Dear BMW: Please Fire Your Designers

[Arch Duke Maxyenko]

Somehow they keep making the Countryman uglier with each generation


First gen

LCI

[NKato]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko For a moment, I thought Mini was its own company. Then a quick Google-fu revealed that they were bought by BMW in 1996. Interesting.

The company that decided to go with big bug grills on their flagship products is fucking up Mini's products?

Color me whelmed.

[CaptainoftheEnterprise-Kelly]

This is going to be the YJ of Mini’s with the squared lights.

Except I actually liked the YJ. I don’t like any of that exterior. It doesn’t look like a Mini really which typically is rounded off for most edges. This is just offensively ugly.

I like the first gen look wise, 2nd is meh because its a little worse but 3rd is terrible and would never consider it based on the exterior looks alone. Design and how it looks really is important to me. Also if you’re going angular why is the roof still rounded that much? I think they are trying to look modern or future but the original mini.. checks internet … was built from 1959-2000 without a major change in exterior. That’s 49 years. The look is cemented at this point. People who buy them are looking for one that looks like a mini not like a weird looking Hyundai that barely looks like a mini.

[Qaaaaa]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko a reminder: BMW has never made a strong effort to make attractive cars; when they do, it's such an aberration that those cars are lauded by enthusiasts as being beautiful, when in reality, they're just okay, and are generally derivative of their contemporaries

[415s30]

@NKato Oh yeah they are just BMWs with a different body, these are X3s or something I think.

[NKato]

@415s30 said in Dear BMW: Please Fire Your Designers:

@NKato Oh yeah they are just BMWs with a different body, these are X3s or something I think.

Not even worth putting in my Vic's trunk, even as a cube.

[Taylor Martin]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko Getting big Fiat Duplo/Ram Promaster vibes from this...

[nth256]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko said in Dear BMW: Please Fire Your Designers:

This looks like the Chery/Geely/Ssangyong/BYD version of a MINI.

[ash78]

@415s30 said in Dear BMW: Please Fire Your Designers:

@NKato Oh yeah they are just BMWs with a different body, these are X3s or something I think.

I think most (or all) of the MINI platforms are FWD-based and not shared with the "good" BMW models, but more of their smaller/econobox models.

Quick Wikipedia says it's a mixed bag, but I don't believe anything from Mini has shared with a 3-series/X3 or above.

[nth256]

@Taylor-Martin Would that make it a... MINI-van?

[Arch Duke Maxyenko]

@Qaaaaa LOL WUT

[Qaaaaa]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko In order:
One of the aforementioned aberrations
Seriously not that good, did you actually look at it? Looks French
Not a BMW
Aberration
Derivative

[Arch Duke Maxyenko]

@Qaaaaa

[HammerheadFistpunch]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko Thats just sad. Thats not cute, or charming, its not aggressive or simple, its not retro or modern. It looks like a Chinese knockoff of itself.

[Arch Duke Maxyenko]

@HammerheadFistpunch

[MUSASHI66]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko Proportions seem all wrong. Front fascia has no family resemblance to current mini, or to the history.

I agree with others - it looks like a Chinese knockoff of a real Mini.

[Svend]

@nth256
I believe Mini call them Clubvan.

[nth256]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko said in Dear BMW: Please Fire Your Designers:

@HammerheadFistpunch

MINI by Tata

[flatisflat]

@nth256 said in Dear BMW: Please Fire Your Designers:

This looks like the Chery/Geely/Ssangyong/BYD version of a MINI.

The new e-MINI I think is being built in China, so, it tracks.

[nth256]

@flatisflat I wonder if they just handed off the whole project to a Chinese firm then. This might be a China-only model, that being the case.

[drVanTraveler]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko I can't say anything nice about that newest Countryman either.
Here was our 16,

Our 23,
Mini is quitting the PHEV after this too.

[ranwhenparked]

@NKato *1994 - BMW bought Mini's then-parent Rover Group from BAE & Honda, then broke it up in 2000, keeping Mini for themselves and selling off the rest (Rover, MG, and Land Rover)

Edit - there was also the Maestro and Montego earlier on, which were never officially given a new brand after the Austin nameplate was discontinued in the late '80s. They were usually referred to as Rovers, but technically weren't, basically stand-alone single model brands in kind of a limbo until being discontinued early in BMW ownership. Apparently BMW didn't even realize they were still in production at the time of the acquisition and were surprised to find that out

[bison78]

@nth256

Would that make it a... MINI-van?

Not unless it looks like this:

[flatisflat]

@nth256 said in Dear BMW: Please Fire Your Designers:

This might be a China-only model, that being the case.

I dunno, pretty sure that ugly is going global.

[Nauraushaun]

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko i feel like this is a statement that their designers have been getting worse since the early 2000s. which is accurate