“It’s enormous. The (original] Mini was the best-packaged car of all time(; the BMW Mini) is an example of how not to do it. The interior space is not much bigger than the old Mini, but it’s huge on the outside and weighs the same as the Austin Maxi! The crash protection has been taken too far. I mean, what do you want . . . an armoured car? Princess Diana was killed in a two-tonne Mercedes: you can have a fatal accident in anything if you drive fast enough.
With the original Mini, we set out to prevent any accidents by having excellent handling, not by cushioning people from the consequences of their own folly. The old Mini was the absolute apogee of this philosophy of built-in safety via the handling — people avoided accidents by driving around them. The suspension of the [BMW] Mini Cooper is set far too stiff, giving a most uncomfortable ride. To he honest, it’s an irrelevance in so far that it has no part in the Mini story.”
— Sir Alex Moulton, MiniWorld (2018)
RE:SOURCES
- Moulton, Alex; 2018. “Alex Moulton.” MiniWorld. Accessed Dec. 1.
Moulton was right about the BMW Mini size and lack of space efficiency, the only thing they got about right was the dynamics otherwise it was roughly similar in size to the 1100 (yet with the width and weight of a Maxi) and that was both significantly more space efficient as well as available with a 4-door.
The Nissan Micra K10 can be considered a more suitable spiritual successor to the original Mini (even certain design elements of the Micra K10’s engine are said to trace their roots back to Austin’s engine designs via the agreement between the two company), the same goes for the Daihatsu Mira Gino in terms of both visual and size (if not quite in engine capacity for other markets wanting more than 1-litre+).
BMW could have probably achieved a similar level of success with the car had it not carried the cachet of the Mini, they could have easily drawn inspiration for retro styling cues from the 700 that saved the company and badged it as a BMW Isetta.