Hey guys,

I know Mini has had a storied past, and seemes to change out some of their color options kinda frequently, but I'm looking for the low-down with lightning and indie blue.

anybody have any information as to what the difference is between these two colors? are they the same or is there a slight difference? is one only offered on certain cars? finally does anyone have any pics of these two colors side-by-side?

sorry if there's an obvious answer to this that i'm missing, but i can't put my finger on the difference...

 

We've had both, Lightning blue is about half a shade lighter but otherwise much the same. Indi Blue was discontinued for the 2005 model year, lightning blue is currently available for both MCs and MCSs.

 

Indi Blue was initially offered only on the 2002 Cooper and it was finally offered on the Cooper S beginning in 2003. Sadly it was discontinued after the 2004 model year. To me Indi Blue has been the best shade of blue to date and MINI has not been able to make another blue with the same impact and dept in my honest opinion. For the 2005 model year, Hyper Blue metallic was offered as a direct replacement to Indy Blue. Nice color but not the same. Hyper Blue survived for only 2 model years and went away after 2006. With the second gen MINI R56 intro, Lighting Blue metallic was introduced to replace Hyper Blue which is half way between Indy Blue and Hyper Blue.

For the 2006 model year (The last production year of the 1st gen MINI hardtops) MINI introduced "Space Blue metallic" which was a really dark but very nice blueish black metallic. Think of Astro Black but with more blue in it. Space Blue looked great with silver contrasting roof. It was offered as a final production cycle color and died after 2006.

To me Indy Blue was simply fantastic. I wish MINI would go back and re-introduce it.

 

I agree with the above. I bought Lightning Blue because it was the closest thing in 07 to Indi Blue!

 

I was just lucky I guess my first MINI is Indi Blue. Check out my gallery for better pictures of it.