Mini prices and the daily heart-flutter May 4, 2009
Posted by richard in : Uncategorized , add a commentWELL, this great Mini search is not looking good.
I’ve got my trader alerts fully set up, and I’m thoroughly depressed by the results.
They’re either insanely expensive, or seriously scabby. Or both.
This is something AROnline whizz Steven Ward has discovered elsewhere, too. He posted a blog about his foray to BCA Brighouse.
His findings mirrored mine. Rusty Minis, going for eye-wartering money. One 96/P Cooper Sports Pack he saw ended up going for £2650. Plus £200 indemnity fee. As Ward said, that’s ‘one expensive restoration project’.
He persisted. Went to see a private City E, that he rated at £500, tops. As he said, ‘imagine my disappointment when it made double. Imagine my shock when I was told its reserve was over £1k…’
Chosen a great time to buy a Mini, haven’t I. 50th anniversary buzz and all that.
How to get a cheapie? Tips from Ward’s respondees include going for a Clubman, hanging the Mini and going for an Allegro or Metro. Or, well, choosing a Volvo.
Hey ho. I will persist! With, naturally, any tips on where to source bargains much appreciated…
Can you help me buy a Mini in 2009?
Mini brochure makes fascinating reading
More on Mini’s classic brochure May 3, 2009
Posted by richard in : Uncategorized , add a commentIT was a safety overload with the 1997 Mini Classic, as Rover’s brochure explained.
Standard kit? Driver’s airbag. Seatbelt pretensioners. Side intrusion beams. Headlamp leveling switch (if only the hydra cars had’ve had this…). Sir Alec would have been blown away.
But it wasn’t short on gadgets, either. Twinpoint fuel injection (yes, Tibbles, with chips)? Anti-theft alarm? Coded stereo? All were standard. And while there was no air con, there was the ferocious development of a twin-speed fan. In all things holy…
Rover certainly kept mentioning then, too… all through the brochure. Many times over.
Indeed, you had to bury far deeper to discover other features, such as gauges for oil temperature, battery and volts. The famed brake circuit test button. Gorgeous tweed seat trim as standard.
Never before had the Mini offered so many paint colours either, said Rover. There were ‘Classic’ paint colours. There were regular colours. There were new colours, which still look staggering today:
• Amarath: pearlescent purple flip
• Volcano: orange
• Kingfisher: blue
My favourites, picked from the huge range, took me a good half-hour to choose. In the end, I nailed it down to three:
• Platinum Silver
• Yukon Grey
• Whitehall Beige
I mused and I mused… in the end, Platinum Silver won. As you can see, it’s perfect. But, interior? Options? That’s another matter (and blog) entirely…
Can you help me buy a Mini in 2009?
Mini brochure makes fascinating reading
Mini brochure makes fascinating reading April 20, 2009
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars , 1 comment so farSTUDYING new car data is something I do every day at Motoring Research Ltd.
Torque figures, combined fuel consumption, CO2, weights, boot capacities, the whole shooting match.
So it was with fascination that I flicked through the classic Mini brochure I dug out recently.
That’s Mini Classic – as in, the 1997 Rover-BMW model, by then differentiated from the forthcoming new MINI by yet another name change (and the retention of correct capitalisation).
Looking at it with today’s eyes, it’s truly fascinating. For example, engine power output of 62bhp is no great shakes by modern 1.3-litre standards: a Peugeot 107’s 1.0-litre triple yields 68bhp.
However, 70lb/ft of torque IS much more like it – particularly as it’s generated at an almost diesel-like 3000rpm. I read into this, lots of low-rev sluggability.
Performance figures still stack up, too – for a tiny city car, 0-60mph in 12.2 seconds is pretty decent, even if aero effects ultimately does limit the maximum to 90mph.
This is, alas, why economy is less than glittering. That modern Peugeot 107 returns well over 60mpg. The Mini? 43mpg combined.
That equates to CO2 emissions of circa 155g/km: compare this, for example, to something like a BMW 320i. Which emits 146g/km (and the diesel 320d puts out just 128g/km).
Still, at least modern car service intervals were quoted. After an initial 6000 mile check, you’d only have to take it to the Rover dealer every 12,000 miles, or 12 months.
That’s probably all for the better, mind. For the dealer’s sake. At the back of the brochure, a finance example is quoted. Yes, a Mini could have been yours, for just £2715 down, then £169 a month for two years.
Great!
Sure, you’d have a final payment of £3800 on the PCP scheme, but a minimum guaranteed value of £4700 would easily cover that.
All good? Well, no. See, this £9000 Mini would actually, by that stage, have cost you £10,572. Why? Average APR of 15.9 percent, that’s why.
To modern eyes of 0.5 percent base rates, and car dealers not bothering to get out of bed if they can’t do 0 percent finance, that seems somewhat rich…
More insights on my brochure studies to come!
Can you help me buy a Mini in 2009?
How Chevrolet today became cool
Mini search over already? If I’m lucky… March 16, 2009
Posted by richard in : Uncategorized , add a commentI’ve been immersing myself in the classic Mini community over the past few days. It’s all come from last week’s conclusion that I need a classic Mini in 2009. But how to go about getting one?
Well, research is all – so I’ve signed up for all the big forums, such as The Mini Forum, Mini World and the British Mini Club.
It was the latter’s David Hollis who e-mailed me today, with quite a tempting deal. Attend the club’s British Mini Day at Dudley’s Himley Hall on 10 May – and potentially drive home in a peach of a Mayfair! All for the price of a raffle ticket. Heavens, Footman James will even throw in £250 for insurance. He even popped an image in the post, for my delectation.
Now, clearly the 10,500-mile, one-owner-from-new car will be mine. Not will be, IS mine. It’s just a small matter of buying a ticket on the day to confirm this. Problem, therefore, solved!
It’s got the velour I’m after, looks a peach in the pic and, I’m sure, will absolutely rock. Particularly when I’ve completed my custom iPod install, using all accumulated knowledge from The Mini Forum.
Yes, Richard. Of course.
However, just in case, by some quirk of fate, I don’t happen to be given it on the day, I’ve decided to ensure a backup plan is in place. I like the look of this car, so will be dropping Dave a line to see if I can’t get a closer look beforehand. If I do, I’ll report back here.
In the meantime, the search will continue…
£3 billion classic car industry goes green March 15, 2009
Posted by richard in : Uncategorized , add a commentA classic car mag has launched something I’ve been wondering was possible for years. Making old cars green.
Classics Monthly has just launched the ‘Engenius Awards 2009’. This is a hunt for classics that have been made as green as a modern car.
Such as? Well, a fully-catalysed Mini, using a 60mpg Toyota Aygo 1.0-litre engine would be quite cool. If not, indeed, a version using the 85mpg smart diesel engine?
Or, how about a Golf GTI MkI with VW’s 50mpg 1.4 TSI engine? A Jaguar E-Type with a BMW 3.0-litre diesel? Let’s hang it way out – what about an NSU Ro80 with a full Toyota Prius hybrid drivetrain transplant?
This is proper inventor territory. Classic car nuts do amazing things, when they turn their minds to it. Creativity in the business is rife. By giving them a green agenda, Classics Monthly is focusing this spark of invention on sustainability.
And I, for one, can’t wait to see what readers come up with.
There are two awards on offer, one for the industry and one for enthusiasts. It’s going to run throughout the year, with shortlisted cars appearing at the NEC Classic Motor Show in November.
My challenge is to drive some of them beforehand… Maybe even adding a twist to my fledgling Mini project?
Oh, and how about this for a killer stat. Gary Stretton, Editor of Classics Monthly, revealed that the classic car industry’ contributed £3 billion to the economy in 2006.’
£3 billion!
That’s even more than the Government pledged to bail out the car industry back in January. Classic car owners to the rescue, then. sounds like just one more justification for me to buy a Mini.
Can you help me buy a Mini in 2009? March 14, 2009
Posted by richard in : Uncategorized , 12commentsWe motoring journos are a lucky lot. We drive a heck of a lot of cars – this week alone, I’ve had an Audi A5, a Merc A 150, plus the current steed, a Toyota Avensis estate.
The trick, Chris ‘Drivers Republic’ Harris told me, during work experience at Autocar back in the day, is to approach it thus.
Whenever you’re driving, you’re working.
Good motoring journos don’t drive and switch off, he said. They’re thinking, comparing, contrasting, questioning. And this, curiously, makes even the dullest cars interesting. WHY are the brakes on a Citroen C3 so tiresome? WHAT is it about the ride quality of an Avensis on 18”s that’s so contradictory? And so on.
This creates problems for the cars we drive in our spare time. Here, we’re looking for drug cars – a quick-hit fix of insanity, that we can get into and be wired straight into. Ones with immediacy. Long-distance seat lumbar support and high-speed wind noise suppression is less vital.
It’s why most motoring journos’ stables are so nutty. Lord knows, when some of us do meet up for a tea in deepest Wales on Saturday mornings, the sort of stuff you see is crazy: stripped 205 GTIs, Clio Cups, Caterhams, scratch-built 1950s MGs, Minis with Honda engines, really dodgy old bikes, even dodgier old BMW 6 Series with no interior trim, etc and so forth.
Me? Golf GTI MkII. It was. Until this week.
Now I need an original Mini.
I drove a single-seater at Silverstone, you see. Bit random, but there is a connection: I Loved it. Had forgotten just how special they are. Remembered what a buzz ‘pure’ motoring is. And the logical way of recreating this is with a noisy, uncomfortable, hard-riding old Mini.
With, of course, impeccable FWD handling, plus feel, intensity and spirit by the bucketload. I can tinker with it, get involved in the scene, maybe even bang a VTEC in it at some point. All for well under a grand for my favoured route of 1980s Mayfair (for the uber discreet look – and velour – no?).
How wrong could I be.
Minis. Not cheap, are they? As in, thousands. Grands. Many of. Oh, my.
So now, I’m a journo on a mission. To find a good 1980s Mayfair, for decent money. Does such a thing exist? For obvious reasons, I think I need one by this August, which gives us plenty of time. Are they out there?
And in the meantime, if anyone can offer me a quick-fire education course on buying and running all things Issigonis masterpiece (that’s not dissin’ the 9X and ADO17, of course), do please take the opp. I think I’ll be needing it…
