Several times I have had teenage girls notice my Mini and call out to their friends about it and say how they want one. Yesterday a little boy, maybe 3 or 4 years old saw my Mini and called out "MINI!" to his dad. So how early have you noticed that children recognise a Mini and want one?

 

The mini has become such a huge hit, that every age see's one and points it out.

But when i had mine little kids would scream out all the time "MINI COOPER!"

so im guessing if they are old enough to talk and know what it is they scream it out and say they want it.

 

My 4 year-old goddaughter knows I drive a "MINI car", but I'm not sure she would recognize others out on the street. She probably thinks they're all supposed to have pink stripes!

 

My 4 year old knows its a Mini Cooper S and can differentiate Between a cooper and an S (as long as she can see the intake).

She also knows mine is a cooper works (not sure she knows what it means, other than it goes fast)

 

teach her the difference in the S and non-S exhaust, so she can differeniate from the front AND back

|____oo____| <---Cooper S .vs. Cooper ---> |________o_|

 

As i was parking my car yesterday there was a child sitting in a stroller screaming "MINI, MINI", MINI", at the absolute top of his lungs. I smiled at the childs mother and let the kid crawl around in the drivers seat and tug on the steering wheel a bit.

When I asked the mother how old her son was she said 3.5 years old.

The kids going to be a motoring genius if he keeps this up.

 

You allowed a sticky-fingered 3 year old to climb around in and touch your MINI ?!?

LL

 

I don't know how many of your read the comic strip "Luann." The main character is a 16-year old girl. In July, there was a week where was was trying to figure out how to afford a used Mini Cooper!

 

I think as young as 3 or 4 like you said.
I think little kids notice because the mini is so unique, its easy to recognize!!!
I've had little boys as young as 4 yell it out loud "mini"
It feels so cool!

 

Are you sure that wasn't The Short Bus? No, wait... that's every week for Sam!

 

Lets see. My son started motoring at 4 weeks, and one of his first utterances of a word was brrrroooom brrroooom everytime he saw a MINI, then before Momma or Papa he said MEENEE. By 18 months he was saying MEENEE CoopAh and maybe that had to do with the fact all his toys are my former collection of diecast MINIs........ Today at 2-1/2 years, he recognizes the MINI on the street and thinks its the greatest car in the world--hahah, so I want to believe anyways.

 

My son has been able to distinguish a MINI from other cars since about two years old (2 1/2 now). We don't have a MINI yet, but I would show him pictures of MINIs on the computer, and he picked up the word. He had been able to say car first, but he knows a MINI from other cars.

It's pretty fun to go on a trip and look at MINIs on local car lots, because he gets about as excited to see them as I do. A little more than a year, and we'll have our own.

 

This is how I knew I bought the right car......When small children who know nothing about cars, gets excited about a cool car, and ethusiasts get as excited as the kids about the performance.

 

I started looking seriously right before my oldest turned 5. Took her to the local Drivers World 'cus I knew that there was 1 on the lot. From across the lot, she tells me that she knows which car she wanted, and went right for the MINI. She and my 3 1/2 year old went on the test drive with me (had to make sure the car seats fit, ya know). My 3 1/2 year old get all a twitter when he sees another one on the street. "Look a MINICoopah!" (all one word). He's got at least 3 die cast versions.

Yesterday was Labor Day. We asked the kids what they wanted to do, and my daughter immdediatley recommended "goinig to the car store and buying MINI stuff".

My wife is pretty sure we're all nuts, but on a recent vacation to the Outer Banks, the 3 year old asked why we couldn't take the MINI. Her response was "we don't want to get sand all over it." Never mind that we'd have a wee bit of trouble getting the four of us plus a weeks worth of luggage and beach gear into it!

 

My friend and I were going to the zoo, and as we pulled into the parking lot, a group of about 10 children (probably ages 4-10) started screaming "look a mini!" and pointing.

It was cool, b/c it was like a week after I got my car and the only people who had noticed it so far were kids!

 

My 3.5 year old son can spot a MINI from across a crowed parking lot. Along with his 10.5 year old sister, they can note the color, roof color and whether is an 'S' or not.

 

My nephew (turned 3 today) has know what a MINI was for about a year now. Although at first it got referred to as a "MINI Tooper". He'll notice them when we are driving, sometimes when I miss one.

 

My best friends 3 year old son knows MINIs as "Uncle Jim cars". He'll see one, no matter what color and point out "Uncle Jim Car!!".
Jim

 

My three year old son can recognize a Mini Cooper with just a glance. At first I thought it was just ours, but he started shouting "Mini Cooper" when we pass one on the road, and if he sees them in a picture, he'll call them out as well. The other day he was walking by while I was on the laptop, and he said "Mini Cooper". Apparently he saw the three Coopers at the top of the NAM page. If he has a few seconds to look at them, he can recognize most Mustangs too, even ones of different generations, but I think he mainly looks for the pony in the corral that most of them have on the grill. I still can't get him to recognize my own Miata for what it is though.

-Keith

 

ok, I'll set the record, I'm going to repeat the word 'mini' as much as needed until my new born can learn it as her first word, oh well probably after 'mom' and 'papa' and hopefully she won't confuse mini with mommy . after all the 'mini bb' plate is for her.