Just saw this pic on a German news site. A shameless and not very flattering copy of a MINI. Yikes.

 

Wow, it's a 4-door and still looks smaller than our MINIs. That could be due to the funky "batman" style photo, or maybe they are just trying to make it looking menacing.

 

Man, I HATE Diahatsu's

 

Well, what do you expect from a company owned by Toyota? As if the Yaris wasn't enough.

 

What do I expect? How about a WRX STi? I don't know if imitation is the sincerest form of flattering in this situation or not but I have to say it begs the question of what a real MINI would look like as a 4door hatch (not like the clubman but 4 real doors)

 

Looks more like the classic mini than ours does

Cut off the trunk area and it would be more of a mini than ours is

PS that car was out before our cars came out....so who is copying who?

 

That is a Diahatsu? The Korean company? I thought they went belly up?

 

Here's another pic.....again, looks WAY more like a mini cooper than our huge slope hooded car does . It has the flat boxy front face with a nice big grill, the correct front chrome bumper and everything . Look at the wheels, they even look more like minilites than our S-lites And i have seen these in person and their small size is great. By far, not a fake mini...if anything its a great rendition of a modern mini.

Also....they were offered in 1999 which is before our cars were ever announced

 

That was my thought......looks more like a faithful remake than our wide apeal, smartly redesigned version of the MINI. And a faithful remake is a good thing

 

Daihatsu should make a counterfeit commercial and have people driving around our cars

 

From the a-piller back it looks a little too "Chrysler 300" for me, but I really like the front end!!

 

here is the website if anybody is interested

http://www.daihatsu.com/catalogue/trevis/index.html

 

that car's been around for a while...

 

almost 8 years.......

 

Some others also think it closely resembles a classic Mini:

http://www.retrotogo.com/2006/08/daihatsu_trevis.html

 

Actually, it's a nice compliment to the Classic Mini, at least in looks. Having had one of the originals, I'd say it has a nice, fresh new look to an old car, much like our "new" MINIs compliment the later Classics with new styling features.

 

I like it, and personally I always wanted to bring over a Figaro:

 

The Figaro is cool. Sorta reminds me of a Karman Ghia.

 

This is what the 2007 MINI looks like in my mind.

 

These are all great examples of what a car manufacture can design if they don't have to deal with US safety restrictions. (no front bumpers)

You might hurt a pedestrian if they walking in front of you.

 

The 2007 MINI looks NOTHING like that....

The '07 MINI is probably the most un-noticeable re-design in automotive history. I'm shocked at how many people are still upset by it.

 

You're thinking of Daewoo. They didnt go belly up, they were bought out by GM, then pulled out of north america. They're still sold around the world as Daewoos, and we even get them here (the Chevy Aveo and 90% of the current Suzuki line-up are re-badged Daewoos).

Daihatsu is a division of Toyota. They're popular in Europe from my experience. In person, they're kinda cool but really cheap looking.

 

Amen to that.

 

is it just me or does that thing look like it would roll on a dime?

 

Now THAT is a real clown car!