Has BMW gone retro with the new MINI?

[Daniel]

I was trying to find a car that was in the "Guess That Car!!" thread and stumbled across this:

Has MINI followed Ford and Dodge?
Give us your opinion

 

[Smallhorses]

Nope, that is an original "Mini" Mini.
(Also known as BMC Mini, Morris Mini, Austin Mini and Rover Mini (and probably a few more too!) throughout it's life.)

That car was available in certain versions of GT4, (NTSC/Japan I believe.) but not in NTSC U/C or PAL.

When BMW designed the "Bini" (It's not a real Mini!) it was trying to make the car look as much like the original as possible whilst meeting modern day safety & practicality requirements.

If anything the 2000 BMW MINI set a retro-trend which Ford followed in 2002 with the 11th Gen T-bird and 2005 with the 5th Gen Mustang, while Dodge did likewise with the 2006 Charger and more recent Challenger.
There were probably other retro-examples before BMW's commercial offering, but I wouldn't say BMW followed Ford or Dodge's cues.

 

[Daniel]

Smallhorses, look at the year of the MINI...

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Yeah, they kept building the "original" Mini for quite some time.

 

[Smallhorses]

It's an image error then.
That's the 1999 Mini Cooper 1.3i picture & description from the NTSC/J version that's been mistakenly linked to the 2002 MINI Cooper name & link tab.

There's a huge difference between a Mini (lower case 1959 - 2000) and a MINI (upper case 2000 - onwards). Just because a website has made an image error it may warrant pointing out as "Fail!", but it doesn't really warrant a discussion of whether BMW followed Ford or Dodge's retro-lead when it's not any of their fault that someone at USplaystation.com can't hotlink the right image into a webpage!

The last real Mini was built in October 2000.

 

[Tornado]

The original Mini did go out of production in 2000, as I understand it.
And if BMW copied anyone, it was likely Volkswagen. They were the first ones to go crazy retro.

 

[Daniel]

Then i guess this whole thread is a fail then?
close it if you want to.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

The original Mini did go out of production in 2000, as I understand it.
And if BMW copied anyone, it was likely Volkswagen. They were the first ones to go crazy retro.

Yea I was gonna say...the New Beetle beat the new MINI by 3 or 4 years if I'm estimating right.

 

[dudejo]

am i the only one who prefers the classic mini to the newer one available in GT4?

it's just that, imo, bumping the car up a weight class completely nullifies the car's purpose.

 

[MatthewFarrar]

am i the only one who prefers the classic mini to the newer one available in GT4?

it's just that, imo, bumping the car up a weight class completely nullifies the car's purpose.

The original Mini was so much more fun, Tuning equivalent of a go kart, my favorite car in GT3.

 

[Dotini]

Wasn't the Mazda Miata a retro of the Lotus Elan?
(Except it would start when you turned the key.)