Saw this car parked on my street yesterday and couldn't resist taking a few photos. Interior looked in pretty good shape though it's not easy to tell from these - I didn't feel like standing in the middle of a busy road to get a better angle on the sunlight.

Right-hand drive with Vermont plates. According to the badges it's a mk2 Morris Mini Cooper S (1968-1971-ish I think?), but there are some differences from photos I've seen of those originals. Like the mirror placement for example, I've seen this on MG roadsters before, but never on a Mini. Looks pretty cool either way though. Any thoughts or ideas? The For Sale sign was blank and I didn't leave a note for the owner, but I was very tempted to chat with them.

 

MkII's still had the exterior door hinges, didn't they?

Those mirrors are common on Japanese spec cars.

Why do people fuzz out the lic plate numbers on cars parked in public places? Or at all?

 

according to the Mini identifier on Mini Mania:

Common to all the Mk I Minis were the exterior door hinges, sliding windows, smaller oval tail lights, and the rear, swinging license plate holder. There were more than half dozen grille variations but they all had the moustache and whiskers surrounding the half-oval grille attached to the body only.

I read this as pointing out features unique to the MKI .... MKII kicks in 1967 with different grill, squared tail lights etc.



http://www.minimania.com/Mini_Identification_1803#6

the side marker lights on the front fenders make me go hmmmm ... I agree the fender mirrors are a Japanese spec thing typically ....

curious that this CA car has Vermont plates (fuzzed out or not) ... being San Diego could be NAVY owned ....

 

The MkII did have external door hinges, the changeover happened in '69-70, the last Cooper S had internal hinges ('71 models)

 

Ahh, I didn’t know this. I forgot to mention the windshield had some sort of small decal with what looked to be some Japanese text. A Google search for Japanese mk2 Morris Mini didn’t really produce any compellingly similar results to this car, so I didn’t give it too much thought.

I did it out of consideration for the owner. I posted photos of their car on an internet forum without their knowledge/without asking permission. Common sense would dictate that I owed them at least that respect.

 

But the car is out in public, what are you protecting them from? People see the car and plates all the time......

 

Would it be different if the car had been parked in a private driveway but still visible from the street? Why do you think Google blurs them out? I can't tell if you're trolling or asking out of earnest.

 

I don't troll.....

No, I don't think it matters at all, a car in public is in public, there is no privacy regarding the plate number, you can't call DMV and get the guy's name and address off of a plate number as far as I'm aware......so I don't see the point - that's all.

 

Fair enough, I'll elaborate on my reasoning. As for why people do this in general that could be a whole other thread entirely.

Since I didn't have the opportunity to meet the owner and ask about posting these photos on an Internet forum, I thought blurring the plate was the polite thing to do for a few reasons.

• Sure, you and I know that it's not exactly easy to get personal information from a plate number from any state's DMV, but that doesn't mean there are people out there with access to this information who don't abuse that privilege or that there aren't shadier ways of obtaining this information pseudo-legally.
• The owner of the car may or may not be aware of this, and may wish to err on the side of caution. They might just be super paranoid, or they could be totally cool about it. I have no idea really, and I'm not out to ruin anyone's day regardless of whether or not I think they should be upset.
• Think of the context of any car out in public, driving or stationary, vs. a static photo of a car on the street posted to a widely accessible Internet forum specifically with regards to the audience. By posting the photos here I'm exposing the car to a much wider audience than would behold it, say, if the owner had taken the car out for a lunch date and nobody had taken a photo and posted it to the Internet.

Now I realize the car appears to be for sale, so the owner would probably welcome some additional attention. Still though, I wouldn't want to go potentially posting identification numbers behind someone's back ***** nilly considering the for sale sign was blank.

Even though it's technically legal and I couldn't really get into serious trouble for doing it doesn't necessarily mean that I should.

 

Curtyv: YOU ARE 100% CORRECT :
Since I didn't have the opportunity to meet the owner and ask about posting these photos on an Internet forum, I thought blurring the plate was the polite thing to do .
Err on the side of caution

 

Not a mk2 mini it could be a reshelled mk2 into a mk3 shell all mk1 and 2s had external hinges mk3 was introduced in 1969 but these had internal hinges and wind up windows

 

Apologies for the derail, to get things back on track, thanks for all the feedback everyone. I can't say I'm really in the market for a classic Mini at the moment, but seeing this car definitely sparked my interest. If I see it around again I'll definitely try and have a chat with the owner.