I have been driving an abarth for quite some time now and i really like the clutch and the wheel, it feels very "racing-ish". However the quality of the dash is really disappointing, very soft and "fake". Racing seats are also quite nice. Overall if it had more soul I wouldn't be looking for a Clubby

 

Hey, I didn't know they put wheels on a dustbuster...

 

Oh my god. A solid white interior! Back to the 60s and 70s.Look how dirty the right kick panel is . The whole car will look like that in a year or two.Yuck..

 

haha nice one

 

I'm not one of those guys to point out wheel gap, but it seems to me that any wheel gap should be above the tires, not behind it. That just looks terrible. A stock FIT looks better than that.

 

I can't believe how much hating there is here on a car thats SMALL, RETRO and SPORTY. Isnt that the whole reason you bought a mini in the first place?

Personally I think the 500 is way nicer than the base r56 cooper, and the 500 abarth is also nicer than the cooper S. The current base coopers screams low rent to me. They just look cheap. The R50/R53 had that classic and quality feel to it. Not so much on the current ones. So yea, a base 500 is nicer to me than a base cooper.

The Abarth, that thing is just a badass little car. I would buy that over an R56 Cooper S in a heartbeat. Now the Mini Coupe or Roadster S? That would be a little tougher. Id probably take the Coupe or Roadster in that case. But I absolutely love the Abarth. Any car enthusiast should IMO, especially ones who own MINI's.

 

It's just the angle of the view.

 

Whats your point?

 

As a racing toy, yea I absolutely love it. As an all round everyday car it doesn't satisfy me needs. Its just too simple

 

By "soul" are you referring to the ability to fit two very small adults in the rear seat? Rear seats are certainly optimistic on both Fiats and MINIs. The Clubby does have more "soul" by comparison, being a larger car and all and assuming soul grows with rear leg room.

 

Goodness I hope so. It looks like the wheel is stuffed all the way forward.

 

No by soul I mean the felling you get when you wake up every morning and your happy for the car you own (its a personal thing, like having posters of a Clubby and not of a Ferrari on my wall)

 

That white interior is gonna be a pain in the butt to keep clean! I have enough trouble with my white leather parts! Can't imagine a nearly entirely white interior!

 

Interesting point in a thread comparing one car to another.

 

Soft scrubbing in the hard to reach areas keep my white parts clean

 

Yep am a bit biased sorry

For the legroom though i can confirm that a hardtop is as comfortable to a 500 for the rear passengers

 

Really? Because I cross-shopped them recently. I drove each of them, and found that the MINI was significantly better. The MINI's ergonomics were much better, as was the handling. The base Cooper interior also felt much higher quality than the 500's did.

The tight turning circle on the 500 was nice, though.

I've seen speculation that the Abarth would be priced in the 21-22K range. If that is the case, it'll be serious competition for the Justa. If it's closer to $26-27K, I don't see it hurting MINI sales at all.

 

Same range would be the MCS with a couple options.

 

THe Fit does have the rear wheels pulled forward which is due to the solid rear beam setup of the suspension. MKIV VWs and now the MKVI VWs had the same issue when lowering the cars to certain levels.

 

And that's why I don't think it would hurt MCS sales at all. More money, less performance, similar "cute" looks, similar size. Not a compelling reason to buy IMHO.

If it starts less than the MCS, it could compete. If it starts just over where the Justa starts, it would probably take a big chunk of Justa buyers away.

 

Well, for 1) the dustbuster sucks. It was built to suck and suck is what it does best. 2.) it also looks like a Lumina APV.

 

Personally I think Bloo looks more like this...


Hey, doesn't MINI use a bulldog as a mascot?

 

This guy

 

Unfortunately this goofy looking thing is real, it was done bay bagging a perfectly good Clubman. It was done by Stanceworks better known as the company that makes oversized rims fit in tiny cars and ruins suspension geometry so that the car can look (good?, mean?, broken?) parked. They are all about cars not moving, presumably so that they are easier to take pictures of or because the wheels rub the interior body panels or the rims with rubberband tires tend to bend when whenever they hit a bump larger than the witdth of a human hair.

They aren't fooling anyone by taking of the center caps.

 

Glad you like my car and company so much. I was really hoping you would.

We're all car enthusiasts here. Why can't we all respect each other's passion and enthusiasm rather than constantly resorting to such negativity? You should give open mindedness a try. The whole closed minded prejudice thing isn't a good look for you.