I was going to say that.

I still thought the point of the MINI was miniature size. Any car can get bigger, just like a house. Butt no, we are having an obessity epidemic.

 

the R56 is not as wide and not as tall as the R50...

 

it is however 2.4 inches longer and 0.8 inches higher at the bonnet..

 

Here is a little vid of the 07 - you can see how the front bonnet changes, leave a little - 'not so soothing' the eye that some have mentioned (above the black molding)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...72057737768919

 

It looks sweet to me.

 

I really need to step away from the MAC - I'm on MINI overload - I can't wait until March.

Anyway, I found another vid - and its 6 minutes long. But, very nice show on the car etc. Worth the watch.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...902&q=Cooper+s

 

I love watching those BMW/MINI videos...of course, I personally watch the Cooper ones most. Some say they don't relate to this iteration design-wise....but I do in a big way!!!

 

I really, really like this forum ...but I hate this thread.

I've been waiting to order a MINI since 2002. Since a MINI is a bit impractical for a family of four, I decided to wait until my daughter was old enough to drive and then would give her my current car and order a MINI. In all that time I never drove one; I just admired them, spoke to owners and knew that one day I would order one. I wouldn't buy a used one, or buy one off the lot, I always knew I would order one just the way I wanted it.

I wanted to take delivery in April/May, so my dealer suggested ordering in January. Driving one first seemed sensible, so I took a R53 for a spin this past week and was blown away. It was everything I had hoped for. I had all of my options selected and just needed to select a color ...I wanted to think it over for a day or two.

Then this morning I found this horrible (tounge firmly implanted in cheek) thread ...which showed me that I prefer (in pictures) the R53 to the R56. I prefer the R53 from all angles ...I even like interior better.

Perfect ...just perfect.

So, instead of just ordering an R56 now, I am considering waiting to see one in the metal first. Of course, if I don't like it the chances of my finding an R53 just the way I want it will have dwindled greatly by that time. Then again, I could just buy an R53 ...I can even get a decent deal on one. But what if I prefer the R56 when it gets here?

This bites. Thanks guys.



Dean.

 

Don't be so picky.

I'm sure many current owners will dump their "old " MINIs and there will be a decent selection. I had a general selection of color and as close to a stripper as possible.

 

Like what you like... get what you want... let everyone else have their own opinion, too. Life is good.

Look at it this way, if your patient and willing to travel a bit... you can probably get a nice JCW car right now for about 2/3rds the price of a new (handsonly equipped) R56 MCS.

I've come across three this past week that threatened to steal away my R56 deposit: An '06 in Seattle for $26,000 (availible) and another '06 in North Dakota for $22,000 (sold) and an '04 in So. Cal. for $19,700 (avalible). I've seen a number similarly priced in the south (NC, Georgia, Florida), but those would have been too far for me here in the Pacific Northwest.

With the release of the new car emminent, I think prices on the 1st generation cars are going to take a slight dip. Nothing horrible, mind you... just enough to realisticly reflect a 4-5 year old car that's now out of warranty. Pick what you like and go work yourself a deal!

 

Don't let our banter confuse you too much...read the reviews, read the enthusiast test drives...R56 is very good. Some will like one model over another...some will like Coopers more than MCSs...some will like Xenons and others won't. That's just the way of things.......MINIs are many things to many people/enthusiasts, and the arrival of R56 just makes deciding all the more difficult, gut-wrenching, and torturous.

 

Very informative visual comparison. Interesting comments. This is even more controversial than when MINI announced the automatic transmission option for the MCS--remember all those negative remarks? I will wait to see the new car on the street. In the pic the R56 looks as though it has larger diameter wheels.

What impresses me nowadays is not how different or similar the R56 is from the R53 but how many short cars are finally appearing in the US market. I was driving next to a Toyota(?) and I think it was about as short as my MINI and I there was a Chevrolet(?) nearby that looked almost as small. With more competition in the short category MINI has got to emphasize other attributes. I expect MINI Marketing to go into hyperdrive.

 

Those two cars won't be direct competition for the MINI in anything but size. They are both a couple of $#it-boxes, and will be purchased primarily for their fuel economy, whereas the MINI is a drivers' car. Of course, the American market has trouble seeing distinctions such as this, and that's where MINI's greatest challenge lies.

 

Very true. Listen to this overview of Toyota on Wallstrip. It's all about the price... On the other hand, it would be nice if BMW/MINI took an attitude similar to that of Toyoda (wrt the bB/xB) in keeping supply low in order to keep value and demand high.

I'm looking forward to eventually buying an R56. I think the interior (with nav) looks great. My initial impressions on interior fit/finish/feel from 30 minutes sitting in several R56s is very good. The plastic bits feel stronger and more substantial (the center tray between the seats for instance). The creaking of plastic of all the sub components in my R53 (radio, hvac, switch bank, down tubes) is something I won't miss. Of course I have yet to drive it... and that counts for 75% of the experience.

 

More or less true, but the Honda Fit really is an exceptional car in many ways. A 4 door wagon, its totally different head space than a Mini, but one of the magazines - I'll have to look up the link - in testing found it bested many performance cars in the slalom speed. There is more going on there than meets the eye.

 

Great job with the photos.

I think the part I like the least are the new plastic fender flares. Much too large to balance with the rest of the vehicle. They just scream to be painted body color to make them less offensive.

Most of the rest of the car of the outside I can live with.

I hope they change the center stack to something a little less "lego" looking. Moving the clock back up into the overhead again would certainly be nice.

Is it just me or does the R56 look as though it has more body roll?

 

It's just you.

The standard suspension rolls less than the previous model. The R56 sports suspension is like the old SS+ so rolls even less.

 

I don't think it is just the American market, one of Jeremy Clarkson's recent reviews was called "Suzuki Swift Sport: Better than a Mini – so just pretend it’s British" - http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/art...493695,00.html

(And I am not saying I agree with him, I often do not, but I do enjoy his writing ).

 

The swift is way too slow IMHO

 

i have excerpted only a small line from petsounds earlier comments, since they have been quoted so frequently here. he has captured with much simplicity and eloquence my frustration with the r56 redesign. i was criticized above for my negative comments, (and i deliberately made them very brief!), and questioned as to why, since i was disappointed, did i even retain any interest in the mini at all.

i've owned two, and 02 and currently and 05, so i have seen first hand the many changes already thrust on the car, mostly as a result of focus group feedback, (seemily obsessed with the cup holders, from the start). i disliked most of the myriad changes in the 05, but accepted it as inevitable, and, some of the changes, (fog light, for example), enabled me to outweigh the negatives, which were many. also, some items, (such as the hk stereo, xenon lights, etc.), were not yet in production when i bought my 02.

the reason i have still "hung on," (to answer the criticizm), is that i had wanted very badly to buy another, but could not do so in time this year for financial reasons. but i have so little affection for the r56 that i see that desire waning. i feel the character of the mini, as petsounds so well describes, has been severly disipated, and interestingly, (according to sports & classics, british press has been critical of the redesign as "too american..." and it troubles me that so many in this forum aren't critical of a redesign that resulted in a car that is longer, taller, and wider! this is a mini? hard to blame ALL of that on impending safety regs!

i'm not at all clear as to why those who dislike the r56 are attacked so vigorously, particularly in a forum designed for exchange of ideas. much of the (admiteddly, limited) press reviews of the r56 have not been wholly positive, either with regard to its handling, or, to the new interior, (tellingly referred to by mc2 as "unfortunately... (the) buck rogers look."). my concern is legitimate, as i do not want to own my current car forever, but don't see much drawing me to the r56. having offended so much of the mini's "core" or "original" audience, (we ARE the adventurous ones, right?), its disturbing to see bmw's willingness to subjugate "emotion" for cost considerations. impending safety regulations are not the culprit here...

 

This type of debate was rampant in the UK before launch as well.

I am sure the R56 will grow on you when you see it in the flesh, perhaps not enough to buy one but it will still grow on you anyway.

Despite the fact that I have had an R56 for over a month now I find it harder to spot other R56's than I ever imagined possible.

Yes, it's not everyones taste as much as perhaps the previous model and BMW will ride the tiger on this if it does not sell well.

 

Are you serious?

The supply vs. demand scale on the MINI is pretty much the highest of any mass marketed production vehicle. Hence the cars holding some of the highest re-sale (leat depretiation) of any vehicle on the road.

There are Toyota/Scion lots out there with tons of brand-new cars to pick from. Go to your local MINI dealership and try picking up an R56 right now. Yes, we're going though a model year change and it's bottle-necked things a bit... but the same was essentially true when I considered buying an '06: dealers had a couple auto convertibles sitting around and a demo S coupe, but that was about it. It was special order and wait, or settle for a demo car.

 

R50/53 had it's problems, too...it was not as "pure" as we may think. It too had "design-for-designs sake" elements. Let's not forget this. The entire interior was conceived around a "roll-cage look"...but it didn't have a roll cage did it? And bumper strips....what were those for? Let's not even get into rattles and sub-par finishes. R50/53 is cool, but...in a different way...so is R56. I would only caution about taking too narrow a view design-wise. We've got a great car here in so many ways! Even Frank himself was favorably disposed to R56 when he saw it in Paris. I can understand having a preference.....fine, no problem with that at all. Perferring one particular model because we relate to it is super.....but predictions of utter doom are a bit of an overstatement.

Btw, R56 is between 2.36" and 3" longer (depending on source), but the exact same width and 1mm shorter than R50/53!

 

I'm a designer as well, and I disagree with Petsounds take on the new design. I won't come down on one side or the other - I like both cars and would have been happy with either. Other factors led me to choose the 07. Look, we are going to have fans of both designs here. For R56 buyers its hard to stomach criticism of the new design. For R50/53 owners its hard to see production stop on their car - they feel a loss even though they have lost nothing. People like vladmir that get stuck between version wanting one, and not able to get it - well that stinks and I feel bad for them.

But there has been some bad mojo over this - people predicting the demise of the marque, demonizing BMW, even saying that the buyers of the new generation of Minis won't have the same spirit - like some how the car has gone mainstream, who let the k-mart shoppers into the club. That kind of stuff really sticks in my craw and is a big turn off. I don't think the Mini community is living up to its own self image there. I mean come on! Its supposed to be about the love of motoring, the fun of driving. If you are indeed "offended" by the new design I'd offer that perhaps you were here for the wrong reason in the first place. And if I'm wrong, and this is what the community feels, and the R56s is a big mistake, well than this Mini community is done, getting off the Mini Train at the R53 station.

I doubt that. But if you are getting off here, we'll wave to you as we hit the road.

 

With rumors of another factory here in the US for an AWD MINI MAXI and the Clubman on the horizon, I just hate to see BMW to go overboard on number of MINIs built and dilute their own market.

But we digress.... this is all about visuals... and the R56 is looking better each day