I clipped this out of Jeremy Clarkson's Top 100 Cars Of All Time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HWHPYMaBp0

 

I watched that whole segment on Autoblog today. The little chase scene with the classic mini and the new MINI was pretty fun. He certainly had an interesting list and while it is indisputable that the classic mini is an icon, I disagree with Clarkson when he suggested that in 30-40 years the new MINI won't look great. In some ways it already is an icon, but it's also important to remember that that video is several years old and he likely didn't know how successful the new MINI was about to become.

 

I don't know, I agree with him on that, I don't think in 40 years the MINI will still be "wow" kind of car. for one thing, it is really bigger than it needs to be--its not really mini sized.

 

It's hard to agrue with a classic Mini no matter how you cut it. Credit where credit's due in the icon department. But for today's roads and driving climate, the MINI definitely gets the nod. It's really silly to pit the two cars against each other (although impossible to avoid)...each car is great in its own time/way and for different reasons.