The Mini (or the MINI if you will) and I go way back. I’m sure that’s the case for an awful lot of readers.
My first automotive memory, aged around three or four, is of Saturday morning excursions in my father’s Austin Mini Estate.
Those trips in dad’s Mini, finished in an indeterminate and bilious green hue, invariably seemed to revolve around going to the local toy store to buy my weekly Matchbox model and no doubt helped to deeply imprint all things automotive on my psyche.
And my first car, when I finally grew out of motorbikes, was a Mini Clubman 1275E prone to overheating, especially in traffic jams during torrid Durban summers, whence one would have to dissipate engine heat by turning the heater on full bore.
Uncomfortable, to put it mildly, but not as uncomfortable as using a motorbike in all weather, and I liked that little car – even if the snub-nosed Clubman styling was equivalent to “wiping the smile off the Mona Lisa” as one motoring writer put it.
Over a decade later, the new MINI – for it’s now spelt in upper case, and while some may hold that to be a bit linguistically onanistic I’m happy to follow the style, just as I’m happy to write out e.e. cummings’s name as such – was launched.
BMW was now in charge of the brand, and when I went on the launch of the new car in Italy in 2001 I feared it might be nothing more than a self-indulgent retro-exercise. As it was, the MINI was superb. Just superb. And I instantly bonded with it.
A decade later, in 2011, the MINI was so good that it was also the cause of one of my bigger motoring journalism gaffes, and one that still causes my cheeks to burn, even though it happened some time ago.
Essentially, I was given a new four-door Countryman to test for a week and automatically presumed that it was the top-end Cooper S All4 Countryman with a price tag just shy of R400 000. And when I wrote it up for another publication, I remarked that it was brilliant – if rather pricey and that for R150 000 less one could secure the worthy Suzuki SX4 4×4.
As it was, the car I tested was the naturally aspirated, two-wheel-drive Cooper Countryman, the entry-level model retailing for well over R100 000 less, making it rather good value indeed for what’s not only a practical machine but also a premium brand to boot.
Top marks to BMW, too, for pointing out this shameful error with great diplomacy – instead of getting all huffy and demanding a retraction. Then again, I have been dealing with BMW and driving its cars for over 17 years, and at certain rather rocky times I think I’ve been getting more out of my relationship with BMW than it has out of me. So I certainly term some of the principals I deal with at BMW SA as old friends, and Lindsay Pieterse, Group Lifestyle Communications Manager, comes to mind in particular.
But this doesn’t preclude me from passing judgment on the Bavarian company’s vehicles, if necessary – sycophantic, symbiotic associations between motoring writers and automotive manufacturers are an unhealthy thing indeed. As unhealthy as motoring scribes writing about products when they’re on the manufacturer’s payroll to provide PR.
As far as the MINI goes, however, it’s hard to criticise the brand. Sir Alec Issigonis’s classless car might have lost its original minimalism (and yes, I saw the pun and chose not to point it out), but it has evolved wonderfully.
And the range recently got even better.
Leaving aside the all-new Countryman, the source of my shame, the MINI, MINI Clubman and MINI Convertible are all sharpened up a little, with mild styling modifications, and new options and colours, inside and out, adding to already lovely little packages.
One thing I particularly like is the way MINI embraces the information age. Order your car with Bluetooth mobile phone preparation including USB interface, and both systems can be hooked up with compatible mobile devices to allow functions such as audio streaming.
In other words, you can link into an almost infinite number of online radio stations. So it’d mean I for one would be able to play country and ‘80s stations non-stop.
Apparently this system is unique and also allows Facebook and Twitter posts to be displayed on the on-board monitor and users to send standardised text messages.
Entertaining, yes. But not frivolous in today’s online world.
And as Sir Alec himself was never afraid to use clever and innovative technologically, I think he might have been rather pleased to see how the MINI has grown up and thrived well into the 21st Century…