UK’s motor vanity fair (17) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

Any two-seat car is more of an instrument of having fun than a proper means of transport, and there’s no doubt that these MG cars make no exception.

Since 1924, the Brits could buy these automobiles for showing-off, and driving them would have probably meant “I may not be rich, but I can certainly afford it, I’ve got no worries, I am free, I’m Brit, so get out of my way!” :-)

I don’t know of any such ‘official motto’; I just imagined it, seeing how these cars appeared to be screaming “look at me”, especially while I was walking on the streets of Edinburgh.

Obviously, I did look at them, but didn’t find them neither useful (bigger that a Smart car or even a VW Beetle, therefore not saving too much parking space), nor particulary beautiful (feel free to disagree!), as I think Minis are (see here & here).

They didn’t seem as ugly as the creations of Saab Automobile, yet the later models surely lack personality compared to the ones from the 1920s to the early 1950s.

The good news from the company was that, after leaving BMW’s portofolio, it was brought back to life by a Chinese firm. In China, the old name (MG = Morris Garages) wouldn’t have meant anything, so they turned it into MG = Modern Gentlemen.

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

UK’s motor vanity fair (11) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

If there were a British car that I like, that wouldn’t be a luxurious Jaguar, Aston Martin, Bentley or Rolls-Royce. What I would like to drive – and probably not just as an ‘experience’ but as an owner, using the vehicle every day – is a Mini.

Not that I’d be any auto expert, but I really find this car to be – either the original Mini or the newer BMW Mini – a masterpiece of British (and German, since 2001) craftmanship. I guess any of the fans in this British Mini car club would agree with me.

Anyone knowing me could easily imagine I’m not crazy about fancy vehicles, and even if I had the amount of necessary money, I wouldn’t throw it on a car as a ’motor idol’. But I’d like to have a Mini as a useful (and also pleasing) object.

In my view, given the prices of today in Europe, I guess one could buy a good car with a maximum of 15,000 euros. Spending more would be such a waste, in my opinion.

Sadly, according to the price lists (that can be seen here, here, here – for the UK or here – for Romania), this little car is not quite cheap. Buying a fully optioned version would take the cost well beyond my artificially set limit of 15,000 euros.

Considering the beauty of the car and it’s technical specifications, I’d say it’s a fair price. The only problem is posed by it’s size. It seems to be too small for a family car... However, weren’t the VW Beetle or the Fiat 500 also small? Still, whole families (4-5 people) got into them...

If the future of Vauxhall and Saab (maybe Jaguar as well, as I was writing in a previous episode) doesn’t seem to be bright these days, I hope the that the takeover of Mini by BMW (a decade old this year) was a good deal, and will continue to be so.

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In 1945, the Brits were too narrow-minded to foresee the future of the Beetle, which they could freely steal from the part of Germany they were occupying, and set productions lines in the UK. It’s good to see that BMW was not equally stupid to let the Mini perish.

Of course, the current Mini only bears some exteriour similarities to the Mini that Mr Bean drove, and it’s a completely different motorized beast on the inside. God willing, maybe one day I’ll drive such a car, although there’s no way this could ever be a ‘priority’ of mine…

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

UK’s motor vanity fair (3) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

If there’s one thing that the Brits couldn’t possibly hate about the Germans (and they still have quite a distaste with many things from that once ‘rival’ nation), well, that would be a... German automobile.

Before I’m going to disclose to you (in a future episode) which brand really left me speechless due to its overwhelming presence on Edinburgh’s streets (anyone feel free to take a guess! :-), here’s another car that the Brits like, but it seemed to me that not to the extent the Beetle is adored in other parts of the world.

Indeed, there’s at least one British fan club of this new VW Beetle, however, I didn’t see as many cars like these as in Bucharest, for instance. Is is because these people have their own Mini Cooper/One as a rival symbol to the Beetle?

Are there other reasons? Am I completely wrong, and, in reality, there are enough new Beetles relative to the size of the UK car market, therefore my unqualified opinion is incorrect? I really don’t know.

Although I feel that my comments are utterly pointless in accompanying this series which is more about images than about words, I can’t help making at least another one.

There is no doubt that the Beetle is a beautiful car, and blesssed are those who like it for what it is – a useful object –, and nothing else! On the other hand, I don’t think car clubs are necessarily something bad, as I believe most of them are about friendship between human beings, not about worshiping ‘motor idols.’

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/ Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]