Cover is blown on bold new MINI

more wedge?

all the changes I would credit, but a more wedge shape is exactly the wrong direction and would take away some of the originality of the shape of MINI.
forget the ugly wedgeshapes dera MINI designer.

By boomslui on 20 June, 2011, 10:38am

I'll bet my mothers kidney it looks nothing like that! Nice photo shop though. Not as BOLD as it's made out to be.

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By SuperNeauvou on 20 June, 2011, 1:00pm

So what's changed, exactly? Looks just the same as the old one - and the one before that...

By GTRoyale431 on 20 June, 2011, 4:55pm

I can't really work out whether it looks like the current model or not. Then again, a potential 5-door version sounds like a plan coming together!

By JPW2010 on 20 June, 2011, 10:03pm

Not excited yet

Evolution rather than revolution, but I'm not convinced by the Countryman-style rear lights, if they make it into production.

I hope another Clubman is planned, though as the existing hatch's boot is too small, and if the priority for the new version is passenger space, then the boot won't be much larger.

By snappyuk on 20 June, 2011, 10:14pm

It's too big. Read the name on the boot: MINI. BMW doesn't seem to understand the concept.

By minicoopers69 on 21 June, 2011, 8:09am

IT`S STILL NOT A REAL MINI

A car as long as a Honda Jazz but with a fraction of the internal space is an appalling waste of space and if the public were not so blinkered and fashion led far less minis would have been sold. It is a shame that the Auto Express as a branch of BMW publicity cannot give us a real honest review.

By AlanShaw on 21 June, 2011, 8:38am

Again, again, again....

I counted 5 stories this month about new Minis on this site, I guess we've had about 25-30 "New Mini" stories this year. Either they're breeding like rabbits or there's no real news out there about anything else. Stop it, please.

By craiglife on 21 June, 2011, 8:44am

This car, or someone's idea of the new MINI, now has some weird lines down its flanks, at the top AND bottom of the door. Gee, I bet the old [current] Mini was fairly busting to morph into this. Since when did it matter, particularly, who the head of design was at any given moment. Designers with stand-out reputations have them for the opposite reasons.....dunderheads. BMW had one. Making this car more wedgy would be taking the design in the wrong direction for me. Look at all that 'free air' between the top of the tyre and the body in the rear wheel arch. Does it come with a 'sinking' rear suspension? The aspect of rising bodyline to floating roof is almost identical, till you get right to the rear of the new, and the sharp end has been softened.

Think its slightly overstating what is visually obvious with this..."That means fans can expect the fresh hatch to lay a blueprint for a whole new generation of models." Maybe the re-hash after this one, and that 'vision' will be revealed.

By barina47 on 21 June, 2011, 8:51am

BMW would always have this problem...

The new new new MINI will never be dramatically different from the new new MINI which itself was not far removed from the new MINI. This is the problem encountered when your product harks back to a car of yesteryear. In many respects, each evolution results in a car that looks a little more contrived. Without a doubt, buying a MINI will lead to compromises. Therefore, my money would be on the Fiat 500 - might as well drive a compromise that makes other drivers smile, rather than frown!

By BARNEYM1979 on 21 June, 2011, 9:37am

What's the difference?

May be a good thing it's not completely new as it will keep up the second hand value of older models.

By terryxp on 21 June, 2011, 9:42am

Mini Confusion

This new design is confused, if indeed it is a new design. The front stance is almost unchanged from the existing model despite the sensationalist rhetoric, whilst the back end looks less like a Mini and more like a BMW. As for making the appeal extend to families, wasn't that the job of the 4 door countryman?

By jonmolyneux on 21 June, 2011, 10:06am

new, new, new, new mini

Is this the same as the bigger, boxier, more hidious than ever looking mini I passed on the A43 near Brackley last week?
If only I hadn't been on a bike, I could have taken a pic and had more "exciting spy shots".
Is it true your writers are Sun/Mirror rejects? They're about as accurate and exciting.......not.

By jimbowles2003 on 21 June, 2011, 11:23am

I really hope the next Mini doesn't look like this. The side swages don't belong on a Mini & the Paceman style rear could be a Golf at a distance. I know the design needs to evolve but the core model still needs to be recognisable as a Mini - by all means experiment with the derivatives. The first BMW Mini felt like a true baby premium car but its becoming just an expensive small car. There is a subtle but important difference. Its not just about quality of materials & engineering but the sophistication of the design details too.

By CooperSman on 21 June, 2011, 5:21pm

Carry on Mini.......

This car is getting like the comedy films of the 60s and 70s.
The longer they carried on the more out of touch they got with public taste.
You can only flog an idea for so long untill it gets a pastiche.
Mind you, BL flogged it for over Forty years!

By toycollector on 21 June, 2011, 7:11pm

ghetting really p****d off

Why do auto express rave so much about a car that is so pointless and so far away from what the name stands for. The boot is too small the estate 3rd door is on the wrong side the 4x4 is so large it should have been named MAXI. The only real sucess is in the gullible public buy it thinking they are getting a BMW when they can't really afford a real BMW. Auto express should be honest when dealing with these cars and so it has no resemblance to the REAL MINI. Perhaps if people did not waste money on a phoney bmw then they might re think the design.

By del55 on 21 June, 2011, 8:57pm

Afraid to Draw?

I was disappointed to see pictures of the generation 3 Mini because it is hardly different from generation 2 or 1. But this is a strange trend amongst manufacturers and you begin to wonder why they got the drawing paper out in the first place.

When I came to replace my Peugeot 206 I was disappointed that the new 207 simply took all the elements of the 206 and bloated them. This development of the existing into the 'new same' is disturbingly now general practice.

Look how the original Ford Focus got 'mainstreamed' down for the generation 2 Focus and further blanded for generation 3. The latest Astra has simply blown up the Corsa body rather than drawn something recognisable in a car park like the outgoing Astra was. When Citroen launched the original C3 and the original C4 they were indeed 'original', but the latest incarnations are mere euroboxes with the odd visual reference to the outgoing model.

Worst of all is Renault, who followed their remarkable Avantime and Vel Satis designs with the same concepts for the mega bum Megane and its siblings. But now look at the latest Megane; can you tell it from a 2011 Focus or Astra in the car park?

As for the Laguna, well that's bland beyond belief although it is in good company. What has become of the large saloon market, a segment where the possibility of making a style statement ought to be so much easier than for the technically and financially constrained Super Mini market. The Passat lost its way, as did the Laguna, the Mondeo never escaped from being a characterless over-extended Focus, Peugeot forgot Pininfarina, and we all got the most non descript saloons ever so-called 'designed'.

Are car manufacturers afraid to draw, or have they forgotten how to? Why do they want their product to look like everyone else's, why do they want it to look like their outgoing model? I don't want my Peugeot 208 to be another 206 poked and tweaked yet more. I want it to be a different looking car; something perhaps that may be regarded as a classic in years to come, rather than a conformer.

By RedSimon on 21 June, 2011, 9:31pm

Photoshop folly

So how does that rear hatch open then? Do the rear lights come with it or stay where they are?

By MartyB59 on 21 June, 2011, 9:40pm

here we go again

Once again AE inventing their own "exclusives". Must really p**s off the real designers who spend years perfecting their art only to have mags knock out poor renderings based on complete speculation. Treat your readership like adults and stop making stuff up

By agards on 22 June, 2011, 12:01pm

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By kdfja on 22 June, 2011, 12:58pm

Size matters?

As soon as I saw the strapline for this article in the Auto Express email, I thought "I'll wager £10million to a penny" that the 'new' car is bigger. And obviously my money was 100% safe. The ONLY thing the original and new minis have in common seems to be the cramped inside despite the ever ballooning exterior. A popular game among young people in the 1960s was to see how many could be crammed into a mini. Anyone up for a 2011 repeat? [BTW, excellent comments toycollector and del55]

By quintilian on 22 June, 2011, 2:16pm

The Same!

New definition of the word Bold

Make it the same, what'a bold about it?

(The price, probably)

By Richard_H on 22 June, 2011, 2:56pm

Don't wish to offend ...

... but to all you owners who are either young enough not to realise, OR are middle-age-crisis owners , this Mini-ownership feeling of being different and "dynamic" will eventually disappear. The rest of the population is aware that you're following the Mini-marketed herd.

I mean to say, Just how long do you think the Mini "look" will survive?

By FloatingVoter on 22 June, 2011, 3:47pm

Not more creases......

The person responsible for ruining the styling of the complete BMW range, Chris Bangle, must enjoy his ego being massaged by the appearance of copy-cat creases on most new cars now. I have no interest in buying a car that comes with the appearance of body panel damage as standard.

Hopefully this is just a knocked-up photoshop effort because despite looking similar to the current model, all the differences are poor.

By gavsmit on 22 June, 2011, 5:20pm

Overweight and out of date

Its not really cool now is it. The original Mini was a crap car. When I was a kid and the original Mini's were new the only people who bought them were Grannies or school prefects. The BMW Mini was a good car back in 2001, now its novelty factor has well and truely surpassed. My moneys on the £43,650 Aston Cygnet. Lovely car.

By conclusion on 24 June, 2011, 8:37am

Get over it!

I get so bored of hearing people comment that BMW don't understand the concept and are missing the point of Mini being 'mini'. I can't believe that it's been 10 years and you still don't understand that Mini isn't 1 car anymore. It's a brand! Get over that and look at the cars for what they are! If you don't like them, fair enough, but don't go on about how they've destroyed Minis heritage. That's crap. I imagine you to be the type of people who get offended when car makers list iPod connectivity as an option rather than mp3. Apple won. Deal with it and stop complaining!

By alex1234 on 24 June, 2011, 5:01pm

za german Mini / bigi

... maybe baverian motor works need English lessons it's not a bigi it's a mini!

By liverpool on 23 September, 2011, 6:41pm