I think this photo, taken inside the parking structure at the office, encapsulates the idea that the size of vehicles these days is getting just a bit ridiculous (IMO). The majority of NAM members who have kids, take part in sporting activities and come from various walks of life do well with their MINIs, and then there are those that need something larger.

 

That picture says it all

Some people enjoy fun vehicles (Minis, sports cars, 'verts, karts, motorcycles), some people need practical vehicles (vans, wagons, pick-ups) and some choose behemouth monsters to compensate

 

My daily driver is an 05 MCS, love it to death, on the other side i have a 3/4 diesel truck with 4x4 on a susp. and body lift, so i am on both extreme ends Monster truck and a Mini, diggin' it tho

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...0&ppuser=20360
Everybody has their opinion on the right size of a car. I love my MINI, have never found it too small and at six foot suprise people when I fit comfortably inside. I also have no desire to go off road. I saw this in a realatively empty parking lot and just had to get a picture. I was suprised to see just how big the MINI really is.

 

Wow Suzanne, your MINI looks like a guppy swimming with whales. Quite the contrast there!

Chuck

 

I know the MINI is small, and the SUVs are large, but this photo looks distorted to me - that Ford especially looks awfully wide!

 

Interesting fact about the "too small" issue...

Christmas eve my wife and I picked up one last minute gift at Target: a 20" flat-screen TV with built-in DVD and VCR (for my nephews). The box was about 26" x 26" x 26" square.

So I drive my wife's Chevy Malibu up to the curb to load in the TV and wouldn't you know, it would not fit through the back doors....tried the front passenger seat, same thing, box would not fit in the Malibu. Figured the trunk would do...not a chance! The odd angle of the trunk opening would not allow the box to sit square in the trunk...wouldn't fit...no way, no how. Even tried taking the TV out of the box...

I told me wife to wait in the Target "lobby" while I drove home and picked up the MINI (we live 5 minutes away)...I knew the box would fit in the MINI and sure enough, it did...with about 1/2" to spare on all sides, it was a very tight fit, but it fit (with the rear seasts down).

My wife said the guy who checked receipts saw her come back in with the TV and he said "wouldn't fit in your car, eh? Husband going back to get the SUV?" and she of course replied, "No, he's coming back with the MINI Cooper." Well the guy got a laugh out of that one... but when he saw us drive away with the box successfully loaded in the MINI... he was dumbfounded.

Anyway...the MINI is surprisingly large when it needs to be.

If we had owned two "regular" cars like the Malibu...we would not have been able to take the TV home. MINI to the rescue!

rock on,

-boognish

 

That is called "lens distortion" - a common problem on camera phones or cameras with small lenses. It can make things in the center look deceptively small and things on the outside edges may appear to be stretched. That may be what you are "seeing". The interesting thing is that some folks cannot sense this as well as others - differences in how our brains process images.

 

To demonstrate the lens distortion and how it "works" - Here's the original (on the left) and a version with a -10% "pinch" applied in Photoshop (on the right). This is a basic technique that can be used to correct some of the distortion for a small lens. Notice that the Mini doesn't change in size much, but that the outside elements change in width. Neat huh? The other guys are still huge, but they don't look quite so wide as in the original.

 

Aww...quit spoiling my fun!

 

I still dont get this SUV bashing thing. So what? Maybe they got to haul around 10 kids. Maybe they got a bunch of stuff to do that you don't.

I really need to read the SUV forums and see how they laugh a the itty bitty little cars that are so ridiculously small. Thats not a bash on MINIs .... its just a statement that not all sizes are important to the masses.

 

Amen to that brother!

Everyone has different needs and expectations regarding thir cars. I love my MINI, but often I wish I had a Chevy Tahoe or other heavy duty SUV in the fleet for hunting, fishing, Sporting Clays, and towing utility trailers. I wouldn't enjoy a Tahoe in the day to day grind, but there are many days out of the year I wish I had one. If I had plenty of cash lying about, I'd get one and use it for offroading, towing, and other heavy duty uses. It'd probably get 3000-5000 miles per year at the rate I'd use it. I can't swing the $40K for that.

Rawhyde

 

Great story boognish!
It's one thing to use an SUV as intended. It's the people who are afraid of getting in a wreck, so they think they're safe in a huge vehicle that bug me. They usually hang in the left lane (multi lane road) all the time, so I shadow them about two car lengths back, right lane, and use them as a barrier just in case someone crosses center.
I was looking at the height difference! Explain that distortion!

 

Hmm, I'm not getting super serious here, but the use of the word 'ridiculous' isn't considered bashing to me. I should have specified that the majority of the individuals who work around me (i.e. where the photograph was taken) admittedly have these larger vehicles because they "like being high on the road and seeing over everyone else" or the common safety fallacies. Admittedly! I just think its hilarious...80% of them don't even carpool even though they can seat 6 or 8. I know its the "American way" to be able to buy what you want just because you can but I don't want to be part of the needless SUV nation. Therefore I'm not. More power to everyone else, including those folk around here that have one or more of each.

 

It wasnt directed at you in particular but the general "attitude" i see of MINI owners who dont seem to like SUVs.

They might think a MINI is "ridiculous" so to each their own

 

I have a MCS and a 05 Tahoe. I need both vehicles and get more than enough use from both. I can tell you that I look at the two next to each other everyday and it isn't as bad as that pic. I don't get the SUV bash as much as I don't get the MINI bashing (yes it happens). People who bash either are dorks in my book And ps I am getting 21mpg at 70mph in the Tahoe(K&N intake with B&B triflow exhaust) while my JCW is coming in at 26mpg.....thats pathetic

 

Just rent one, or a truck, when you need it

 

hmmmm... well, is your 60-100 acceleration under 10 seconds in the Tahoe? Under 15? 20? 60??? Didn't think so. Just stick the kids laying down in the boot!

 

I have an X3 and a mini. The mini will become the daily driver .

 

LOL, wish i could have seen the look on that guys face!

 

I have my MCS, a Corvette, and an Isuzu Trooper (4-cylinder)....and I still think the big ol' SUVs are ridiculous for most people in the city. I can get just about as much stuff into my MINI as into the Trooper, too. We keep the Trooper for hauling messy stuff and some of my larger pieces of art.

 

I firmly believe that people "should" buy vehicles based upon their needs for 95% or 99% of the time, not based upon the 1% or even 0.01% of the time they will actually use the vehicle the way it was designed (or at least the way it was sold). Note that the "need" may also include "fun to drive", as it does for us MINI owners. And yes, I appreciate that "fun to drive" is a qualitative term.

My protest against the SUV craze is based upon that simple idea. I bought MINI as my daily driver because I don't NEED anything larger for 99.99% of the time, yet I still wanted a fun car to drive that is safe and performs well in inclement weather.

The VAST majority of USA SUV drivers (99%, I'd venture) NEVER leave the road in their "tough" vehicle, so that's why those drivers are the subject of ridicule, since they pose a greater danger to other people around them in addition to wasting more resources than even a "fun and less practical" car like the MINI does. Justifying a vehicle on the basis of 1% or less intended use is silly... I only move house once in a while, but you don't see me trying to buy a moving truck, do you? An extreme example, but it highlights my point.

And no matter what you say, chows... I reserve my right to voice my opinion on this, in traditional USA style - especially when my own safety on the roads is in increased jeopardy. I don't think it's just plain old "bashing" if the argument holds logical merit.

Where does it end? So if people buy an SUV to be "bigger" and "taller" than everyone else... and if eventually EVERYBODY drove an SUV... then people would start buying an EVEN BIGGER SUV to compensate and keep the size difference, all the while sucking MORE gas and having WORSE handling, braking and accelerating capabilities. It's STUPID, plain and simple.

And just when we thought the Hummer was the pinnacle of the craze, along comes the International XT family.
I'm sorry, unless you actually have a need to TOW something really heavy (like a boat), or actually DRIVE off the road, SUVs have no justifiable merit whatsoever.

And yes, if I needed a people mover, I WOULD buy a minivan. It does the job BETTER in every way. I don't give a darn if people think it's "cool" or not.

The craze would not have existed in the way it does if there wasn't a CAFE loophole in the first place. SUVs are regulated like trucks when they are used like cars.

Long post, long rant... true... and people may call ME crazy for it. So be it. But I think that many anti-SUV opinions have a valid basis that cannot be so easily dismissed by a reasonable person. Please note that I'm not advocating that MINIs are the answer for everything, of course not, that's absurd. Just that SUVs are usually NOT the answer.

If you're still reading at this point, check this out:
http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/suv.pdf

UPDATE: And here's a link to the HTML version of it, if you prefer... although the PDF is better IMO: http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html

 

I know a lot of people have SUVs and don't need them, but it doesn't bother me, people will change trends with their dollars. They already are. I think it's funny to see a soccer mom in a Suburban and she can barely see over the steering wheel, it's ridiculous, but I don't get angry and think she should sell it. I mean look at minivans....they seat 7 or 8. How many families have 5 or 6 children? Not many. Yet minivans still sell hundreds of thousands a year. So if the average minivan is just carrying around mom and her 2.3 kids most of the time, they could easily fit in a smaller and more efficient Camry or Malibu or Corolla or etc. so there goes the need for minivans too. And as somebody else mentioned, with for example the 2007 Tahoe getting 20 MPG combined and my MINI getting 23 MPG combined, I'm not feeling all that superior on being in an efficient car. The technology can take care of the gas usage, and technology can take care of some of the safety differences so SUV drivers more power to you!

 

Kenny, you completely ignored the larger safety issue! Check out the PDF I linked to.

 

Before I got the MCS, I loaded a 32" tube TV in the back of an even smaller car after it would not fit in a Taurus or Volvo wagon (opening not tall enough), shut the hatch and drove off. The Festiva may be on the insurance industry's top ten most dangerous modern cars list, but the interior is cavernous compared to a Mini, thanks to 2" thick doors (crash beam? what's that?) and thin quarter panels, plus the back seat rolls up leaving a flat floor too. Also the worst gas mileage ever (even in the snow after the Frankenstein transplant) was better than the best gas mileage achieved in the MCS.

You have to consider it is only slightly safer than a motorcycle, though. Like the original Mini, it weighs about the same as two Honda Goldwings, and gets nearly the same gas mileage as one Goldwing.