The new mini coupe. Your erudite musings on it would be appreciated Mr. G.

Now where's that popcorn smiley?

 

Thanks Chilled!

I've yet to see one in the metal, to get that full triumph of design twat over commonsense effect.

At least when Lancia put the γ Berlina's rear window behind the number plate, it was for purpose; reversing cameras hadn't yet been invented, but prismatic periscopes had.

 

Saw a couple last week on the Mini stand and TBH they didn't look as bad in the flesh as they did in the pictures. Having said that, still think Mini have lost their way completely and I can't see them doing very well with this.

 

It's difficult to say; some brands it seems can do no wrong with a vapid, style-over-substance-obssessed generation that make the "me generation" look positively self-sacrificing.

 

I'm old enough to remember the original Mini-Sprint.
At the time of Mini-Mania quite cool but impractical.



The new version is also impracticable but also manages to be very uncool.

BMW have bought up lots of names I know about and probably lots I don't. Issetta and Austin Healey to name but two.
Does this mean we are to be subjected to more of these nasty re-births of cars that are best left as a warm memory of times when cars were quirky and recognisable as a brand.

Are BMW now so set in their brand image that the only way they can chance producing something that breaks the mould is by putting someone else's name on it?

I think their first effort Mini was OK and filled a gap in the market although they could have done better. All the versions that have followed have something nightmarish about them.

 

Design twats. Not particularly erudite but somehow utterly spot on.

It's how I'm going to refer to architects from now on :-)

 

It's to do with the Minisprint being a trad. chop in the style of Eliminator or Purple People Eater or somesuch; literally a coupe in order to go faster. But the Mini was design purity at its most distilled, despite Sir Alec's occasional gaffe. He'd hate the new one.

As for Branditis; well, brands gradually get prostituted & devalued over time; look at the great pre-war brands that have gone from Teir one to mass-market or below; whether it be Yardley, Burberry or Alfa Romeo or BMW. You need further brands to replace them once they become unfashionable or an embarrassment. BMW has almost the entire UK industry-worth, plus its sub-brand Isetta and even Glas.

Chilled is right - I meant Styling Twats; despite Roy Axe's insistence that it was the design department, I think it's gone a bit too OTT for that and it's time to revert to their original status. Sometimes cacophemy beats erudition hands-down!

 

It just looks like someone has done a partial job of removing a foreskin and left 1/3rd of it in place.

Looks almost as ungainly as the 206/308 CC.

 

Must be the same twat who did the front of the original Z4 then.

Must be the only gay in Munich.