| Thread: 'Classic Mini' ??? |
| Posted 20 December 2002 at 13:04:31 UK time
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Prince, HK/MK 
I vote that the 2 "Classic Mini" threads be renamed "Mini" threads and the 2 "New Mini" threads be renamed "BMW MINI panzer wagon" threads ( capital M I N I please note ). :)
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| Posted 19 January 2003 at 15:08:04 UK time
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Steven, Toronto
Hey if it wasnn't for other car companies bailing out the Brits, then there would not be a single British car marque left and they would have all gone the way of BL.
The only true British marque left (I believe) is Morgan and TVR. The rest is either owned by Ford, GM, BMW, VW, and a Malasyian consorteum (ie Lotus), who now produce a viable and RELIABLE not to mention a hot product.
Unfortunately the British car industry went the way of the dodo. It is sad how once this proud and strong world wide leader industry collasped because of strikes, poor accounting, lax quality control, inferior reliability.
We all grew up to love and hate our British cars but one thing that they all have is a strong brand image and increadible styling at the time. I love my TR6, unfortunately it does not have the quality of a German car, nor the reliablity of a Japanese car. I have a car that has image and chuztpah, however, it likes to rust and decides when to start or run well and has inconsistant gaps in the body pannels from the day it was built.
It is sad that other countries and companies had to rescue the British car industry and they could not do it on their own, but in the end necessary to have the brand/marque continue with strength.
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| Posted 19 January 2003 at 16:30:13 UK time
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JH GIllson
Of course, the UK always leads the way in everything.
Historically the most inventive nation on the face of the earth, the UK was the world's first industrialised nation and the first to deindustrialise. Our mass makers have bitten the dust for the reasons you have already given. You could also add mismanagement, underinvestment, and the pernicious influence of our politicians (especially the unwarranted meddling of the late Sixties' Labour government which resulted in the formation of BL.)
And then of course there was the distorting influence of the fleet car market which favoured simple, crude devices like Ford's Anglia and Cortina over high-tech, but tricky devices like the FWD Mini, 1100 and 1800. Which is why BLMC decided to develop the Marina, instead of the 9X Mini...
And then came nationalisation in 1975. Which was followed by the cock-eyed Ryder Report.
As for our dear Communist-infiltrated unions: did they do anything other than betray the interests of their members? Let's remember that their blinkered influence didn't only have a stranglehold on the assembly halls of Longbridge, Canley, Cowley, Solihull, and Speke but also on the factories of the component suppliers. According to Lord Stokes strike action was so prevalent that BLMC had to have two suppliers for every component just to ensure a steady supply of bits.
But BLMC were ahead of the game in many ways. Mergers are taking place every two minutes in the global motor industry. And everybody's now going full tilt at badge engineering; that was a British invention too.
Today, we live in a world where a Skoda is a SEAT is a a VW, Alfa Romeos 156, Spyder, GTV, and 147 are really developments of the 1998 FIAT Tipo, a Jaguar X-type is a Ford Mondeo, a Porsche Cayenne is a VW Tuareg, and so on ad nauseum.
The interesting question is this: whose motor industry will be next to fail? Italy's? Then the French perhaps.
The UK is still, however, the world's biggest producer of racing cars.
Which is still more than can be said for Canada.
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| Posted 19 January 2003 at 22:36:15 UK time
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Andrew, UK
For the record Rover is now British owned again, for the moment anyway.........
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| Posted 19 January 2003 at 23:16:59 UK time
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Austin
And for the record, Rover was an extremely profitable concern at the time of the BMW acquisition in 1994 under the stewardship of John Towers and Kevin Howe, it was the BMW management that asset stripped and sold profitable bits like Land Rover to Ford PAG, and then turned the Rover side into a loss by lumping the Range Rover, Rover 75 and MINI development costs under the Rover P&L account.
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| Posted 30 January 2003 at 17:42:45 UK time
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Dave
Steve, Toronto,
you do spout some ill informed rubbish.
Love or hate the new Mini (I hate it) it is a british car developed by a British company, built in Britain. BMW's input was to cost cut and asset strip the new development and profits from Rover.
As for Lotus being reliable - well join the real world. It's better than it was before, but much worse than MGR. The hot productS are just a continuation of what they always did. Elan, Esprit, Elise etc.
At about the time TR6 was being built, wasn't BMW a company teetering on the brink of insolvency making poorly built ugly cars (the latter part much like today in fact)?
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| Posted 31 January 2003 at 18:45:11 UK time
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JOHN HALL, MANCHESTER UK, julieroberts30@aol.com
I THOUGHT THIS SITE WAS ABOUT MINIS, NOT POLITICS!!
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| Posted 31 January 2003 at 23:13:58 UK time
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Ray
John, I think that this site is exactly what it says it is - a site for discussions related to anything Mini generally. The technical site may be what you are looking for
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| Posted 10 February 2003 at 14:31:50 UK time
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John, Tennessee, henriksenjc@highstream.net
My understanding is that the new "Mini" was designed & planned by the Brittish before BMW took over & it is built in England. However, the engine is a Chrysler based Neon engine built in Brazil. Interesting how everything is becomming a blend now days.
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| Posted 10 March 2003 at 17:41:37 UK time
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David, Surrey
The concept of the new mini was there before BMW, but was progressed whilst BMW were in charge. However, the team was entirely British and controlled by Rover engineers. The original powerplant was the ubiquitous K-series, but after BMW robbed the designs and copyright, they changed the engine to save money and extract themselves from any commitment to MGR who wanted to own the K-series production. BMW only performed basic cosmetic changes and some wiring changes. Even the engine change was engineered by Rover people before the divorce.
So it is a British engineered car.
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| Posted 18 March 2003 at 19:41:12 UK time
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peter bramble, rugby, peterbramble@aol.com
Can you help me please I have a friend who wants to sell his MINI 1275 GT can you please email me with any suitable sites. he does not have acess to the internet. Thanks in advance PETER
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| Posted 27 November 2003 at 01:17:52 UK time
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Bob Scott, California, USA, notaros1@aol.com
There were lots of Minis manufactured. I am glad a few of them made there way over here. I run a fleet of Chevrolet and Ford 1 ton trucks in my business. The quality control on these trucks is severely lacking. Any nation can build a questionable vehicle. Older Minis seem to get remanufatured and modified into wonderful cars. I have about 25,000 miles on mine in the last two years and I enjoy the heck out of it. Modern technology applied to older cars is always a nice thing.
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| Posted 25 April 2005 at 21:26:54 UK time
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AMG, uk
HI, do any of you guys know any brittish companies, i think theres about two? if anyone knows please reply and is morgan still an original brittish company?
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| Posted 26 April 2005 at 12:00:44 UK time
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P Worthington, Cheshire, United Kingdom, minimender@aol.com
Pete, take the 1275GT to a Mini show, you are sure to get a few thousand enthusiasts looking at it. There is a show on the 8th May at Himley Hall south of Dudley ish, (buy Mini magazine or look on internet for details).
Failing that there is a show at Lutterworth but not sure when
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