For once, the pendulum didn’t swing. If you’ve been following my car history these past months, you know that I have tended to veer between successive cars that had relatively little in common. I have gone from a larger car to a smaller car and then back either through chance or to meet some kind of automotive desire that my current car did not possess.
My MINI on Top – of Mt. Washington, NH
The 2002 MINI S that came after my 1993 Sentra SE-R was an exception to this pendulum swing in that it continued the small, zippy theme. It was even kind of boxy. But unlike the SE-R, the MINI came with a whole raft of non-automotive extras unlike any car I had before or have had since.
Just part of my MINI swag collection.
For the MINI, I apparently have multiple folders of this swag and yet seem to have lost all of the car’s purchase and service records. In a way, the fact that all which remains is the ephemera is sort of telling about my whole new MINI experience.
“Let’s Motor”…or tip the pen so that the little MINI floats from CA to NY. The pen still writes!
There’s been much written on CC about the original, British, Mini but relatively little about the new BMW-produced MINI. Note the capitalization of the name of the new car. As an early adopter (2002 was the first year of the new MINI in the US) I was a member of various online communities related to MINI. Back in those days, we actually spent time chastising the authors of posts who did not adhere to the all capitalization thing. Many adherents to the cult of MINI tended to constantly use words such as “motoring” instead of driving. I refuse to admit that I ever typed such nonsense. Except of course when interacting with other MINI fanatics.
When describing the early days of the new MINI, it’s difficult to decide how much to write about the actual car versus the image that MINI wanted to create surrounding the car. MINI seemed to be promoting a lifestyle and state of mind as much as it was a car.
The task of this promotion of course fell to MINI USA’s ad agency. In the beginning, this was Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) and it seems that the fervor about which they went at their task of defining the MINI “mindset” has become somewhat legendary in the advertising world. For example, on the matter of “motoring”, CP+B noted:
Motoring is different than driving, it’s more exhilarating. It’s less about getting from A to B and more about getting from A to Z – about taking a unique route. It’s a closer relationship between driver, car and road.
Motoring was the big idea that was at the heart of launching the new MINI in the U.S.. We knew motoring was something MINI could own because every other automobile manufacturer talks about driving.
Now, I realize that much of this sort of thing is standard ad biz talk. The discussion in the Adweek article from which the above text comes is classic insider baseball around how the images and campaigns we see as consumers are made. Nevertheless the fervor with which BMW and its subsidiary MINI USA went at this stuff has to be acknowledged. While the goal was of course to sell cars, one would not be wrong if they assumed that MINI was as much a lifestyle as a car.
And in fact, MINI was about selling a car targeted to a lifestyle whether fabricated or pre-existing (I think it’s some of both) that didn’t necessarily desire a car so much as a feeling and a desired connection – community, if you will — to other people who presumably felt the same way.
Take for example the “Manual of Motoring”. This of course wasn’t the actual owner’s manual but rather a multi-page advertisement.
Take a deep breath and cast yourself back to 2001/2. This should be easy if you’re a Millennial or older. Younger, you’ll have to take my word for it.
As it says, the manual was ostensibly all about the difference between driving and “motoring”. In the process of course of describing the motoring lifestyle/state of mind, it managed to spend most of the text describing features of the MINI. Nevertheless, this was ostensibly all about something other than a car.
Note the custom Dr. Martins
As in, for example, how your MINI was a musical instrument dedicated to your unique musical self-expression.
Of course, MINI was certainly not beyond mentioning the age-old proposition of using your car to attract mates.
I love this (classic new MINI artwork) image. I imagine that the dude succeeded with the girl and now they’re married and in their mid-40s. Just look at her, and her left wrist. This was going to happen! Today she’s driving an X5 and he’s in a Tesla S (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The cat may still be alive. My parents had a cat who lived to be about 25.
But it all started with the wacky headlights in the hood.
Sorry, I meant “bonnet”.
Yes, it’s about the MINI’s low center of gravity. I think.
This guy might have made the cover of the Motoring Manual, but I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that he isn’t driving a Tesla. We can only imagine how things turned out for him.
In those early years between 2002 and about 2006, MINI’s agency was in over-drive. At one point they produced a 40 page paperback novella related to a campaign that had something to do with space aliens and robots and MINIs.
Seriously, there were 30+ pages of text and photographs that you’d have to read very closely to figure out that it had anything to do with MINIs.
Until you got to the last page. I suspect that despite all of the work, this was not one of CP+B’s best efforts (it was produced just before BMW moved the account to another agency…go figure); but if nothing else I applaud them for making the assumption that humans with purchasing power would actually read text.
This is not an assumption that anyone would be foolish enough to make in 2021.
LOL!
All of this media hype added up to the fact that the first 20,000 or so new MINIs that were destined for the US in 2002 were readily snapped up. I had noticed the MINI just about as soon as it was announced and I did my research. What I found was that the MINI Cooper S (MCS) would probably offer me performance at least on par with, and likely exceeding, what I had with the slowly fading SE-R. Published data seems to prove that out. The MCS had about the same power as the Nissan (roughly 20 hp more) and very similar performance characteristics. The MINI, while having roughly equivalent front seat headroom and legroom as the Nissan was actually a smaller, yet slightly heavier, car. Passenger volume in the MINI was about five cubic feet less than the Nissan, and the trunk volume of the MINI was about half of the Nissan. I’d say that data is generous since as far as I could tell, the MINI really didn’t have a “trunk”. It had a small shelf behind the 2nd seat that could hold a couple of bags of groceries or a duffel.
Clearly “motoring” was not about “carrying”. Nor really should adherents to the MINI lifestyle have much to carry besides perhaps a musical instrument (if the car itself wasn’t enough) or maybe a bike. In its “Let’s Stash Stuff” section, the Motoring Manual stated that the glove compartment was good for storing a “hoagie or chocolate bars”. No mention was made of a trunk.
But just as one would be silly to complain about the lack of cargo room on a bicycle or a motorcycle..or a go-kart…the point of the MINI was just to carry your and a passenger’s butt on motoring adventures of whimsy and discovery. And in the MCS version, carrying you rather quickly.
First day.
Here I am in September, 2002. Day 1, having just taken delivery after a many-months long process of ordering and waiting. I picked it up down on Long Island as that was the closest MINI dealer to me from which I could secure an order slot. My MINI was the first and only — thus far — car that I ordered, monitored being built, and then watched make its slow progress across the Atlantic. This was great fun and was pretty much what all MINI owners did in 2002. In those early years, dealers were selling the car largely sight unseen. The common practice was to go in and look at a demonstrator, maybe take a test drive, and then put your deposit down. After which, you would wait for an order slot while you proceeded to configure your car online and became further indoctrinated into the motoring lifestyle.
I configured mine with the sport package (that gave me DSC and 17” wheels) and premium package (sunroof) with leatherette (vinyl) seats. The Electric Blue color as well as the aluminum interior trim (painted plastic) were exclusive to the MCS. Mine had a white roof and white mirrors minus the very popular at the time Union Jack wrap. Navigation was available, but that was one option I decided I could do without (along with leather seats). Since every MINI at that time was special-ordered, I could be pretty sure that no one had one exactly like mine. I’m fairly confident that’s true.
After you picked up your car – some dealers included a small celebration with delivery…Why not? They had time on their hands what with only being able to deliver a handful of cars each week. – you became fully part of the small club of MINI owners. We flashed headlights when encountering another MINI. We gathered for drive-in movie screenings of the Italian Job remake (in 2003).
But in fact we seldom saw other MINIs unless we made a point of it. Aside from random highway encounters, you tended to know the three or four other MINIs you’d see around town (my town is Boston…it still seemed like there were only three or four other MINIs around).
The MINI was true to the “go-kart handling” phrase used constantly in reviews. Extraordinarily low and fast, the car seemed very much stuck to the ground. The super-charged engine felt similar to the Nissan, but smoother. Never having driven another super-charged engine, I really had (and have) nothing to compare it to other than to say that the car seemed more than able to handle anything I asked of it. It wasn’t as good in the snow as the SE-R due mostly to the fact that it didn’t have the LSD and was so low that taking it out in any snow more than 6” was pointless. Still, I put Blizzaks on and got around in the winter.
Speaking of tires, the MCS represented an early foray by BMW into the runflat tires that would later become ubiquitous on most BMWs. In the MCS, the addition of the supercharger under the hood (dang, “bonnet”) necessitated moving various components around from their regular Cooper arrangement. Since the MINI’s engine compartment was already packed to the density of a Swiss watch movement, something had to go and it turned out that was the battery. Moved to the trunk (sorry, “boot”) which as we’ve already discussed had almost negative space, what then got moved out was the spare tire. BMW solved this problem by specifying run flats, hence no spare.
Run flats – particularly 17’ low profile ones like I had – rode harsh. Harsh like made of concrete harsh. I ditched the run flats a few years into ownership in favor of conventional tires. Hence, I carried one of those Continental sealant/inflator things in the boot…thereby losing yet more space back there.
Still, owning the MINI was always more about fun than performance. It was just such a loveable little oddball of a car. Dogs and kids loved it (well, my kids and dogs at least). I should say that kids loved the idea of it…they loved riding in it once they were old enough to sit in the front seat. That back seat really worked for no one. I could fit one kiddo car seat back there, but not two. Which was a problem since I had two kids. I folded the seat down when the much more accommodating (than kids) dogs rode with me. In that regard, it was perfectly sized for 1 passenger up front and a dog or maybe two in the back. Really, I would ideally need nothing more from a car.
Ideally. And therein lies the problem.
Frankly, I’m not even so sure that the dogs were terribly happy back there. They just knew better than to complain.
All that I’ve said about MINI ownership was true for about the first six years that I had the car. The headlight flashing, child-delighting, motoring lifestyle stuff. The feeling that you had access to something special that not everyone else knew of or used. But as with everything fizzy and frothy and good, there’s often an expiration date. The MINI kind of hit that point after the first five years or so.
Here’s where the new MINI can be put into its historical context. The new MINI came along at a time in the early part of this century when oddball cars from major manufacturers were a frequent occurrence. Think PT Cruiser, New Beetle/Audi TT, Crossfire, Prowler, Retro-Thunderbird, Chevy SSR/HHR, etc.. All of these attempted to tap into something besides traditional automotive values such as power, utility, economics. I’m sure that many readers have more insight into this particular moment in automotive cultural history than do I. My point here though is to note that the new MINI’s moment arrived, then went. To its credit, MINI is about the only one of the early 2000s cars mentioned above that has managed to carry on to the present, albeit in somewhat modified form (which I suppose one would suspect for a car line that is now nearly 20 years old). So kudos to MINI for having both jumped the shark and somehow managing to keep going.
Kind of. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that the MINI Coupe should have been eaten by the shark or that some of the current crop of MINIs seem like they’re too fat to jump much of anything.
All told, I motored along in my MCS for about 8 years, putting on just under 130K miles. For me, that’s a low number and it came from the fact that with two toddlers (in 2002) and ultimately elementary-aged kids in 2010 there simply wasn’t enough room in the MINI to adequately perform kid schlepping or road tripping. We went through a string of other vehicles for that and therefore the MINI was solely used for my commuting.
Honestly, I also always felt that the MINI was a bit fragile. Some of that comes from its being a first model year car, and a lot of it came from a scarcity of places in those early days to get a MINI serviced. Back then, BMW was still building out its MINI dealer network and maintained a policy of not servicing MINIs at BMW dealers. In fact, for the first several years, it was almost a surprise discovery for some owners to find that their MINI was in fact a BMW (albeit one with a Chrysler engine, assembled in a former Rover factory). MINI and BMW worked hard – MINI particularly – to obscure their corporate connection.
Where this was a practical problem was when you had to queue up at the MINI dealer for warranty service issues. In 2002, there were all of three MINI dealers in New England. One in Hartford, one in Boston (that was notoriously bad to customers), and the one that pretty much everyone else went to north of Boston. I would routinely meet people in the service waiting area taking advantage of the comfy couches to nap, because they had just driven five hours from Maine to get to their service appointment. And it could be weeks before you got an appointment. In my car, which needed its passenger airbag wiring replaced several times a year, that could be a significant problem.
If one was inclined to simply blow off the warranty and seek service outside of MINI, you then ran into the problem that there were very few independent mechanics who were willing to touch the car.
Tucking into an R50 MINI’s engine bay is not for the faint of heart. Even routine repairs require fairly major disassembly. Of course, this would typically generate substantial labor charges once out of warranty. Eventually it became clear that even if housed in separate buildings, MINI service departments had the same labor charges as those of their BMW overlords. So much for being able to afford maintaining the car at the MINI dealer after the warranty expired.
Fortunately for me, my car’s basic mechanical systems were largely reliable. I did need to have the clutch replaced about half way through ownership and that was (as we say here) a wicked expensive job, even though I had it done by an indy. My car also had the very common water pump and other cooling system failures (again, something that required a thorough disassembly of stuff under the bonnet). Beyond that, there were constant electrical gremlins that some would say were simply ghosts of MINI’s British past. I actually say that they were the result of bizarro engineering decisions such as putting a tiny electric pancake fan (think of something from a desktop PC) flush with the bottom of the car and making it responsible for cooling the very expensive and hard to reach electo-hydraulic power steering pump. Eventually I installed an aftermarket fan protector to keep mud and debris from fouling the fan; later BMW redesigned the fan altogether.
Thinking back to last week’s discussion of daily driver, I’d say that ultimately the MINI failed my dd criteria. It was often impractically small and somewhat prone to expensive failure. It was on the other hand certainly fun to drive and for a while fun to own for its uniqueness. But in that daily weighing of costs vs. benefits, the MINI eventually generated more costs than benefits.
At only 8 years old, and as a well-optioned higher end model with no physical damage, I knew that I could probably get a decent trade-in value for the car. Ultimately, that turned out to be around $6500 over the Internet to the dealer where I had found my next car. Loading up kid #1, I set out on a two-day road trip to North Carolina to make the trade.
Last day.
So it ended as it started. Standing in a parking lot in front of a wacky little car. With 130K miles of motoring in between.
Just don’t call it “driving”.
Rumor has it – maybe I started the rumor – that Peter Eames of Greasy’s Garage in Worcester, MA came up with the original “I killed the clown” sticker that opens this piece. If so, that’s one more skill that Pete has in addition to being a very fine MINI mechanic who kept my MINI on the road longer — probably much longer — than it wanted.
I remember seeing those when they were new – they were hard to not notice if you are the kind of person who notices cars. They were intriguing little things, but when they came out they had zero relevance to my stage of life. Though we had no dogs, we had 3 elementary school age kids so any second vehicle that was not a van required more room for people + stuff. Plus, I have always been kind of Mr. Anti-Trend so an early Mini (see, I refuse to follow convention even here) would not have suited me at all.
But I can see the appeal – of all of the “retro cars” of that period, this was perhaps the most credible on its own terms as a car. Like you, I am kind of amazed that they have managed to stay around, though I am not sure how relevant they are any more.
Very nice article. I considered a (used) MINI several times, but by then internet info @ expensive failures needing repeat repair$, plus lack of any dealer closer than @ 120 miles put the kibo$h on such thoughts. Instead each time I was “tempted” I kept whatever Miata I had.
I drove 3 used stick MINIS (1 a S) that were all very FTD, and 1 CVT……meh was the best I could come up with for that one. Now that, due to a butchered left hip replacement I can no longer drive a stick without almost instant pain, therefore the “de$ire” to own a slick looking lil early MINI has vanished. Perhaps best for my wallet!!?
I certainly did fall in “love” when I saw the MINI intro at the Detroit Auto Show tho, oh $igh…….DFO
I had a 2003 Cooper S, a clone of yours in appearance but a year younger. I purchased and had it initially serviced at Mini of Peabody (the dealer “north of Boston”). Later I found Greasy’s and switched to them. I spent many hours in their respective “lounges”; I suspect we probably have met or at least occupied the same room at the same time!
I loved my Mini, and put a lot of miles on it commuting into Cambridge from the north of Boston. I loved the compact size, the handling, and the whine of the supercharger as I wound it through the gears. It was pretty reliable in the first 8 years or so, but in the warranty period there were many recalls, and later it demonstrated the concept of “design life” as various random parts began to fail. Autocrossing probably accelerated some of that.
I finally sold it to a Chump Car team for $500. It had 247K miles at that point, enough to get to the Moon, if not back, but still farther than most cars. I should really write a COAL about that car…
I’m sure we did! 🙂
I first met Pete after being referred to him – right before he got his own place (that became Greasy’s) – by someone at an auto parts store where I had broken down somewhere in Worcester. I can’t even remember what the issue was.
Waiting a year from 2002 was probably a wise decision.
Nice, I really liked the early MINI, and yes they have certainly gotten fatter over the years. It’s still on my list for a possible student car but maintenance and reliability issues have pushed it far down that list.
BTW if you remember that post, my son wound up working remotely from home for his work term thanks to Covid, since I’m still working from home for the foreseeable future I won’t need a student car until at least summer 2022 and possibly spring 2023.
I think the best part of the Manual of Motoring was the unconventional use of headlights if you’re hopelessly stranded. That really foreshadows the MINI’s reputation as an unreliable used car. Help!! Help!!
“Even routine repairs require fairly major disassembly.”
My love affairs in the ‘90s with affordable (to purchase) European cars ended with the inability of their makers to take into account how commonly repaired or replaced components are accessed. And naturally it’s components that typically last beyond the warranty.
Unfortunately, this disease seems to have spread to US and Asian makes in recent years.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for packaging efficiency. But when you need to practically tear down an engine to replace a water pump, or remove a tire and assorted splash guards to get to the battery, it comes across to me as lazy designing/engineering.
We had 2 Minis- a 2012 Clubman and a 2015 Hardtop. No kids so the backseat was usually folded down for cargo in the Clubman. I think we had actual people in there, like, 2 or 3 times in 6 years.
Perfect cars for one’s thirties when once can still wrangle one’s limbs into such a low car, and especially if one also forgets to produce children during this time. But, and I can’t stress this enough, both were leases. So at the end of 3 years at 8,000 or so miles, they got returned to the dealer to become someone else’s problem. Which is probably why I can still look fondly upon them.
Chris, I think that your MINI experience – although a number of years after mine – was in fact rather classic for the brand. Many many of these cars were leased and were turned in as soon as the lease was up. Many had low mileage since they were typically owned by people who didn’t actually wind up doing a lot of driving/motoring. (Note that I say “many”…clearly some racked up miles like any other car.)
I recall noting that effect 2 or 3 years into my ownership when cars started to fall into possession of drivers who had not gone through the rarity years and who had not done the whole custom ordering thing but rather picked their cars up from the used/off-lease market. It’s hard to underestimate the effect that pouring through the MINI configuration site and immersion in motoring culture had on early adopters. It was of course all part of the hype, but my point is that all of that hype served to obscure some of the cars’ flaws to owners. (Again, I’m not suggesting that what I found as flaws were indeed flaws to all owners.) As the hype naturally died down, the car had to stand more on its own automotive merits, which were not for everyone. I think some of what currently exists as a MINI is intended to address those flaws…and thus, ironically, results in a loss of some of the original cars’ goodness.
Jeff, first off as long as I have your ear, I’ve really enjoyed your COALs. Thank you for sharing them.
Minis (MINIS?) are, of course very good city cars, and so I’m guessing a lot of them had the duty cycle ours did- a few miles during weekdays with the longer trips (and by “longer” I mean, like 20-30mi) on the weekend. So not surprising that a lot of the off-lease cars are low mileage. (Of course, those low miles can also be the most punishing miles a car can take.)
That being said, I’m certainly glad we did have them when we did. And even if I’ve aged/left the market for one, I’m glad they’re still around.
Hmmmm. That MINI dealer in Boston with the bad reputation. Worked in the Dave Dinger Ford that he took over. Could write a book about my encounters with the guy who claims to be different than all the other dealers (but is actually worse, especially in the service department with the proliferation of wallet flushes). Threatened the entire shop with termination after a mole in the service department squealed about us trying to unionize. We had a vote scheduled with the IAM and he called all the techs up to a conference room and made the veiled threats on the day of the vote while singling out someone (not mentioning any names but the only master tech in the shop) in particular. But this is merely for entertainment purposes, don’t want to get sued lol.
Let’s all sing the jingle!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMYWNWqfzUk&w=961&h=721%5D
What a blast! I haven’t heard that in at least 30 years. Definitely the best dealer jingle. The arrangement sounds like it could have been written by Ray Charles.
From Chicago TV from back in the day:
https://youtu.be/_ODO4XI1Tq4
“Talk about classic chassis!” Classic!
Excellent! I’m not from Chicago, but I love that commercial.
And I think I now know from where the SNL folks cribbed some of the underlying structure of the tune from the recurring “What’s Up With That” song.
I was surprised to read these were launched in 2002 as I have distinct memories of taking the kids to a dealer and checking out the backseat. And I thought this was to check it out, before we ended up with a New Beetle in late 2000. I guess that rather than steering us to the Beetle as I thought, it in fact confirmed my opinion that the MINi was just a two-seater. In hindsight I can’t imagine what prompted me to take the kids to a car dealer??!! But the Beetle actually had a fairly roomy back seat, and our daughter still owns it today. 21 years later it has fewer miles than you put on your MINI in 8 years, and TBH the VW seems to have been more reliable, though perhaps not by much. Both iconic cars of the early 2000’s, in slightly different ways. Even though I thought the “Let’s Motor” campaign was silly, the agency did a pretty good job of convincing Americans who had probably never seen or even heard of the original Mini, that the car had a history. Not unlike the later Fiat 500, but very different than the Beetle or PT Cruiser which evoked real memories from many buyers.
The Mini Cooper S was launched in the U.S. in 2002. The non-S Cooper (the one you looked at) preceded it by a couple of years.
In trying to confirm my recollections, I checked a lot of sites and they all said the Mini was first shown in the US at a car show in January 2001 but not on sale till later in the year. We bought our VW in late November 2000, a 2001 model year. But if you’re right it certainly matches how I remember it.
When these were in development I was quite interested, being a European car obsessed
late teenager. As the reality came closer, the appeal dimmed, just a little too twee.
Retro is a fine line, hommage can work, distorted photocopy does not. The Mini did
a great job on the exterior front, less so inside. The union jack fetish was/is rather silly,
although if that is what someone is into, well, why not? For some reason that type of
thing works better on an interesting old beater owned by a kid who painted it by hand
than on a new vehicle piloted by a middle aged school administrator.
It sounds like it was an enjoyable car, if not really very useful or functional, and you
got out of it at the right time, a key element of any human endeavor.
” In my car, which needed its passenger airbag wiring replaced several times a year” — if this is serious (really? airbag wiring??) then my suspicions about their build quality and reliability were justified. That should never need to happen.
It seemed like all the neoretro cars from that time (Beetle, HHR, MINI, PTCruiser, etc.) were less than Corolla or Sentra reliable while forcing compromises on the driver like not being able to put two kid seats in the back. Perhaps Mitsuoka should have gotten into the North American market!
Chose a PT Cruiser over this in 2003, as the quality and service issues of the Mini, er, MINI, were lined up against those of the better Neon, from which the PT was mechanically derived. The PT, while about 7/8 sized overall, had a real back seat. I often did have MINI envy, though.
The Union Jack decals and wraps were a bit over the top. The British did like to festoon things with flag emblems, at least some of them did (I lived there for a while). It just seemed a real affectation when Americans did it, though (and it still does, to me).
Ok, the CC Effect can be like the proverbial “Scary Clown” sometimes.
I just read your COAL for today Jeff, right before taking a walk after lunch here at work.
What do I see parked “Curbside” near our building? (where there a MANY parking spaces, so THIS I don’t get) But a MINI Cooper in nearly the same color as yours.
While one of the people who works here has one of your generation with the correct number of doors, his is a brown or maroon color. I chose to shoot the one below instead. The one I see everyday does not qualify for CC Effect status.
The one pictured below is a 4 door (I didn’t even know that was a thing, other than maybe the Clubman). It’s also not an S, but you get the idea.
CC Effect indeed. I’ve never seen that car parked there before today. Cue the Twilight Zone music….
Wow! CC Effect indeed!
Still the best color, but I’m not so sure about the 4-door thing. I realize that this could be controversial, but it’s related to what I was saying in my response to Chris Cieslak above…I think that addressing the MINI’s issues around space by adding 2 extra doors just ends up diluting some of what was/is special about the car to begin with. A 4 door MINI is more of a Maxi, and that’s not what a MINI was supposed to be about. Yeah I know, “supposed to be” is less fact than opinion, but I would contend that once the MINI has grown extra doors and inches it enters into a territory where it needs to compete with a whole lot of other cars; at which point, it gets harder to justify buying a MINI.
I do, fwiw, put the Clubman into a different category in that it was always a larger Mini and therefore isn’t in the same league as the Mini-MINI.
I said at the time when we went to trade in the 2012 for the 2015 and seeing the 4 door in person for the first time that it was just “a really weird Golf.” We ended up downsizing from the Clubman to the 2-door.
Our Clubman was Hot Chocolate metallic brown with black roof and C pillars. That was a great color combo IMO.
My longtime employer’s informal style manual refused to use all caps for MINI, SAAB, and the various Saturn models (AURA, VUE, ION).
And no all lower case letters for smart fortwo!
Last, it’s Mazda 3, Mazda 6, etc. with a space between make and model (handy for dropdown selections), not like some say Mazda Mazda3.
Part of my work involves copyediting (and often rewriting) technical documents related to certain sectors of the automotive industry. I, too, insist on grownup capitalisation: I don’t care how you choose to stylise your company’s name on your website or atop your building, nor do I care how you might choose to present the name of your latest product; in these documents you may have one uppercase letter, and it will be the first letter in the name. You will be described as Bizcorp, not BIZCORP; Companyco, not cOmpanycO. Industrynext, not industrynext. This goes for product names, too.
Furthermore, your products are things, not sentient beings. As such, there will be an article before the product name. Your new Toothgnasher sedan, for example, will be written about as the Toothgnasher, not as “Toothgnasher”.
Amen! Preach on, brother!
_Thank you._ I can’t stand the whole cars-without-articles thing either.
“…you may have one uppercase letter, and it will be the first letter in the name.”
You may have a Scotch-Irish revolt on your hands with those capitalization rules.
McAdams, McDonalds, McGregors and McTavishes of the world…UNITE! 😂
Real, legitimate names like this get spelt as they’re meant to be spelt: McAdam, McDonald, McGregor, McGillicuddy, etc.
Contrived look-how-clever-we-are names like WenomatiX get spelt as though the grownups are in charge: Wenomatix.
Edge cases keep copyeditors up at night (BlackBerry, iPhone).
I hope you realize that my comment was made absolutely, positively, 100% tongue-in-cheek.
In my days as a copy editor and technical writer, weird cases, spellings and yes, punctuation in the name of “branding” would at times drive us mad.
If I have multiple high-end Apple devices, do I have iPhone Pros or iPhones Pro?
*dodges multiple iPhones thrown at head*
You have iPhone Pros, or Iphone Pros, depending on how rigidly we’re sticking to initial-caps-only. The product is called the “iPhone Pro”, so that’s what gets pluralised. “Pro” here is not part of a positional title (as in Attorney General –> Attorneys General), nor is it a compound noun (as in passer-by –> passers-by or runner-up –> runners-up).
Makes sense to me. “Iphone” just looks weird to me, but iPhones paid for my Minis and are currently paying for my Buick, so maybe I’m willing to pay them a little more deference. (My career for the last decade has been writing apps for them.)
Oh yes? What kinds of apps?
I’ve worked on a bunch-o-apps over the last 11 years or so… recently if you’ve booked a room in the last 4 years or so at a major hotel you’ve probably hit something i’ve worked on. Or if you’ve bought a ticket off a 3rd-party broker in the late Teens. Or (and I’m pretty sure this isn’t the case) if you were an over-the-road trucker in the last couple years.
Oh, I forgot I can talk about this now, years ago I wrote Roger Ebert’s Great Movies app. I don’t think it’s been updated since I wrote it 10 years before, but as a native Chicagoan and Illinois alumnus that was a very special thing I got to work on.
Hear hear! On a related note, a savings account is called a spaarrekening where I am sitting. Yet one of our major banks prefers to call it a SpaarRekening. Some other accounts are InternetSparen en DirectRekening.
Ridiculous, or at 0:08 below:
Hear hear! On a related note, a savings account is called a spaarrekening where I am sitting. Yet one of our major banks prefers to call it a SpaarRekening. Some other of their accounts are InternetSparen and DirectRekening.
Ridiculous, or at 0:08 below:
Although SAAB is an acronym and the others listed here aren’t, Saab itself never insisted on being referred to as SAAB when (for example) one of its cars was being reviewed, at least not that I recall.
Publications do have their quirks; one of the style rules at my employer’s magazine/journal/website is to use italics for et al. but never for any other latin term (e.g., i.e., in vitro, etc.). A weird one from 40 years ago was when Starlog magazine always capped ALIEN but never any other movie. Around the same time, as I recall, Consumer Reports finally stopped italicizing car model names (for example, the Chevrolet Impala).
Well, I own a 2019 Mazda6, no space between Mazda and 6. Doesn’t really matter what all the budding copy-editors here think or believe or want to be the case. One just has to visit the Mazda Canada website, hit the vehicles tab, and Bob’s yer uncle. There’s the proof, it’s official and presumably trademarked. My owner’s manual is written/printed the same way. You write and tell Mazda to change their ways if it upsets you so much. I’m sure you’ll get a lovely response.
It’s like Mr Stern spelling capitalization as capitalisation, the everyday British way. But go to the Oxford English Dictionary, and the correct spelling has a “z”. Yes, even in my 1933 Oxford Universal Edition, all 10 lbs of it. The Brits wander around in a haze, and I can say that with clear conscience. I was born in Oxford, England just post WW2 and still have citizenship, I think, although I became Canadian in 1965.
I’ll spell it MINI as well. BMW does.
It’s good that you gave it a try, Bill, but you might’ve tried a little bit harder before handing declaiming your verdict about the “correct” spelling.
If it gives you a warm fuzzy to answer “What car do you have?” with “I have a Mazda Mazda6”, by all means do so; it’s unlikely anyone’s going to try to stop you, though some people will probably chuckle or scoff a little. You might want to consider saying “I have a Mazda™ Mazda6®”, though, just to be sure.
As to my copyediting work: it’s highly regarded by those who pay me for it. Thanks for your input, though!
I know the driving experience of the MINI was probably something I’d appreciate, but I came to appreciate Honda reliability even more, and the original Mini dash was a mixture of switches and textures randomly scattered like the whole design staff weren’t on speaking terms.
Rode in one ONE time, I thought the seat handle was going to come off in my hand. Folding myself into the back probably looked interesting but once there the room wasn’t awful.
All the while I thought Honda could’ve jumped aboard that bandwagon with a similar pastiche of the mid-70s Civic and raked in the cash.
Until I read the ad in the second picture of the guy standing behind the door, I thought they were warning owners not to urinate in public. They might have used a different color than yellow for the towel.
During the US launch in 2002, I chanced on driving a MINI. At first, the sales associate was quite sceptical whether a very tall man (205cm tall) would ever manage to climb in and out of MINI, let alone fitting in comfortably. Well, MINI had plenty of room for me at expense of rear seat legroom behind me.
When I lived in San Francisco, the car hire agency had three MINIs for the weekend hire. I booked one and drove out to Mount Shasta. More I drove, more I enjoyed driving MINI. The car was surprisingly easy to get in and out as well as very comfortable for the long road trip.
Unfortunately, MINI has overdosed on SAD (Standard American Diet) with each subsequent generation. That killed the idea of MINI being mini. Not to mention the SUV versions and five-door versions with horrendously truncated rear passenger doors.
I can see this is one I’ll be coming back to read again and again.
We accidentally had a MINI in the family for four years. That was Mandy, a 2015 Cooper in Volcanic Orange with black stripes. I say accidentally as it was a competition prize from the mandarin growers association or marketing board or some such body. To this day none of us can remember entering, but we weren’t about to question being given even a free old Mini, let alone a free MINI. Jane was looking for a smaller, more economical car for her work commute, so this was perfect. At the time I had the Mazda 3, our daughter had her first Jazz, and we had the Verada/Diamante if we all needed to go out together or take our grandson somewhere. Four cars for three people? A friend bought the Mazda for his son; that made three for three. Our daughter only tried the MINI’s back seat once, and muttered something about entry and exit being ‘too undignified’. While there was room for her there, it was hard for a grownup to access. I don’t think we ever tried putting a child seat back there.
It was a hoot to drive, provided you could ignore all the electronanny’s beeps and burps around town. Whenever I drove Mandy, she always seemed to complain about something. Reverse gear: beep. Stall in traffic: beep, beep. Sometimes I couldn’t figure out what the beep was for – annoying, that. Great fun on the highway though, with all the power we needed from the turbo triple with a lovely exhaust note. And being such a violent orange, people always knew when we were coming. Or where we’d been. The folk in town thought it was a great joke that the retired preacher’s wife had an orange MINI.
Was it the right car for a couple in their late fifties? Probably not, but it was great fun while it lasted. Oh, Mandy lasted, but I didn’t. I had my accident with the main family car, and we had to trade Mandy for something three adults (one disabled) could fit into.
And your swag of goodies! Jane was given an insulated travelling mug that lives on to this day (best she’s ever had), and some other goodies I can’t remember, but their website had an enormous array of stuff, even in Australia.
I wanted this color on our 2015! Vetoed by the wife, but we did settle on a pretty cool gray-blue color (like IMO one of the few non-boring grays out there but maybe I’m biased.) this was the day we brought it home (plates were transferred from our old Mini and I ended up ditching the dealer frame.)
Great story and great color! (Someday I’ll own an Inka Orange BMW. Someday…) If it was the same travel mug as the ones I got, it is very nearly the color of Mandy. I agree, best travel mug I’ve ever had.
Fortunately, my generation of MINI didn’t have the beeping. That would dive me nuts. I have that on a Toyota now and it is so annoying that it very nearly makes me want to dump the car every time I’m in it (overwhelming the overall massive reliability of the vehicle….).
I also have a Jazz (Fit) at the moment that I’m the caretaker of. Such an annoying little buzzy car that despite being roughly the same size as the MINI displays none of the refinement that even my now-20 year old MINI had. Just interesting how different manufacturers approach the size/function/drivability mix.
One thing about the Minis- the interiors might have been an ergonomic nightmare, but I always felt the materials and fit batted above average for its class. I had a loaner Fiat 500 when Mini had to keep mine overnight; brilliant marketing on the Mini dealers part, because while the Fiat was a hoot to drive the interior seemed to be made by a consortium of Tupperware, Little Tykes, and 90s GM.
The disparity between the Jazz/Fit and the MINI probably also reflects their market position as well as their manufacturers’ mindset. The MINI drives as an altogether more upmarket vehicle; we jokingly referred to it as ‘our BMW’. The Jazz is just a small cheap car, even if it is a Honda. It feels like only had to be better than the opposition, not excellent in an absolute sense. When I ride in the Honda its lack of refinement annoys me too. I’m sure Honda could build a refined small car if they let their Legend guys loose on the project. Or even better, the NSX crew!
I don’t have a MINI, but speaking of the Jazz….
So expensive to maintain, you couldn’t afford food or beer.
Do our new overlords allow us to call that a Chinese fire drill?
These always looked like a blast to drive; glad that you had fun with yours. I’ve been tempted a couple of times, but a Mini never quite suited what we needed in a vehicle. Maybe someday. I do recall – on one of my grouchy, get-off-my-lawn days years ago – sending Mini an email complaining about the center-mounted speedometer. They sent back a very nice message explaining that it was a nod to the original, so I can second your praise for their PR department.