driving with her. Sadly I sold her in 2007 prior to moving to Germany. I will always have fond memories of that car.
The thing I love about the first gen of BMW MINIs is the fact they actually used many of the same design elements of the classic Mini, even down to the chrome accents on the R50s. Frank Stephenson even made a video on youtube on how he envisioned the new MINIs. He left after that design so that's why the second gen of BMW MINIs are bigger and look different from the originals.
@@hoodwinker7932 One key thing I can name is the grill. The BMW MINI used the same style grill as the MK2-7 Classic Minis but adapted it for the bulldog face of the new model.
The 'bmw' mini isn't a mini. I can't stand the things. They are way way tooo big. Bonnet is bigger than most big cars, the exact opposite of the original mini. Just a shame they bought Rover as it would have been nice to see the Rover designed new mini finished by Rover.
Innocenti's story deserves to be more well known... Can you imagine, they produced the best Minis under licence, and then went on to successfully update the classic, something BL wasn't able to do! I would have loved to see what would have happened with the 9X, though, amazing to think of a shorter but roomier Mini, with a similarly simple but evident design. Could have been a new and different myth, just like the Panda with the 500!
@@BigCar2 in Italy innocenti sold their allegro as the Regent . There's one featured in the 70s crime film street law driven by Franco Nero - bet he would have preferred a fiat though .
I remember my brother telling me he took his road test in the original Mini, when he lived in England. What fun that must have been! I also got to ride in many years ago, while visiting friends in Trinidad.
I fell in love with the Mini Cooper when I was 12, and my parents took us to Europe for summer vacation from the U.S. I still have my Corgi model from tht trip, and I'm now 63 !
I personally find it annoying when youtubers do that. Can't ever find the right level and it sounds like my daughter is playing with the volume control. Not hating, enjoyed the content as always.
@@nikolayvakrilov6068 , this channel is the only one I know where the volume of the host’s voice modulates up and down like that. Curious to see others. Yes, I find it annoying too. The content is fine
My first car was a rusty Mini Super Deluxe I paid £50 for in 1975, painted at least a dozen shades of grey and with knackered wheel bearings. It also featured the famous sunshine floor. I bought a brand new Cooper in dark grey metallic with a black roof in the early 90s. I considered another in the mid 00s but couldn't find a sensibly priced one that wasn't terminally rusty. More recently, when I looked at one I realised I would no longer feel safe driving it on the road -- unlike modern cars, definitely not designed to crash.
Fascinating. Thank you so much for this. On viewing many of the speculative designs that never made it further with BMC, BL, Austin Rover or Rover, I'm amazed to draw so many visual comparisons with designs that did happen (or already had). 1:38 Citroen GS. 4:43 Austin A40 Farina. 5:51 Metro. 8:17 Volvo 340. 8:29 Vauxhall Chevette. 8:32 Ford Fiesta. 10:52 Ciroen AX. 12:02 is a dead ringer for a very squashed first generation Renault Espace. 15:43 and to the right at 16:19 Ford Ka. Once again thanks. Great work.
F56 is not 'mini' by any standards. I'll keep my R53 and R56... Manufacturers have a trend for bloating cars needlessly, in excess of the extra safety factors incorporated. Fiat 500L, new gen Minis etc. There is a substantial market segment for 'true' small cars. If only they would listen. I also own a Smart Roadster, so I might be a little biased!
Of course, it really did help the BMW MINI that BMW homologated the hew model specifically for USA sale. And the result was a whole line of MINI models from the three-door hatchback all the way up to a five-door crossover SUV.
I had a Mini and it was every inch the unreliable rustbucket BL/Rover cars had always been.But oh boy could it handle!The Metro that replaced was much the same and then I defected to 'foreign' cars.....
I had a Morris Marina in the early eighties, it had a hundred thousand miles when I bought it and in five years I put a further hundred thousand on it, it lived outside and never failed to start rain or shine, it returned mid thirties to the gallon which was normal for most 1300cc cars of the time, barely a week went by when I didn't tow a trailer, in the end at sixteen years old corrosion got the better of it and it had to be retired, there are not many cars on the road today at sixteen and two hundred thousand with their original un rebuilt petrol engine. It is very easy to criticise British cars from the hersey and the mythology, the only cars that didn't dissolve in those days were Volvo or Saab, if you could afford one!, even the perfect Japanese, who could do no wrong were rusted out at ten years old , journalists have only ever been interested in how far their foot goes to the floor and where they get taken to do it, BLMC didn't tend to spend the lavish amounts others did and so became a whipping boy, they would always be there for a bit of sagging off, couple that with management ineptitude and no matter how well the cars performed they were doomed.
In the 1950s and 60s all makes of cars from all countries were unreliable rust buckets. BMC held 75% of the British market but was badly run by managers and trade unions and failed to see Japanese were improving and investing
I dont mind the bmw mini, its actually a pretty nice looking car. But it fails to capture the essence of the original mini. And honestly, no car really can. The old mini was built for a very different time, which has the benefit of nostalgia and rose tinted glasses. Any new mini has to work in the current market, which BMW's mini actually does a good job of. Times have moved on, thats just the reality of things. There are many future classics being built right now. Probably cars we look at right now and think "they are common as muck"
Mini was also sold in Spain by Authi, but it never quite stood up to SEAT, Citroën and Renault. Even today you can find quite a few 600s, 2CVs and R4s; but Minis are quite rare.
Could that be partly because of spares availability and cost, also how many of each were sold?, and what percentages remain?, these are always interesting figures.
So many what ifs. It's a hard video to watch for those of us who look back on the British motor industry and think about how easily it could have turned out so differently. Thank you as always for a well-narrated and neatly edited upload.
Was there an error in merging the brands? Where the US, Japanese or German auto industries strived on true competition, with so many mergers perhaps the UK brands competed more on internal politics inside British Leyland than on the quality of their products?
A good conclusion to the story it is that BMW managed to make some good marketing instead of keeping the car as a "mini". Another great video of many you have done.
Only BMC/BL could have a big selling car and lose money on it. Then spend countless millions on several redesigns over the course of decades, and never use any of them. One correction, minis didnt have hydragas, they first had a rubber cone suspension, then hydralastic.
By the late 70's the production line had paid for itself or been written off to depreciation, so from then on Minis made money hand over fist, that was the real reason they didn't change it, they didn't need to, til EEC safety laws effectively banned the external seams.
@@donaldasayers from Nygel Miller - an incredible piece of information, that there would have been laws against those external seams! Up to 30mph, though, Minis were within crash test laws, and outdid the Metro, which was therefore pulled out of production, rather than because it wasn,'t selling.
@@nygelmiller5293 I have seen the old crash test videos of the BMC cars and they did quite well for cars of that age. In an original Mini, you sit so far back from the windscreen and dashboard it probably had a beneficial effect.
If ever there was a vehicle which the world did not actually need, it was the Mini Clubman. The original Mini had been remarkable for putting a full size car inside a modest overall length. All the Clubman did was to regain some of that length. To what use was the increased length put? It carried some additional empty, and unusable space. At least the failure to update the Mini meant that the original shape had a very long time to bury itself into the public consciousness. So much so that its successor, sixty years later is still recognizably the legitimate descendant of the 1959 original. A good thing, say I.
The new mini may sell more but Issigonis’ mini changed car design, for ever. Plus, they were wickedly good fun to drive and held the road like a Go-cart.
You have by far my favorite car TH-cam channel, and with the amount of car TH-cam I consume that is really saying something. Have you ever considered doing a history of the Chevrolet Suburban?
Back in the day a friend of mine who ran a small repair shop imported several Innocenti minis and converted them to RHD using B.L mini parts. He had no trouble selling them on.
seriously?...it looked like a step back from the mini which had balanced proportions. The 9X was just an angular tin can with no discernible design or looks at all.
@@lucagattoni-celli1377 Yeah functional is a good word for it........but no prettiness like the mini had. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess but 9X does nothing for me.
Say what you want about the newer BMW Minis, they're petite little cars with personalities that outgrows them. While German Engineering is a hassle, it's not so bad compared to Lucas electronics of the OG Mini era. I still smile whenever I see either the OG one or the BMW one on the road, and would just creep slowly behind them as they zip along the slow lanes. Great video as always! Also, the Rover's concept for the new BMW looked strangely similar to the Smart cars, also by BMW. I wonder if BMW just took Rover's design and scale it down?
Rover did some serious minor re-engineering in the late 80s to eliminate some of the quality problems, such as the bonnet fouling the windscreen wipers. I believe that around that time they also finally introduced a single piece engine gasket to cut out the oil leaks.
The real Mini replacement was the 3cyl Daihatsu Cuore aka Mira, as noted I believe by Richard Hammond or one of his mates on Top Gear. (It was actually a third party replacement of the Daihatsu but essentially the same car). I have owned both Mini and Mira, but never a BMW. When I saw my first Mira in the street I fell in love with it and sought it out, buying new for NZD15K. That worked out to 1000 per year after selling ten years later for 1/3 its new price.
My first (and second) cars were Minis. In terms of pure driving fun, out of all the cars I've ever owned it's right up in the top two (and there's a Porsche 944 below it in the list!)
Well done! I always wanted to know the Mini story. I drove a few of the old ones in the early 70s. Loved them! I bought a 2009 a few years ago. It was fun until the timing chain jumped. I still have it in the garage as it lost compression in two cylinders. Not sure what I will do with it. Thank you for this great video.
I remember as a kid in the 80's one of our neighbors had a racing Mini Cooper. It made ridiculous noise and its size made it so funny. Maybe the best small car design along with Fiat 500. Many people were getting old used ones as a cheap city car solution. The BMW Mini failed to capture the essense of the original. The Mini supposed to be a cute looking little affordable car, aimed at young people as a first car, young couples, people that need to move around in big cities and as a second car. The BMW ''Mini'' is actually huge but somehow they managed to fail to have a comfortable interior. The car has basically almost the same size with a small family car but almost half of the interior room. Its very expensive for what it is. The parts and service are ''fire'' and it burns ALOT of gas. Its a car made for posh hypsters, spoilt brats and people that usually live beyond their financial ability. Its the iMac of the cars.
I have driven a mini one for atleast 1,5 years and the Last thing id say about it that it is inefficient nor is it uncomfortable... Maybe im not fat enough to give such a statement huh
I still wonder what would have happened if de Tomaso had managed to export the innocenti NA and Turbo to other markets, things would have been different. It looked amazing in terms of design. I'm not sure if BMW Mini's success can be compared to the original. This one has a global demand that is sustained by the original hipe on markets it hadn't been sold plus the big load of different models by the same brand. The original mini was mostly successful in the common wealth + western Europe and mostly using one body with some variations. It's a shame though, I'm quiet sure that south America would have been an excellent market, giving the fact we have more euro influence in terms of car culture (and the fact we are so poor we can't afford V8s, but that's another conversation 😂)
You are right, in Colombia back in the late 80's and 90's the mini was a super cool car to own and I drove an anniversary edition made in Britain it was a very fun car and was peppy!! We had lots of them around but most of them were made on Venezuela I think and they were fiber glass.
@@andressosa8088 Yes, in the 90s there was a brief attempt to assemble the Mini in Venezuela with bodies made of fibreglass, but taht didn't last for too long, and only a few thousand were sold iirc.
I think the frame at 11 seconds explains why the mini was doomed. Mr and Mrs average were 50 kilos smaller in mass than todays species. Even Jack and Jill were tiny back then. Today the world needs a lite truck to cart around the 'Average' family.
Ive seen people in America that are individually fatter (and probably heavier) than that entire classic MINI... not even a joke... just go into any Walmart in the USA and see what I mean...
Oh God, yet another video I won’t make it through. Your videos are so good they relax me to such an extend, I struggle after 2 minutes and fall asleep after another 2. Will always come back the next day to finish
I chose my 2018 manual Mini Cooper in the same color scheme as your lego Mini but with cream interior and black wheels. BRG is the color a Mini should be bought.
For me the BMW " Largey " isn't a success , the original was iconic and was called the " Mini " because it was a SMALL car . BMW have made a rebooted version that is as big as most hatchbacks and therefore moved away from the original concept of a small car , they should have taken the original design and just modernised it keeping to the same dimensions .
If they keep the same dimensions, then it wouldn't be anymore a 4 seater. It will become a 2 seater, due to the stricter crash safety regulations. It will compete with Mercedes-Benz' Smart.
And yet BMW were right all the way as no one buys city cars anymore. All the city cars you can buy today (VW Up, Hyundai i10, Peugeot 108, Citroen C1) will die after they run their course.
@@stevodfn I own a 67 reg Suzuki Celerio and I see lots of them around where I live , with its 1L 3cyl engine it's a fantastic little car and having owned it from new I can tell you that apart from fuel and servicing it hasn't cost me a penny . The car has still got its original brake discs and pads and tyres , it does 76.5 mpg on a run with a full tank lasting me a couple of months , you can keep your bigger cars as they are not needed .
Thanks, many of us of a certain age, learned all our car maintenance on a mini. Some of the worst jobs were the CV joints, Hardy Spicer couplings, exhaust manifold coupling, rear sub frame, etc. Just replacing the speedo cable was almost an engine out job, and of course who can forget the distributor in the rain, the solution was a five fingered condom and a liberal application of WD 40. Thanks again for the history.
Happy memories! :) My first mini was such a shed that I used to park it facing downhill so I could push it, then hop in to bump start it. Loved that car!
I carried ramps and tools in the boot of my mini just for tightening or replacing those CV joints. The Quinton Hazell nylon ones were more reliable. I replaced the rusty broken rear sub frame in its 9th miserable year. yes, the ignition parts were at the front getting the full force of any rain. Stupid!
You mentioned a couple of times that the Mini was too expensive to produce. I wonder why. That may be too deep into the industrial- design weeds, but I'd like to understand why.
I saw a vid that touched on this recently, can't remember where. It was about why BL failed. Basically most parts of the original Mini was relatively slow and complicated to assemble. They did a side-by-side comparison of someone fitting the door handle mech to a Mini and a contemporary (1970's) German car - can't remember what exactly. The Mini took about 4 minutes of fiddling with rods and catches while the German one took 45 seconds or something daft.
@@StupStups MunroLive is a new TH-cam channel examining such things in the EV realm, and the steps being taken to make car building cheaper and simpler, especially compared to Tesla. Truly enlightening. The videos on the Ford Mach-E are the best examples.
Actually it was the way the car's panels were assembled on a jig. It was basically impossible to automate, and made every [real] Mini hand built. By contrast the Metro was quite easy to produce, with most of the body being assembled in a Unimate production line, with fittings being done by hand.
@@ocallaghan3865 I guess you’re right in terms of dependability and reliability and cost of running and all but despite its foibles one can’t help loving the little Cooper…
Unfortunately I Never owned a original mini but do own a 1st generation mini from BMW the R53 Mini Cooper s and it's awesome and definitely seems to be gaining fans from the die hard classic fans unlike at the beginning. possibly because of its design and the first prototype shell being built at rover where there is a photo floating around the internet for years confirming this. but the R56 onwards will never see that appreciation from the original fans as it has seriously lost its way from its heritage but it definitely has created a new following of its own. looking forward to the story you said your going to do for this one.
I loved my original short bonnet mini. I towed a large ski boat with it all over Wales. Had seat two in the back on the road, two on the bonnet up the ramp..
The BMW mini is an incredible machine. German engineering mechanicals and the British doing all of the pretty parts you can see and touch was a perfect combination. It has amazing quality, beautiful to look at thanks to the British touch, extraordinarily reliable, insanely well-engineered and packaged with more leg room in it than many cars twice its size. And my black mini convertible still gets looks today, it looks like a baby Bentley with all of the black trim pieces blending in with the black body work and the Chrome standing out. The one huge negative was when I went to get insurance and pay the property taxes and found out that I'd be paying those at the BMW level! Mini was only the model, not the brand or make. So I was paying the same amount of insurance and taxes as if I'd gotten a BMW 318. But, zero regrets. 15 years later it is still running and looking very sharp, zero major mechanical problems, almost 200,000 mi and I haven't even been that good at keeping it maintained. It just goes and goes and goes including the very unique top mechanism that you can even put part of the way open, a feature that is not shared with any BMW Porsche or any other car except for possibly one quarter million-dollar Mercedes-Benz or Bentley Every other convertible the top has either up or down, there is no in between . But this engineering should be copied by many people because there are many times it's nice to have it part of the way open in the windows down, you get much more use out of it that way throughout the year. The newer ones I have considered seem to have taken a few steps back on quality and seemed much cheaper but overall the original BMW mini reboot is an amazing machine.
I also like the Mini Spiritual Concept. They should have put that in production with exactly that shape, that would have been a sales hit (although they kinda did as I strongly suspect that the Spiritual was a major "inspiration" for the Citroen C1/Peugeot 107). But I agree, the new Mini is an ugly abomination that has as much to do with the original as the New Beetle with the old Beetle. The only ones who did it right were Fiat with their new 500 - that's a really lovely design that at least comes close to resembling the charm of the original.
@@torstenscholz6243 At least the old beetle and the new beetle (aka: Golf with a body kit) were made by the same company. The only thing the new mini has in common with the old one is the name. Its too big, its over engineered and there is no excitement when you drive it, the old one was fun to drive.
Great video, thank you. So depressing that BMW's version outsold the original though, really sad. Would love you to tell the Austin Ant story; what a fascinating car!
I've been waiting on a Mini based video from you for years! Love it! I had a 1983 Austin Mini Mayfair as my first car back in 2012 and HATED BMW Minis because thats just what you had to do. Today I drive an '05 Mini Cooper and you can definitely see the design influences passed over and driving position that makes you feel like you're in a go-kart.
I reckon Your Big Car Channel, and possibly Ed China's Workshop, are the best Car Channels on You tube. Always enjoy your content, humour and ability to gently send up the little disasters that have been foisted on unsuspecting car owners over the years. Soon, I think you should do a video entitled " The Demise of the Car" or something like that, because the way things are going car ownership will not be for the masses any more. Cheers and thanks for adding quality to the internet.
I really liked the original BMW Mini despite its shortcomings (thirsty engine, bad gearboxes, cheap interior), but since then - IMHO - it's gone downhill. Bit by bit. While the interior was getting better regarding the material used and we certainly got better engines, the interior design was improved to the worse. This started with the new speedo w/ integrated radio which I can still tolerate. But now, there's no more analoge center speedo at all. Not even as an option. Only this stupid rectangular display in a round bezel. I just hope BMW will offer at least a round fully digital TFT sometime in the future. With changeable backgrounds and fake analogue dials. If they were really clever they would make it fully customizable and let the community share their themes.
The first gen BMW Mini’s 6 speed is a very reliable gearbox, it’s the Rover 5 speed and the CVT that’s unreliable. The second gen also got a worse and way less reliable engine. The first gen’s engine is reliable even with additional boost vs the second gens failing even stock.
I had a 1959. When I wanted another, original Mini, they had gotten really expensive. Then the new Mini came out, unfortunately, it had lost one of the great qualities of the original; mechanical simplicity. I ended up buying a used 1993, Metro; Geo Metro that is. This is one of the best cars ever built. Great fun to drive, very inexpensive to own, easy to repair (first because they don't break down, second because the parts are super inexpensive) and comfortable. There is one problem though, it's hard to find one for sale. The people that have them don't want to sell. I know I won't.
I had a new 1966 Morris Mini, no choice of any models besides the one in Denmark (oh, Cooper and Cooper S!), and it definitely was a car that wasn't really finished with leaks, faults and odd solutions (Who got the brilliant idea to connect + from the battery, to the frame?) anywhere you searched, and many where you didn't even try to look for them! But I loved it then, as it was my first car! But for years I have now had german and french cars, which have functioned - except one BMW 320, which was only 9 months old when I sold it again, and still with a factory warranty. I didn't use it that much, as it was mostly in a shop for free repairs!
@@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188 electrons flow from the negative to the positive, so positive earth is technically correct even if not intuitive, positive earth was common on older vehicles and when I started driving it was something to look for when installing things like radios, eight tracks, and new fangled cassette players. 🙂.
I owned a used 1961 Mk I from May 1967 to August 1968. It had difficulty coping with Southern Califoria freeways. A dozen miles at 65 mph and she started to overheat despite the 'tropical" radiator fitted to US-market cars. The overheating was ironically paired with an unwillingness to start on cool SoCal morinings --no freezing nights no snow. Don't get me wrong for a purchase price of $200 it was a fun and surprisingly reliable ride --once it started.
You could, in theory and practically, build yourself a new mini as there’s a company that makes body panels and; body shells. The engine, gearbox and running gear might be a problem though.
TH-cam should promote this channel, it's fantastic. Filled with historic photos & information, the voiceover is unlike the usual TH-cam "shouty" type lol. You keep making & we'll keep watching 😂👏👏
The BL attitude towards the Mini reminds me of the old joke, how many brits does it take to change a lightbulb?
What do you mean change the lightbulb, that's a bloody good lightbulb that is, they don't make them like that anymore...
I actually read that in a brummie accent...
British Cars! The cars people love to hate! Please tell me why in a country where it rains all the time car's can't have a windshield wiper that works with window defogger fan going?
@@puffapuffarice Window defoggers are the work of the devil, and windscreen wipers are un-islamic. Everybody knows that.
'' How many brits does it take to change a lightbulb? '' Just one : Joseph Lucas
@@oi32df The guy who had actually seen Naples and died.
Its always funny when the original car outlives its replacement, or is discontinued years into the life of the car that was meant to replace it. Like with multiple Volvo cars in the 80s/90s
Another example of this is the Porsche 911/928. The 928 was meant to replace the 911, but was discontinued a few years later. Also, Ford with the Mustang/Probe. The probe was to replace the Mustang, but Mustang fans revolted when the news leaked, so ford had to keep both vehicles. They eventually discontinued the Probe and replaced it with the Cougar, which was also discontinued soon after. I would have included the G wagon/ Mercedes M class (later known as the GLE), but both are still in production.
@@damilolaakanni and Volkswagen with the Corrado replacing the Sirocco
@@damilolaakanni
I wouldn't call 20 years "a few years later", during the time the 928 was in production the 911 went through two entire generations
@@damilolaakanni Dont forget the Lada Niva and Niva out living the Samara!
Or the Hillman Hunter which was supposed to be supplanted by the Avenger, but which went on to live to 2002 as the Paykan.
Honestly, I feel like a true Mini reboot, and reboots of popular affordable cars like the Fiat 500 and the Volkswagen Beetle in general, should embody the affordable, utilitarian and charming aspects of the original. If a manufacturer can't retain/improve what made the originals great while eliminating further weaknesses in the design, then it's most likely nothing but a nostalgic cash grab.
When I was stationed in West Germany in the mid 1980's, there were many old Minis on the road there, so I'm not surprised, that BMW was able to make it a success, without taking it's soul, because Germans were already familiar with the Mini and liked the original for the same intangible reasons as the Brits, enabling them to transfer it's essence to their modernized version.
Yeah, but only in the looks. The new car handles like any other European hot hatch.
The original mini was relatively cheap, although their production was costly. BMW made sure this wouldn't happen to them and placed the car as a "lifestyle" car with premium price and a mile-long options list, that can easily add a 50%.
@@drumsmoker731 True. But without it's essence, I'm sure; the sales figures wouldn't be high. In fact, it likely would have been a complete failure.
Ironically, the VW Beetle, a native German, was pretty much a failure as a new release. Apparently, it's intangible essence wasn't brought forward.
@@sparky6086 The new beetle didn't catch on, because the old one had nothing to love besides its looks. It was already half forgotten, when the new one hit the market. The golf had replaced its place in people's hearts, especially in Germany. And everyone knew, that it was just a pricier, less reliable & unpractical vw golf with beatle looks.
@@drumsmoker731 The orginal Beetle was a definate cultural icon in the United States, and rightly or wrongly, fairly or unfairly, good, bad, or indifferent, people had fond memories of it. The US being such a big automotive market was the primary reason, that it was brought back as a New Beetle. If VW had gotten it right, they might have hit a home run in sales, but instead, as you point out, it was just a bad version of a Golf. I'll add, that although the original Beetle might be termed "cute" in a way that could appeal to buyers of both sexes, the new one looked too feminine to appeal to most male buyers. Plus, it had a front engine, which made it just too far removed from the original to seem credibly related.
Maybe, if VW had used a modern Porshe 911 as a starting point when developing the concept, then devolved it down to a Beetle, they may have had success? Instead, they took a Golf and gave it major plastic surgery. The Golf's roots came out of VW's merger with Audi anyway. At least the Porshe 911 is a blood related cousin of the Beetle.
Like the original Mini, the BMW Mini had fun written all over it. The New Beetle had lame loser pretender written all over it.
@@sparky6086Although i never owned one. I agree, the original beetle is definitely an iconic car. As was the original VW combi van - mini bus. Stylistically i don't think the new beetle is without merit. It's an interesting 'little' car. But it was definitely a niche vehicle. Anyway, from a design balance perspective. As a true mini car. The original Mini got the package right! The Clubman version lost it a bit, in terms of increased frontal overhang. Which was a tad awkward. Perhaps a skillfully designed hatch version of the original Mini might have added to the model range. However to me the new Mini, like the new Fiat 500 is not a true mini car. Not saying either, are bad cars as such. But like topsy they grew! And yes, i know, the dull hand of legislative overreach played a part in that.
Erratum: The dashboard for the "Minki" came from the Honda Beat car, not motorcycle.
I recorded the script before Euro 2020 got started, so the "England losing to German" thing is already out of date!
Just replace Germany with Italy!
As we say in Finland: "one swallow doesn't make a summer".
Yes it was played in 2021 but it was still referred to as Euro 2020
@@andrewdrabble8939 I think it's because they'd already had a bunch of t-shirts printed up...
I really love your content, some vids I watched several times, subscribed to your second channel as well. However I have to point out an unfortunate annoyance. It seems (sounds...) you raise your speaking volume too much at the end of sentences, paragraphs. I understand that modulating the volume is a speaking technique, but you overdo it. I don't even want to image how disturbing it might be on headphones.
Small thing- the dashboard in the 'Minki' prototype was from a Honda Beat, but the early 90's sports Kei car, not the 80's scooter. In fairness, the Beat's instrument cluster does take a lot of inspiration from sportsbikes of the time.
Hearing these stories, it's no wonder British Leyland crashed and burned so hard once the government stopped keeping them afloat at the end of the 1980s.
Any idea how many millions they demanded and got in those days?
Sir Alec Issigonis was a genius way before his time. British management was different story.
The government stopped keeping them afloat because the unions ruined the British motor industry, let’s face it the only real survivor is JLR and that’s mainly thanks to Ford and Volvo keeping it alive and it starting to flourish again for a few years now owned by Tata who to be fair has made more massive investment than any previous owner, worth watching Clarkson Car years death of the British motor industry tells it straight, the i9x leyland never built kind very much looks like the original fiesta hey?as most of British industries including the steel industry the Unions brought the country to its knees thanks to Labour governments in the 70s , power cuts, uncollected bins for weeks, you name it they were either working 3 day weeks or on strike , people particularly younger people seem to be aware of this, and largely a lot of people who do with half a brain would never trust lunatic labour leadership like Corbin as they too would end up bankrupting the country with unrealistic socialism crap
All these fail stories reminded me of the Japanese Kei class success.
@@darrenjones3681 You think they don't have unions in Japan, Germany, the US and France? Lol.
8:08 I like how the mock-up shows zero knee room.
Your legs *are* the crumple zone.
They really should've used kids for that illustration XD.
(that being all that many back seats are good for)
a) Back than they were honest.
b) Back than they were stupid.
c) Back than they had humour.
d) All of tha above.
@@KenanTurkiye than or then?
@@DrewLSsix Not sure, english isn't my first language nor do I use it daily. I mix them up always, hasn't cemented in my mind yet. Dont mind my inadequecy (spelling?). Take care.
In 1968 (I think) BMC was the 3rd largest car company in the world, how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory..
Huh? Really? I had no idea they were anywhere near as big as the American Big 3.
@@jamesengland7461 I think simply by merger BMC/BMH, then BLMC absorbed so many British brands under one umbrella brand it was so big at it's peak
@@Lot76CARS Leyland also produced or assembled cars, buses &/or trucks in a number of other countries: India, Australia, NZ, Italy, South Africa, Portugal, and I think Denmark.
Why didn't they concentrate on manufacturing precision and quality control like Toyota? :)
@@TassieLorenzo nobody did.
The curent batch of supersized "minis" are the most ghastly things on the road today. Clubman? More like club-foot.
Countryman? More like Country-Sized
Hell, the standard F56 MINI is an SUV in comparison with even the previous R56...
Mini? More like Largely
@@oliverkalamata2753 For what it is worth, I drive a 2016 F56 mini, which is practically a micro-car compared to the monster trucks that people drive around here in the Midwestern USA... Sometimes my mini plays hide-and-seek in parking lots when he is parked between two American mega-trucks where the roof of my F56 Mini does not even clear the base of the door windows in the passenger trucks parked beside him... Nobody around where I live in rural Ohio has ever thought of my car as 'big' lol... but I also drove a 2002 Beetle and a 2007 Toyota Yaris 2-door hatchback so I am used to 'small' cars...
@@oliverkalamata2753 but I was once parked next to a classic MINI at the local MINI dealership and was utterly shocked at how tiny it was compared to my F56... Ive been parked next to quite a few R-series MINIs and while my F-series is to me noticeably bigger, I'm guessing most non-MINI people wouldn't notice much difference unless they got really close to them... but that classic MINI... that would be certain death even in a low-speed collision against a modern American SUV or Pickup truck...
My Dad drives a 2009 Mini Cooper S Hatch, and despite that generation's reputation of being unreliable it's still working quite well and he bought it used in 2011, at a dealership in Athens, Ohio.
I had a 77 Clubman SS built in the Zeetland assembly plant which is now where the 2000 Sydney Olympic stadium is located.
Great little car had many years of enjoyable driving with her. Sadly I sold her in 2007 prior to moving to Germany.
I will always have fond memories of that car.
The thing I love about the first gen of BMW MINIs is the fact they actually used many of the same design elements of the classic Mini, even down to the chrome accents on the R50s. Frank Stephenson even made a video on youtube on how he envisioned the new MINIs. He left after that design so that's why the second gen of BMW MINIs are bigger and look different from the originals.
I did not know that.
@@hoodwinker7932 One key thing I can name is the grill. The BMW MINI used the same style grill as the MK2-7 Classic Minis but adapted it for the bulldog face of the new model.
The 'bmw' mini isn't a mini. I can't stand the things. They are way way tooo big. Bonnet is bigger than most big cars, the exact opposite of the original mini. Just a shame they bought Rover as it would have been nice to see the Rover designed new mini finished by Rover.
@@martinwoodworth3715 if bmw didnt bougth Rover the Mini would be dead
@@ricoricardo4850 The real mini is long dead. The so called mini now is not a mini.
Innocenti's story deserves to be more well known... Can you imagine, they produced the best Minis under licence, and then went on to successfully update the classic, something BL wasn't able to do!
I would have loved to see what would have happened with the 9X, though, amazing to think of a shorter but roomier Mini, with a similarly simple but evident design. Could have been a new and different myth, just like the Panda with the 500!
I thought of doing this video when I discovered the Mini they made while researching the Allegro video. Fascinating stuff!
@@BigCar2 In think there`s film of the factory production I can put you onto all the innocenti photographs of production
@@BigCar2 in Italy innocenti sold their allegro as the Regent . There's one featured in the 70s crime film street law driven by Franco Nero - bet he would have preferred a fiat though .
I remember my brother telling me he took his road test in the original Mini, when he lived in England. What fun that must have been!
I also got to ride in many years ago, while visiting friends in Trinidad.
I fell in love with the Mini Cooper when I was 12, and my parents took us to Europe for summer vacation from the U.S. I still have my Corgi model from tht trip, and I'm now 63 !
You're such a great storyteller. I even like how you modulate your voice.
Glad you enjoy it!
He really does modulate the volume of his voice. One wonders if that’s how he talks normally. :)
I personally find it annoying when youtubers do that. Can't ever find the right level and it sounds like my daughter is playing with the volume control. Not hating, enjoyed the content as always.
I think the Mini Countryman is a great Austin Maxi reboot! :p
@@nikolayvakrilov6068 , this channel is the only one I know where the volume of the host’s voice modulates up and down like that. Curious to see others. Yes, I find it annoying too. The content is fine
My first car was a rusty Mini Super Deluxe I paid £50 for in 1975, painted at least a dozen shades of grey and with knackered wheel bearings. It also featured the famous sunshine floor. I bought a brand new Cooper in dark grey metallic with a black roof in the early 90s. I considered another in the mid 00s but couldn't find a sensibly priced one that wasn't terminally rusty. More recently, when I looked at one I realised I would no longer feel safe driving it on the road -- unlike modern cars, definitely not designed to crash.
i always liked the innocenti mini and think it would of made a trendy little supermini if BL had imported it
The Riley Elf was always one of my favourite versions would have love a 1275 "cooper" version
I think they should have purchased the design, in some way shape or form. I can see that would have been rather confusing.
Fascinating. Thank you so much for this. On viewing many of the speculative designs that never made it further with BMC, BL, Austin Rover or Rover, I'm amazed to draw so many visual comparisons with designs that did happen (or already had). 1:38 Citroen GS. 4:43 Austin A40 Farina. 5:51 Metro. 8:17 Volvo 340. 8:29 Vauxhall Chevette. 8:32 Ford Fiesta. 10:52 Ciroen AX. 12:02 is a dead ringer for a very squashed first generation Renault Espace. 15:43 and to the right at 16:19 Ford Ka. Once again thanks. Great work.
F56 is not 'mini' by any standards. I'll keep my R53 and R56... Manufacturers have a trend for bloating cars needlessly, in excess of the extra safety factors incorporated. Fiat 500L, new gen Minis etc. There is a substantial market segment for 'true' small cars. If only they would listen. I also own a Smart Roadster, so I might be a little biased!
You own a smart roadster, so you might be a lil envied…
And why aren’t we all using Kei cars?!
I think the fact that there was no replacement is what kept mini so beloved
The INNOCENTI was THE BEST a relative of mine had it and it was A POCKET ROCKET ...
Of course, it really did help the BMW MINI that BMW homologated the hew model specifically for USA sale. And the result was a whole line of MINI models from the three-door hatchback all the way up to a five-door crossover SUV.
I had a Mini and it was every inch the unreliable rustbucket BL/Rover cars had always been.But oh boy could it handle!The Metro that replaced was much the same and then I defected to 'foreign' cars.....
Yeah, the quality was on full display at minute 11:23 , new car already shedding parts on the floor 😂
@@jgoncalodm Well spotted! lol
Yup, Lucas Electric...the Prince of Darkness! I never went anywhere without all of my tools, a blanket and a pillow!
I had a Morris Marina in the early eighties, it had a hundred thousand miles when I bought it and in five years I put a further hundred thousand on it, it lived outside and never failed to start rain or shine, it returned mid thirties to the gallon which was normal for most 1300cc cars of the time, barely a week went by when I didn't tow a trailer, in the end at sixteen years old corrosion got the better of it and it had to be retired, there are not many cars on the road today at sixteen and two hundred thousand with their original un rebuilt petrol engine. It is very easy to criticise British cars from the hersey and the mythology, the only cars that didn't dissolve in those days were Volvo or Saab, if you could afford one!, even the perfect Japanese, who could do no wrong were rusted out at ten years old , journalists have only ever been interested in how far their foot goes to the floor and where they get taken to do it, BLMC didn't tend to spend the lavish amounts others did and so became a whipping boy, they would always be there for a bit of sagging off, couple that with management ineptitude and no matter how well the cars performed they were doomed.
In the 1950s and 60s all makes of cars from all countries were unreliable rust buckets. BMC held 75% of the British market but was badly run by managers and trade unions and failed to see Japanese were improving and investing
Sorry (not sorry) but I find the BMW Mini is an oxymoron. They're huge
The Countryman isn't my cup of tea. Way too big.
I like the r53 a good fun car but after that all other models are now to fat
I disagree, I drove the early BMW Cooper and thought they'd done a great job. As stated in the video, many cars grow over time.
But that's because all kinds of idiot buyers kept complaining that "they want a Mini, only larger" and BMW saw a market and produced it.
I dont mind the bmw mini, its actually a pretty nice looking car. But it fails to capture the essence of the original mini. And honestly, no car really can.
The old mini was built for a very different time, which has the benefit of nostalgia and rose tinted glasses.
Any new mini has to work in the current market, which BMW's mini actually does a good job of.
Times have moved on, thats just the reality of things. There are many future classics being built right now. Probably cars we look at right now and think "they are common as muck"
Mini was also sold in Spain by Authi, but it never quite stood up to SEAT, Citroën and Renault. Even today you can find quite a few 600s, 2CVs and R4s; but Minis are quite rare.
SEAT/FIAT are just better.. so many options of small cars there (500, 600, Panda, Uno, etc)
*laughs in rusty russian steel*
Could that be partly because of spares availability and cost, also how many of each were sold?, and what percentages remain?, these are always interesting figures.
They were not only sold but also assembled at Authi. But then the factory burned down and BL pulled out of the Spanish market.
So many what ifs. It's a hard video to watch for those of us who look back on the British motor industry and think about how easily it could have turned out so differently. Thank you as always for a well-narrated and neatly edited upload.
Was there an error in merging the brands? Where the US, Japanese or German auto industries strived on true competition, with so many mergers perhaps the UK brands competed more on internal politics inside British Leyland than on the quality of their products?
Great video as always-joyfully explaining the often confusing workings of the British auto industry.
Yes! I have an R53 Cooper S that I absolutely love. The story of the new Mini is one of the most convoluted in the history of the industry.
A good conclusion to the story it is that BMW managed to make some good marketing instead of keeping the car as a "mini". Another great video of many you have done.
Only BMC/BL could have a big selling car and lose money on it. Then spend countless millions on several redesigns over the course of decades, and never use any of them. One correction, minis didnt have hydragas, they first had a rubber cone suspension, then hydralastic.
By the late 70's the production line had paid for itself or been written off to depreciation, so from then on Minis made money hand over fist, that was the real reason they didn't change it, they didn't need to, til EEC safety laws effectively banned the external seams.
@@donaldasayers from Nygel Miller - an incredible piece of information, that there would have been laws against those external seams! Up to 30mph, though, Minis were within crash test laws, and outdid the Metro, which was therefore pulled out of production, rather than because it wasn,'t selling.
@@nygelmiller5293 I have seen the old crash test videos of the BMC cars and they did quite well for cars of that age. In an original Mini, you sit so far back from the windscreen and dashboard it probably had a beneficial effect.
At 8:59 the ADO74 front end looks remarkably similar to a Fiat Strada.
If ever there was a vehicle which the world did not actually need, it was the Mini Clubman. The original Mini had been remarkable for putting a full size car inside a modest overall length. All the Clubman did was to regain some of that length. To what use was the increased length put? It carried some additional empty, and unusable space.
At least the failure to update the Mini meant that the original shape had a very long time to bury itself into the public consciousness. So much so that its successor, sixty years later is still recognizably the legitimate descendant of the 1959 original.
A good thing, say I.
Not surprising really but the A112 has got a definite mini Allegro look about it.
Such as the Dahiatsu Trevis is a much better modern alternative to the 2001 "mini"
The new mini may sell more but Issigonis’ mini changed car design, for ever.
Plus, they were wickedly good fun to drive and held the road like a Go-cart.
The BMC hatchback mini was adorable!
Hahaha I hadn't seen that Landrover Ad before. Almost certain when it turned off road at at 17:46 it went straight over on its roof :D
You have by far my favorite car TH-cam channel, and with the amount of car TH-cam I consume that is really saying something. Have you ever considered doing a history of the Chevrolet Suburban?
Thanks John. American cars don’t tend to do very well with my mainly British audience, but maybe in the future.
Back in the day a friend of mine who ran a small repair shop imported several Innocenti minis and converted them to RHD using B.L mini parts. He had no trouble selling them on.
The BMC 9X seemed like an awesome design, shame it did not go anywhere
Amen. Would have been a hit IMO. Instead we have a german monstrousity the size of a Golf.
@@jimtaylor294 as an American I am pleasantly amused by your yardstick for monstrosity, but fully get what you are saying!
seriously?...it looked like a step back from the mini which had balanced proportions. The 9X was just an angular tin can with no discernible design or looks at all.
@@smurfsrule9680 respectfully disagree, I think it looks functional but still unique
@@lucagattoni-celli1377 Yeah functional is a good word for it........but no prettiness like the mini had. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess but 9X does nothing for me.
The second gen "New Mini Cooper S" where they replaced the supercharger with a turbo was an absolute belter of a car to own and drive...LOVED mine!
yea i own a 2011 mini cooper s 6 speed and it’s the most fun car to drive i have ever owned:)
Say what you want about the newer BMW Minis, they're petite little cars with personalities that outgrows them. While German Engineering is a hassle, it's not so bad compared to Lucas electronics of the OG Mini era. I still smile whenever I see either the OG one or the BMW one on the road, and would just creep slowly behind them as they zip along the slow lanes.
Great video as always! Also, the Rover's concept for the new BMW looked strangely similar to the Smart cars, also by BMW. I wonder if BMW just took Rover's design and scale it down?
Great story! I love the history and also love the modern Mini. Can't wait to see your video on that!
It's amazing how some of the updated designs are quite similar to the VW Up. I wonder if VW were inspired by some of these 60s/ 70s designs?
Rover did some serious minor re-engineering in the late 80s to eliminate some of the quality problems, such as the bonnet fouling the windscreen wipers. I believe that around that time they also finally introduced a single piece engine gasket to cut out the oil leaks.
These are Automotive enthusiasts bed time stories. Thanks Man for such great stories
The real Mini replacement was the 3cyl Daihatsu Cuore aka Mira, as noted I believe by Richard Hammond or one of his mates on Top Gear. (It was actually a third party replacement of the Daihatsu but essentially the same car). I have owned both Mini and Mira, but never a BMW. When I saw my first Mira in the street I fell in love with it and sought it out, buying new for NZD15K. That worked out to 1000 per year after selling ten years later for 1/3 its new price.
Did anybody else hear Inspector Clouseau speaking whenever "Minki" was mentioned?
😂
Do you have a liceunce?
@@BigCar2 - Perhaps if they had a concept called the Mini Myth, but I suspect it would have hit a bimp in the road.
"Oh, you have a beumb?"
Doues youer douge bite?.
My first (and second) cars were Minis. In terms of pure driving fun, out of all the cars I've ever owned it's right up in the top two (and there's a Porsche 944 below it in the list!)
That dashboard from the Minki from the Honda Beat car, not motorcycle:)
Thanks - I've pinned a comment with the correction.
@@BigCar2 ahaha it's all good. I only know as my dad has one and I thought I recognised it.
Ha, James you got there first, you Beat me to it. BTW I'm a dad and also have one in the garage.
@@davidstokes5444 dad? 😂
Well done! I always wanted to know the Mini story. I drove a few of the old ones in the early 70s. Loved them! I bought a 2009 a few years ago. It was fun until the timing chain jumped. I still have it in the garage as it lost compression in two cylinders. Not sure what I will do with it. Thank you for this great video.
You're welcome Jim!
I remember as a kid in the 80's one of our neighbors had a racing Mini Cooper. It made ridiculous noise and its size made it so funny. Maybe the best small car design along with Fiat 500. Many people were getting old used ones as a cheap city car solution. The BMW Mini failed to capture the essense of the original. The Mini supposed to be a cute looking little affordable car, aimed at young people as a first car, young couples, people that need to move around in big cities and as a second car. The BMW ''Mini'' is actually huge but somehow they managed to fail to have a comfortable interior. The car has basically almost the same size with a small family car but almost half of the interior room. Its very expensive for what it is. The parts and service are ''fire'' and it burns ALOT of gas. Its a car made for posh hypsters, spoilt brats and people that usually live beyond their financial ability. Its the iMac of the cars.
It's a terrible car isn't it? It's selling like hell🤔
I have driven a mini one for atleast 1,5 years and the Last thing id say about it that it is inefficient nor is it uncomfortable... Maybe im not fat enough to give such a statement huh
I still wonder what would have happened if de Tomaso had managed to export the innocenti NA and Turbo to other markets, things would have been different. It looked amazing in terms of design. I'm not sure if BMW Mini's success can be compared to the original. This one has a global demand that is sustained by the original hipe on markets it hadn't been sold plus the big load of different models by the same brand. The original mini was mostly successful in the common wealth + western Europe and mostly using one body with some variations. It's a shame though, I'm quiet sure that south America would have been an excellent market, giving the fact we have more euro influence in terms of car culture (and the fact we are so poor we can't afford V8s, but that's another conversation 😂)
You are right, in Colombia back in the late 80's and 90's the mini was a super cool car to own and I drove an anniversary edition made in Britain it was a very fun car and was peppy!! We had lots of them around but most of them were made on Venezuela I think and they were fiber glass.
@@andressosa8088 Yes, in the 90s there was a brief attempt to assemble the Mini in Venezuela with bodies made of fibreglass, but taht didn't last for too long, and only a few thousand were sold iirc.
I think the frame at 11 seconds explains why the mini was doomed.
Mr and Mrs average were 50 kilos smaller in mass than todays species.
Even Jack and Jill were tiny back then. Today the world needs a lite truck to cart around the 'Average' family.
Yeah, and also, today a family needs much more luggage space. Try selling a car whose boot is slightly lager than a bread bin to a modern-day family.
@@torstenscholz6243 As the great George Carlin always used to say , 'all our stuff'
Ive seen people in America that are individually fatter (and probably heavier) than that entire classic MINI... not even a joke... just go into any Walmart in the USA and see what I mean...
If you can say they “need” a truck.
I can say they need to be reasonably sized human beings.
Oh God, yet another video I won’t make it through. Your videos are so good they relax me to such an extend, I struggle after 2 minutes and fall asleep after another 2. Will always come back the next day to finish
😂 Maybe turn the volume up, and put a siren sound on your phone!
I chose my 2018 manual Mini Cooper in the same color scheme as your lego Mini but with cream interior and black wheels. BRG is the color a Mini should be bought.
My 1961mini was yellow with white roof and i added a matt black bonnet and boot in 1970. Mr Bean copied my mini!
In the seventies I had a car called the Austin America that was similar to that original mini. It had a stick shift, and I just loved it.
For me the BMW " Largey " isn't a success , the original was iconic and was called the " Mini " because it was a SMALL car . BMW have made a rebooted version that is as big as most hatchbacks and therefore moved away from the original concept of a small car , they should have taken the original design and just modernised it keeping to the same dimensions .
If they keep the same dimensions, then it wouldn't be anymore a 4 seater. It will become a 2 seater, due to the stricter crash safety regulations. It will compete with Mercedes-Benz' Smart.
@@jannadrielcervo7753 they probably should do that, a mini Mini. At least have the size of the Fiat 500
@@bri1085 Yeah, that would be awesome.
And yet BMW were right all the way as no one buys city cars anymore. All the city cars you can buy today (VW Up, Hyundai i10, Peugeot 108, Citroen C1) will die after they run their course.
@@stevodfn I own a 67 reg Suzuki Celerio and I see lots of them around where I live , with its 1L 3cyl engine it's a fantastic little car and having owned it from new I can tell you that apart from fuel and servicing it hasn't cost me a penny . The car has still got its original brake discs and pads and tyres , it does 76.5 mpg on a run with a full tank lasting me a couple of months , you can keep your bigger cars as they are not needed .
Fascinating story, and very well narrated by omitting all of the Cooper derivatives…..thanks for sharing!
Thanks, many of us of a certain age, learned all our car maintenance on a mini.
Some of the worst jobs were the CV joints, Hardy Spicer couplings, exhaust manifold coupling, rear sub frame, etc.
Just replacing the speedo cable was almost an engine out job, and of course who can forget the distributor in the rain, the solution was a five fingered condom and a liberal application of WD 40.
Thanks again for the history.
Happy memories! :) My first mini was such a shed that I used to park it facing downhill so I could push it, then hop in to bump start it. Loved that car!
I carried ramps and tools in the boot of my mini just for tightening or replacing those CV joints. The Quinton Hazell nylon ones were more reliable. I replaced the rusty broken rear sub frame in its 9th miserable year.
yes, the ignition parts were at the front getting the full force of any rain. Stupid!
I had a wild ride in A Innocenti DeTomaso as a passenger 😃
It felt special ☠️
You mentioned a couple of times that the Mini was too expensive to produce. I wonder why. That may be too deep into the industrial- design weeds, but I'd like to understand why.
I saw a vid that touched on this recently, can't remember where. It was about why BL failed. Basically most parts of the original Mini was relatively slow and complicated to assemble. They did a side-by-side comparison of someone fitting the door handle mech to a Mini and a contemporary (1970's) German car - can't remember what exactly. The Mini took about 4 minutes of fiddling with rods and catches while the German one took 45 seconds or something daft.
@@StupStups wow! That's a great example. Thank you. I'd sure like to see that video too.
@@StupStups MunroLive is a new TH-cam channel examining such things in the EV realm, and the steps being taken to make car building cheaper and simpler, especially compared to Tesla. Truly enlightening. The videos on the Ford Mach-E are the best examples.
Actually it was the way the car's panels were assembled on a jig. It was basically impossible to automate, and made every [real] Mini hand built.
By contrast the Metro was quite easy to produce, with most of the body being assembled in a Unimate production line, with fittings being done by hand.
@@jimtaylor294 if only they'd resigned even one assembly a year [door, for example] to ease manufacturing...
I've got a classic mini fast road/ track weapon, I absolutely love it, its like a road legal go cart!
th-cam.com/video/T3PaN1USUJw/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for the documentary! It helps me learn more about my favorite subject
An excellent history. I own a 2012 Mini Cooper and have always loved minis …they are the most lovable little cars in the world.
The Renault Twingo is better!
Any kei car is better
@@ocallaghan3865 I guess you’re right in terms of dependability and reliability and cost of running and all but despite its foibles one can’t help loving the little Cooper…
@@BigCar2 kei car
Yes! Finally the logic is here.
Unfortunately I Never owned a original mini but do own a 1st generation mini from BMW the R53 Mini Cooper s and it's awesome and definitely seems to be gaining fans from the die hard classic fans unlike at the beginning. possibly because of its design and the first prototype shell being built at rover where there is a photo floating around the internet for years confirming this. but the R56 onwards will never see that appreciation from the original fans as it has seriously lost its way from its heritage but it definitely has created a new following of its own. looking forward to the story you said your going to do for this one.
GM spent 2 billion developing the C8 corvette to put it into perspective how insane 1.7 billion for a compact econobox development
Original Mini: "We gotta keep the car and the costs small."
Current Minis: "haha air pump go boom"
The ADO74 looks very Citroen-esque.
I loved my original short bonnet mini.
I towed a large ski boat with it all over Wales. Had seat two in the back on the road, two on the bonnet up the ramp..
The supposed Metro replacement looks kind of like a citroen zx ,another Great video Cheers
The BMW mini is an incredible machine. German engineering mechanicals and the British doing all of the pretty parts you can see and touch was a perfect combination.
It has amazing quality, beautiful to look at thanks to the British touch, extraordinarily reliable, insanely well-engineered and packaged with more leg room in it than many cars twice its size.
And my black mini convertible still gets looks today, it looks like a baby Bentley with all of the black trim pieces blending in with the black body work and the Chrome standing out.
The one huge negative was when I went to get insurance and pay the property taxes and found out that I'd be paying those at the BMW level!
Mini was only the model, not the brand or make.
So I was paying the same amount of insurance and taxes as if I'd gotten a BMW 318.
But, zero regrets.
15 years later it is still running and looking very sharp, zero major mechanical problems, almost 200,000 mi and I haven't even been that good at keeping it maintained.
It just goes and goes and goes including the very unique top mechanism that you can even put part of the way open, a feature that is not shared with any BMW Porsche or any other car except for possibly one quarter million-dollar Mercedes-Benz or Bentley
Every other convertible the top has either up or down, there is no in between .
But this engineering should be copied by many people because there are many times it's nice to have it part of the way open in the windows down, you get much more use out of it that way throughout the year.
The newer ones I have considered seem to have taken a few steps back on quality and seemed much cheaper but overall the original BMW mini reboot is an amazing machine.
You are a good story teller my hairless friend, you could make interesting videos about any topic. Thanks for choosing cars!
😀
Love Minis. Love the classic and the new ones, especially the Union Jack headlights. No other car would be able to get away with that nor make it work
I like the old mini, but I don't really like the new one. That Minki one looks awesome. Than you very much :D
Yeah, I hate the BMW mini. It's so ugly.
Amen. That german monstrousity is also the size of a Golf. Not "Mini" by any definition.
I also like the Mini Spiritual Concept. They should have put that in production with exactly that shape, that would have been a sales hit (although they kinda did as I strongly suspect that the Spiritual was a major "inspiration" for the Citroen C1/Peugeot 107). But I agree, the new Mini is an ugly abomination that has as much to do with the original as the New Beetle with the old Beetle. The only ones who did it right were Fiat with their new 500 - that's a really lovely design that at least comes close to resembling the charm of the original.
@@torstenscholz6243 At least the old beetle and the new beetle (aka: Golf with a body kit) were made by the same company. The only thing the new mini has in common with the old one is the name. Its too big, its over engineered and there is no excitement when you drive it, the old one was fun to drive.
Great video, thank you. So depressing that BMW's version outsold the original though, really sad. Would love you to tell the Austin Ant story; what a fascinating car!
I've been waiting on a Mini based video from you for years! Love it!
I had a 1983 Austin Mini Mayfair as my first car back in 2012 and HATED BMW Minis because thats just what you had to do. Today I drive an '05 Mini Cooper and you can definitely see the design influences passed over and driving position that makes you feel like you're in a go-kart.
Sorry you have to put up with a BMW mini
Another great video as always, @bigcar
Pleased to see one of my own photos of the Towns Minissima during the credits, too.
Thanks Richard. I hope that was the one with credit on it.
@@BigCar2 Yes.
Good one, now we want a episode about the other long running brittish car, the Jaguar XJ6, and its versions..
That would be very cool.
I’m working on a Jaguar video, but not the XJ, but i talk about the XJ a bit.
@@BigCar2 Any Jag video is cool in my book, thank you very much. I have a feeling I know which model from their back catalogue it's going to be...
Okay, so the XJ6 video is yet to be made then as I see it ;)
@@misorodzinak8829 Care to share which one you think?
I reckon Your Big Car Channel, and possibly Ed China's Workshop, are the best Car Channels on You tube. Always enjoy your content, humour and ability to gently send up the little disasters that have been foisted on unsuspecting car owners over the years. Soon, I think you should do a video entitled " The Demise of the Car" or something like that, because the way things are going car ownership will not be for the masses any more. Cheers and thanks for adding quality to the internet.
Glad you’re enjoying the videos!
I really liked the original BMW Mini despite its shortcomings (thirsty engine, bad gearboxes, cheap interior), but since then - IMHO - it's gone downhill. Bit by bit. While the interior was getting better regarding the material used and we certainly got better engines, the interior design was improved to the worse. This started with the new speedo w/ integrated radio which I can still tolerate. But now, there's no more analoge center speedo at all. Not even as an option. Only this stupid rectangular display in a round bezel. I just hope BMW will offer at least a round fully digital TFT sometime in the future. With changeable backgrounds and fake analogue dials. If they were really clever they would make it fully customizable and let the community share their themes.
The first gen BMW Mini’s 6 speed is a very reliable gearbox, it’s the Rover 5 speed and the CVT that’s unreliable. The second gen also got a worse and way less reliable engine. The first gen’s engine is reliable even with additional boost vs the second gens failing even stock.
British nostalgia big time in here. The BMW Mini has been a huge success. Me, i like the R56 the most
The car was too small to be a big seller.....
I see what you did there
Subaru vivio in europe says otherwise
Great history about the Mini. I would like to watch a video about the mini lookalike such as the Daihatsu and the Nissan Micra.
The front on the Easy Goméz looks a lot like the Simca from the same period.
Great video! very well documented, so much news, new pics I've never seen before. Great!
I had a 1959. When I wanted another, original Mini, they had gotten really expensive. Then the new Mini came out, unfortunately,
it had lost one of the great qualities of the original; mechanical simplicity. I ended up buying a used 1993, Metro; Geo Metro that is.
This is one of the best cars ever built. Great fun to drive, very inexpensive to own, easy to repair (first because they don't break
down, second because the parts are super inexpensive) and comfortable. There is one problem though, it's hard to find one for sale.
The people that have them don't want to sell. I know I won't.
A buddy owned a Metro 3 cyl coupe'. He loved it, could make maintenance repairs, and bought an extra engine "just in case".
A reference library for automotive designers to understand the cars story of the past
Another awesome video from Mr. Big Car himself! The highlight of my Fridays! Keep up the amazing work! :)
Love your Lego models in the background, I too am a Lego car building fan, I have even made some of my own designs. Love the Cateram
I've had a bunch of minis but my favourite was my 1966 Mk1 Super deluxe.
I had a new 1966 Morris Mini, no choice of any models besides the one in Denmark (oh, Cooper and Cooper S!), and it definitely was a car that wasn't really finished with leaks, faults and odd solutions (Who got the brilliant idea to connect + from the battery, to the frame?) anywhere you searched, and many where you didn't even try to look for them! But I loved it then, as it was my first car! But for years I have now had german and french cars, which have functioned - except one BMW 320, which was only 9 months old when I sold it again, and still with a factory warranty. I didn't use it that much, as it was mostly in a shop for free repairs!
@@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188 electrons flow from the negative to the positive, so positive earth is technically correct even if not intuitive, positive earth was common on older vehicles and when I started driving it was something to look for when installing things like radios, eight tracks, and new fangled cassette players. 🙂.
I owned a used 1961 Mk I from May 1967 to August 1968. It had difficulty coping with Southern Califoria freeways. A dozen miles at 65 mph and she started to overheat despite the 'tropical" radiator fitted to US-market cars. The overheating was ironically paired with an unwillingness to start on cool SoCal morinings --no freezing nights no snow. Don't get me wrong for a purchase price of $200 it was a fun and surprisingly reliable ride --once it started.
You could, in theory and practically, build yourself a new mini as there’s a company that makes body panels and; body shells.
The engine, gearbox and running gear might be a problem though.
You know what would we be an easy and straightforward engine swap? How about a Celica GT-4?
I have 2 R56s and I really want to own an original Mini someday. I love these cars so much
Ah, so we nearly got the Mini Popemobile.
Bertone 's Mini is *so* cute...
It sold well in Italy, it was everywhere!
Did that Defender flip at the point the clip ends? Looks awfully like the rear it about the flip up and over!
TH-cam should promote this channel, it's fantastic. Filled with historic photos & information, the voiceover is unlike the usual TH-cam "shouty" type lol.
You keep making & we'll keep watching 😂👏👏
Glad you enjoy it Dave!