Mini Cooper D Clubman....

[Arch]

You spoke too soon....

<bangs head on desk>

Of all the recent reincarnations, I think the Fiat looks the most like the original, and seems to capture the spirit. I think the Top Gear chaps all reckoned that too....

That Cit is just a modern Cit, only with a curvy bonnet... Ugh. I bet it weighs a tonne, and I bet you won't be able to take the back seat out as an impromptu sofa..

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I haven't seen the new Cit Plop (is there one?) but I read that the original spec was it had to be cheap enough for the ordinary Frenchman to afford and you had to be able to drive over a ploughed field carrying a basket of eggs and not break any!
Weren't the chairs in the original one's near enough deck chairs? Ooo la la!

 

[Over The Hill]

I'm not really good at cars, but I can appreciate elegance and beauty of styling... and guess what... I LOVE the modern mini, and the modern Beetle, and the modern Fiat 500 (to look at, all are lovely). But that 2CV looks like a pile of plop.

But it does not have a 500cc engine any more! so by the "mini" rules should now be called the Fiat 1500 or something.

 

[BrumJim]

Sorry - even worse news. My link to the new 2CV is a couple of years old.

The latest style looks like this:

 

[Fnaar]

Sorry - even worse news. My link to the new 2CV is a couple of years old.

The latest style looks like this:

I like that No longer the Citroen Plop.

 

[User482]

I haven't seen the new Cit Plop (is there one?) but I read that the original spec was it had to be cheap enough for the ordinary Frenchman to afford and you had to be able to drive over a ploughed field carrying a basket of eggs and not break any!Weren't the chairs in the original one's near enough deck chairs? Ooo la la!

...whilst wearing a hat.

 

[rh100]

I always thought the 2cv looked like an upside down pram, mostly driven by social workers and teachers

 

[mr Mag00]

never owned a mini

 

[rh100]

I haven't seen the new Cit Plop (is there one?) but I read that the original spec was it had to be cheap enough for the ordinary Frenchman to afford and you had to be able to drive over a ploughed field carrying a basket of eggs and not break any!
Weren't the chairs in the original one's near enough deck chairs? Ooo la la!

Nah, that was just a Top Gear stunt/challenge...

 

[User482]

Nah, that was just a Top Gear stunt/challenge...

The stunt was to test whether or not the 2CV met its original design brief.

 

[Over The Hill]

I rather like the idea of retro styled cars. You end up with something a bit different and with more character than many modern cars.

The problem is that car makers cannot just re-make the original car. We demand many more luxuries on a car (would you have imagined a Mini with aircon? It is probably standard kit on a MINI) and they need to meet very tough safety standards (which the original Mini certainly did not).

Also as cars have only been around for about 100 years it is silly to expect a car to be anything like a car from 50 years ago.

So we end up with manufacturers plundering the archives for little design features and styles to graft onto a eurobox while digging up nostalgic names to attach to their creation.

To be fair on the MINI, it was developed through a period of turmoil for Rover/BMW and really ended up as being the only worthwhile part to keep going.

For my money I prefer to go for a retro style but one that is not based on a specific car.
Nissan Figaro is a good example from the 1990s

How about the new Alfa Mito – really retro

Not forgetting you can still get a new Hindustan Ambassador!

 

[Arch]

Nah, that was just a Top Gear stunt/challenge...

No, it's true, and it works - I regularly travel in one with a friend, carrying a tray of eggs on my knee. We don't wear hats, but there's plenty of room if we wanted to.

I'm happier with the newer reborn '2CV' - it now looks so absolutely nothing like the original, that it's not an insult, it's just a new small car. No more or less character than any of them - IE, not much.

 

[Fnaar]

Best car my dad ever owned was a Ford Corsair, like this, but white. Bench front seats too.

 

[Mr Pig]

Horrible, horrible thing.

I agree with you. I hate the new Mini, not because of what it is as a car, but because of the industrial rape its perpetrators have inflicted on the ethos of the original.

The original Mini was not about being cool. It was about simple, low-cost motoring and became cool only because it was a staggeringly effective design which fulfilled its purpose with style and character.

The new Mini is a vacuous style statement. It's not a Mini, it's not actually very small and it's relatively expensive and complex. It will only ever be cool to people who have no idea what cool is. People with zero taste who think that being cool is something they can buy in the shops along with their designer clothes and fake tan.

 

[rh100]

One car that needs to be remade - the Ford Capri (it would have to have a vinyl roof though )
The other favourite they have already done, the VW Scirocco, the old one's were lovely