Alright before everyone gets their panties all in a bunch. The picture I posted is a purely speculation on the possibility of what the next generation might look like going off of what MINI's design evolution. It is a drawing not a mock up. Also everyone thinks that cars get bigger because the manufacturer chooses to do so. That is an incorrect assumption as safety standards for vehicles has increased and is causing vehicles to be bigger. Hopefully this should end as there really is not much more that can be done to make a vehicle safe other then not having people drive. To continue with that technology in vehicles are cause them to be bigger and fatter. Hopefully it is the same size as the R56, as they are calling it the F56. We will find out what it looks like at MINI United next year.












Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

 

Or maybe the Classic New Classic Mini Classic?

 

The R53 and R56 are pretty much the same size, except for 2" more bumper at either end. The R56 really didn't grow.

 

Being three or four inches bigger is still bigger is it not? If the next one is "only" 3 or 4 inches bigger than the r56 it would make it 6 to 8 inches bigger than the r53 which would be substantial.

 

As a point of reference when you're trying to imagine how much 3" really matters in the grand scheme of car size, the R56 is about 15" shorter than the R60 and about 41" longer than a Smart coupe.

 

MINI has the smaller "Rocketman" concept car that have been bringing to shows. I believe there is a video of it on the MINI website.

 

Any knowledge if the new 2013 model will have All4 offered in the Cooper Hatchback? I hear the Paceman All4 will be arriving then (2dr Countryman), but I'd like to see a standard Cooper with 4 wheel drive.

 

maybe: MICRO !

 

Was considering trading my R53 for an R56, was at the dealership and had the cars parked side by side. Was a great chance to see that the R56 is larger than the R53, regardless of what the actual numbers say the size difference is. Me thinks it grew! Hoping the next gen could get back to R53 dimensions, though as earlier stated, manufacturers seem to think that each subsequent gen. has to be bigger (as if this is an improvement).

 

Update: MINI is now saying the F56 will be a 2014 model year.

 

Where did you see that?

 

I'm going to wait until they come out with the exact model before I make a decision on whether to get the new body style (and take the chance of weeding out bugs) or order one of the last R56 body styles. Personally I really like my 09MCS and wouldn't mind getting another in order to wait on the more reliable "later" models......

 

 

AWD takes up significant space. Getting a drivetrain all the way down a hardtop with 150 pounds of AWD gear on it would require sacrificing space somewhere. I'm not saying it's impossible, but since they're offering an AWD car in the Countryman, I'm not sure it makes sense to make those compromises in the hardtop's design in order to give it AWD. The current plan appears to be to develop a more varied lineup in order to suit each niche better. AWD may not make practical sense in the hardtop, coupe, and convertible niche.

Then again, those engineers are pretty creative and skilled, so maybe they can do something I haven't envisioned.

 

Talked to my MA about it on Saturday. I told him I had only just found out the R56 was in its last model year and he said MINI has not told them it'll be a 2014 model year coming out early 2013.

 

Thanks for the input. I like the direction Mini is going with the Paceman All4 (hopefully coming in 2013 and possibly able to order next summer or fall?).

I did have a 67 Austin Cooper back in the 90's before the New Mini was known to be. Had the unibody of an 85 Subaru RX shortened and mated the Mini body to it. Retained the entire 4x4 driveline with HI/LOW and 5spd. I was planning on importing a WRX engine for it and set up the gearing of the LOW range for parking lot autocross and the HI range for street and speedway courses. Unfortunately I was forced to sell it after my department at work was cut and merged with another company across the country. No place to store it after the move I made.

 

You guys worry too much. It seems very unlikely that MINI will mess with a good recipe when designing the 3rd gen Cooper. It's their halo car!

In terms of length, the 2nd generation Cooper only grew 2.4"/60mm from the 1st gen. And this was just to improve crash ratings. Despite the R56 gaining ~200lbs it still is more efficient and faster than the 1st gen, so I'm sure the 3rd will be even better than the 2nd!

I would certainly take safety, efficiency, modern conveniences and improved crash ratings over the silly purist mentality concerned about negligible model bloat.

 

The data in the back of the manual says the Cooper gained 22lb (R50-R53), and the Cooper-S lost 10lb (R53-R56).

 

My comment, at least, about staying away from a brand new model with a brand new engine wasn't based on any sort of purist mentality by rather the history of the automotive industry. First model years are a lot like beta testing of software and then they go about trying to fix the things they didn't anticipate were going to be problems. Look at all the issues the R56 has had that they're still trying to fix from melting hood scoops to loose timing belts. Each year they've gotten better. The beauty of cars like the Mini (the justa anyway) and the old VW bug is that they didn't change much from year to year so there were fewer bugs to be worked out.

 

I am going to have to disagree with you here. Ummm yeah, so you are comparing a car that was began being built in the 1930s. It was built for 65 years and was very very basic in its components. They really did not change much in its overall production. The problem is that people get bored with everything really quickly(Americans mostly) so the mentality of changing a vehicle every couple of years really screws with reliability. And since PSA and BMW renued their contract to make enignes we might see some more reliability out of them. BTW the timing chain issue was no fault of MINI/BMW it was the supplier of the chain did not have good quality control and the chains were coming out at different lengthes.

 

Yeah but every car manufacturer these days is typically using a 5-7 year cycle for model re-designs. It's isn't just boredom from their buyers but technology advances in both manufacturing and in the vehicles themselves. It makes sense to re-design if you can improve fuel efficiency, add in new and better technology for the consumer and/or lower your manufacturing costs.

 

I agree. Cars that change less drastically and instead just have subtle changes are much more appealing in my eyes. Take for example the 1st gen Cooper. My mom has had hers for 8 years now and it still turns heads and gets compliments!
My mistake, I originally referred to Wikipedia for the weight specs, but I just now compared an '04 S to a '12 S weight according to their owner's manuals and found that the '04 is 2,678lbs and the '12 is 2,679lbs. Not bad for an 8 year difference... only gained 1lb! I'm sure the 3rd gen won't change much as well.

 

The R56 may be only a few inches longer than the r50/r53, but because of the lines and the shape of the bonnet it certainly looks significantly bigger. To me eye it looks like they inflated it a bit. I'm not a purist and this isn't a criticism, just my observation.

 

I agree, I think they did inflate it. I think they raised the front end for safety standards. Considering the headlights, the 1st gen looks more Porsche-esque in the front which is really cool to me, whereas the 2nd gen looks a little more Beetle-esque and therefore looks more cutesy.

 

Well then why are there cars still being made that have been in production for almost 20 years and some even longer.