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The original minis are such death traps I am surprised when ever I see one on the road - firstly how is anyone foolhardy enough to drive one and secondly how di

The original minis are such death traps I am surprised when ever I see one on the road - firstly how is anyone foolhardy enough to drive one and secondly how did it manage to survive to 2017.

gsnedders 9y ago
It's worth noting that the last one came off the production line in October 2000; the later ones surviving isn't that much an accomplishment. (And yes, it may well be the case the majority of Minis produced had been scrapped before the last was one produced!)
dsfyu404ed 9y ago
It's hard to be worse than a VW van but the British gave it their best shot.
gambiting 9y ago
Say hello to Fiat 126, still a semi-common sight on Polish roads. When I was a kid my parents had one and I remember it fitting 5 people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126
- cjsuk 9y ago
  Better than a Trabant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8idecb8Ek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8idecb8Ek
  - abawany 9y ago
    <spoiler>A similar thing happened to a Mini on a Top Gear episode filmed in India.</spoiler>
- dingaling 9y ago
  A friend had a 126, each morning he would load the four schoolchildren by the door and then roll-back the canvas top and pass-in their schoolbags. It was also quicker to reverse by putting a foot out the door than flapping the stick around the mushy gearbox trying to find reverse gear.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Standard accessory with those was a stick to poke the starter relay under the car :)
- Tade0 9y ago
  My parents met because my father wanted to do sort of a Grand Tour(well, not so grand given the vehicle) and my mother wanted to get to France, because she landed a job as an au pair, but she wanted to save on transport. How they managed to get there(through Hungary) in this little two-stroke boggles the mind.
  - jaclaz 9y ago
    >in this little two-stroke boggles the mind. Actually four-stroke (but two cyinders and air cooled, later a different water cooled version with a bigger and different engine was made in Poland). The FIAT 126 is the "evolution" of the more famous (and older) FIAT 500 and uses almost exactly the same engine, with capacity increased from 500 cm3 to 600 or 650 cm3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126
cjsuk 9y ago
I concur completely. It's a ridiculous thing to drive in this day and age. Then again my Land Rover series 3 wasn't much safer. If you rolled it, you would lose everything above your stomach :) Trying not to crash it was the only safety feature.
- icantdrive55 9y ago
  He said mid 1990. He has a badass mom. Plus, I think driving an older car, at least when your young, makes you a better driver later in life.
userbinator 9y ago
There are still plenty of people riding motorcycles, which are statistically far more dangerous. At least around here, not everyone thinks safety is the most important (and IMHO that's a good thing.)
- jawrainey 9y ago
  >> At least around here, not everyone thinks safety is the most important (and IMHO that's a good thing.) Could you clarify why you think safety is not the most important characteristic of driving on the road?
  - fhood 9y ago
    Well, in the case of motorcycles, they are unsafe primarily for the driver, and not really for anyone else, so as long as the driver is aware of the danger they pose to themselves, there is no issue.
    - ams6110 9y ago
      You can say the same about seat belts, but they are compulsory almost everywhere now.
      - interfixus 9y ago
        You can indeed, and I have done so, ever since the things became mandatory many years ago. I wouldn't ever drive ten meters without my belt on, but I'm all for the freedom of anyone to be an idiot, as long as the idiocy isn't directed at anyone else.
        nradov 9y ago
        The idiocy of not wearing a seatbelt is directed at everyone else. An unbelted driver is more likely to completely lose control of the vehicle after an initial collision and end up causing addition damage to others. Plus now that we effectively have socialized medicine we all end up paying for the idiots.
samstave 9y ago
In the mid 90s I answered an ad to tech some guy Autocad. He lived outside Seattle - and had a very large, rather eccentric house in the woods. I'd go over a couple times a month to teach him autocad so he could design the various add-on projects he wanted to do to his house. In a side garage, he had two brand new, mint condition minis that had never been driven. They were beautiful. I tried to convince him that I'd teach him autocad full time in exchange for one of the minis. That didn't work; what he told me was that in the 60s he'd been over in the U.K., and that he had two shipping containers loaded with minis and shipped them back to the US - he sold them off over time, but he kept the two. One he was about to start driving - and the other he said will never be driven "it's going to be my coffin, I am going to be buried in it"
morganvachon 9y ago
Project Binky will likely give you a heart attack then: https://www.youtube.com/user/badobsessionmsport https://www.youtube.com/user/badobsessionmsport

The original minis are such death traps I am surprised when ever I see one on the road - firstly how is anyone foolhardy enough to drive one and secondly how did it manage to survive to 2017.

gsnedders 9y ago

It's worth noting that the last one came off the production line in October 2000; the later ones surviving isn't that much an accomplishment. (And yes, it may well be the case the majority of Minis produced had been scrapped before the last was one produced!)

dsfyu404ed 9y ago

It's hard to be worse than a VW van but the British gave it their best shot.

gambiting 9y ago

Say hello to Fiat 126, still a semi-common sight on Polish roads. When I was a kid my parents had one and I remember it fitting 5 people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126

cjsuk 9y ago
Better than a Trabant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8idecb8Ek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8idecb8Ek
- abawany 9y ago
  <spoiler>A similar thing happened to a Mini on a Top Gear episode filmed in India.</spoiler>
dingaling 9y ago
A friend had a 126, each morning he would load the four schoolchildren by the door and then roll-back the canvas top and pass-in their schoolbags. It was also quicker to reverse by putting a foot out the door than flapping the stick around the mushy gearbox trying to find reverse gear.
jacquesm 9y ago
Standard accessory with those was a stick to poke the starter relay under the car :)
Tade0 9y ago
My parents met because my father wanted to do sort of a Grand Tour(well, not so grand given the vehicle) and my mother wanted to get to France, because she landed a job as an au pair, but she wanted to save on transport. How they managed to get there(through Hungary) in this little two-stroke boggles the mind.
- jaclaz 9y ago
  >in this little two-stroke boggles the mind. Actually four-stroke (but two cyinders and air cooled, later a different water cooled version with a bigger and different engine was made in Poland). The FIAT 126 is the "evolution" of the more famous (and older) FIAT 500 and uses almost exactly the same engine, with capacity increased from 500 cm3 to 600 or 650 cm3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126

cjsuk 9y ago

I concur completely. It's a ridiculous thing to drive in this day and age. Then again my Land Rover series 3 wasn't much safer. If you rolled it, you would lose everything above your stomach :) Trying not to crash it was the only safety feature.

icantdrive55 9y ago
He said mid 1990. He has a badass mom. Plus, I think driving an older car, at least when your young, makes you a better driver later in life.

userbinator 9y ago

There are still plenty of people riding motorcycles, which are statistically far more dangerous. At least around here, not everyone thinks safety is the most important (and IMHO that's a good thing.)

jawrainey 9y ago
>> At least around here, not everyone thinks safety is the most important (and IMHO that's a good thing.) Could you clarify why you think safety is not the most important characteristic of driving on the road?
- fhood 9y ago
  Well, in the case of motorcycles, they are unsafe primarily for the driver, and not really for anyone else, so as long as the driver is aware of the danger they pose to themselves, there is no issue.
  - ams6110 9y ago
    You can say the same about seat belts, but they are compulsory almost everywhere now.
    - interfixus 9y ago
      You can indeed, and I have done so, ever since the things became mandatory many years ago. I wouldn't ever drive ten meters without my belt on, but I'm all for the freedom of anyone to be an idiot, as long as the idiocy isn't directed at anyone else.
      - nradov 9y ago
        The idiocy of not wearing a seatbelt is directed at everyone else. An unbelted driver is more likely to completely lose control of the vehicle after an initial collision and end up causing addition damage to others. Plus now that we effectively have socialized medicine we all end up paying for the idiots.

samstave 9y ago

In the mid 90s I answered an ad to tech some guy Autocad. He lived outside Seattle - and had a very large, rather eccentric house in the woods. I'd go over a couple times a month to teach him autocad so he could design the various add-on projects he wanted to do to his house. In a side garage, he had two brand new, mint condition minis that had never been driven. They were beautiful. I tried to convince him that I'd teach him autocad full time in exchange for one of the minis. That didn't work; what he told me was that in the 60s he'd been over in the U.K., and that he had two shipping containers loaded with minis and shipped them back to the US - he sold them off over time, but he kept the two. One he was about to start driving - and the other he said will never be driven "it's going to be my coffin, I am going to be buried in it"

morganvachon 9y ago

Project Binky will likely give you a heart attack then: https://www.youtube.com/user/badobsessionmsport https://www.youtube.com/user/badobsessionmsport