FYI, I just order an 2015 Countryman S. I do not drive a Ford or a Chevy nor do I get distracted easily.

It just doesn't make sense to buy the car if you don't like where the speedometer is. This is the reason I bought my first MINI in '08 because of how different the interior and handling was. If I wanted a boring car imo, I would have purchased that.

If I'm you, just go get an F56 and be done with it if it's bugging you that much.

The speedo location is not a deal breaker, especially with the digital speedo in front. I should really take back my comment about the speedo location being a bad design until I have some drive time behind the driver's seat. The Countryman is my wife's car, she thinks the F56 is too small and like the size of the CM.

Totally understand. I like the CM a lot too:-).

Try to remember you were the one criticizing the position of the speedo when it doesn't appear that you have even driven a MINI and also the MINI tends to appeal to people who do like something a little different. I did note that you later withdrew your criticism about it being a 'bad design' until you had least spent some time behind the wheel.... good for you.

I have driven the cm twice, that's why I commented on the placement of the speedo. I do like the handling of the Mini but the dash will take a while to get use to. The Mini will be my wife's car and she likes the uniqueness of the Mini. I guess if owners like you are that passionate about their Mini, it must be a great car.

She will enjoy it. Congrats Has she found all the threads on how to track through delivery. The CM ships out of Bremehaven

My bets are that she will love it. I had a similar issue when i bought a Honda Civic EX-L back in 2009. Wasn't sure that i would like that big digital readout sitting on top of the dash in front of me but i got used to it fairly quickly. The downside with it was that people (including unmarked police cars) driving alongside you could see just how fast you were going quite easily.

If that's how you feel, then I am surprised you are considering a Mini. It's not a bad design, just different. A digital speedo sits right in front of the driver.


My 370 has the tach in the center of the driver's view with the speedo to the right. The oil temp, battery charge, and clock are in pods in the center of the dash just above the nav screen. That all pays homage to the original 240Z.


The center pod in the Mini is no different; it's an info center.

Thank You, the dealer told us to call 1800 ask mini to track the delivery.

Admittedly this is drifting off subject, but I think that was just a lucky coincidence, though it did explain why there was such a big hole in the bulkhead.

The centre speedo design was 'standard' at BMC (Austin, Morris, etc) when the Mini was introduced and the Mini used as many existing parts as possible. The speedo came from the Minor and Issigonis designed both cars to have as little asymmetry as possible, since that meant the left and right hand drive cars could be built with the same components in the same places.

To some extent the R50-onwards Mini achieved the same thing with only one part of the dashboard being different between LHD and RHD cars. I have a suspicion that the classic Mini had holes under the dashboard rail on both sides for the steering column mounting bracket!

I too originally thought that.

But ccording to this source the LHD/RHD symetry was the coincidence.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BAR4O18

Of course there may be no way to know for sure...

We couldn't have an off-beat, quirky, unique car if it was designed like every other car on the road. That's a small part of what makes it a Mini Cooper.

My information on speedo positioning came from a fascinating book on the development of the classic Mini written in 1960s with access to Issigonis, etc (The Mini Story, Pomeroy)

But I had a clear-out of paper books recently including this one and I can't check it, so the information has passed through the filter of my memory which may be as prone to error as a book written recently....

However some of the basic information is pretty locked-in. For example, the modern Mini may pretend to look like a classic one, but it is spiritually the very opposite - the original Mini was quite intentionally designed by Issigonis to be 'un-styled' (as he felt he had over-styled the Minor that came before it), and there is no way the modern Mini can claim to be 'un-styled', in fact the very opposite.

The door locks were cables,the front windows could just glide a bit.
The horse power was in DIN= 23
The electrical equipment came from Lucas called =queen of darkness because it never functioned but it was an amusing little car for me.

I find the center speedo without the nav/mini connected a lot easier to read. my old eyes find the smaller indicator with the screen in the center slower to focus on than the digital in the tach.