[Closed] Is the Mini Cooper a girls car? So what is a blokes car?

I bought a Cooper S new in 2003. Still got it now. Haven't had a sex change yet..
Do your mates think mx5's are hairdressers cars by any chance? 🙂

Probably, but I like the MX5 but a bit too tall for it -top of the windscreen frame blocking my view.

Cooper s isn't a girls car, it has a supercharger.

My mum has a cooper though...

Of course not. Men can be hairdressers as well you know.

I drive my wife's mini convertible with the top down (56 year old baldie) and when I pulled up at traffic lights next to a young lady in a merc convertible the look from her was enough for me to put the top up.
Hth

Of course it's a girl's car, it's a fashion accessory like the "new" beetle.
BMW's way of getting more of the female market share.

No, but a Fiat 500 is. And Vauxhall Adam.

Wouldn't be seen dead driving one and I'm a girl. 🙂

My sister in law had a Cooper, and a friend had a Cooper S. I think it's fair to say the R50 MINI is a pretty effeminate design, inside and out. I found the interior to be a horribly distracting mess, total style over substance and not a nice place to be.

Obviously taste is subjective but to me it does seem like a product that's very much aimed at women.

Cooper S is brilliant. Definitely not a 'birds' car. Same goes for the Fiat 500 Abarth. Heard an Esseesse version the other day. Tasty!!

It's not a girl's car but it is a car who has a higher proportion of female fans.

I'm with wiggles. A cooper s or one of the aftermarket tuned versions are fine.
Regular cooper very much what you buy the mrs for a runaround.

Of course it isn't. People who say certain cars are girls cars, hairdressers cars etc,. are telling you more about their own issues than anything else.

Regular cooper very much what you buy the mrs for a runaround.

What century are we in again..?

Used to have a cooper clubman, loved it. But I don't like football. Or banter.

Is the Mini Cooper a girls car?

So what is a blokes car?

[b]Girls car
[/b]
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[b]Mans car[/b]

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[quote=kerley ]Of course it isn't. People who say certain cars are girls cars, hairdressers cars etc,. are telling you more about their own issues than anything else.

very much this.
Why are manly petrol heads so insecure about their gender identity that they need a macho car*?

* whatever one of those is

I have a Fiesta. Now that's a man's car.

Cooper s isn't a girls car, it has a [s]supercharger[/s] turbocharger.

(first ones had supercharger, they then changed it)

Girls driving cooper S - hello!

Cooper S also acceptable for a guy.

I approve of any gender in a Cooper S. Mini One or Cooper etc - keep it for housewives/husbands or anyone who can't get insurance on a Cooper S.

I no longer own a car. Am I now suitably emasculated?

Just to be clear I said I wasn't a girls car I never said girls can't drive them just that I don't think it is gender specific

This is a mans car.

You need baws the size of church bells to fill one of these bad boys......
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Mini? Estate agent. Will never buy one.
And the new one is bigger than a Maxi.

My wife has had two, just saying!!

Funnily enough I find most petrolheads appreciate cars for what they are.
It's the wannabe tyre kickers that start talking crap about gender specific cars (or start posting pictures of old and new mini's... I've had both. I find the new ones are far superior in that they start without wd40...)

kerley - Member

Of course it isn't. People who say certain cars are girls cars, hairdressers cars etc,. are telling you more about their own issues than anything else.

Newsflash.
Different products are designed and marketed for different genders.
There is nothing wrong with a bloke using a Gillette Venus to shave with, but it is a girl's razor.

I test drove a Cooper S, handled great, lots of legroom and quick.

Didn't like the road noise. Think it had 18" wheels though.

Loved the interior.

I have a Mini Clubman N/A - great little motor for my use.

Not sure you could describe me as effeminate (bald and 49) but I don't really give a shit what any other driver is thinking when they look at me.

Life must be so tough for the overly vain...

I think we have all realised you get products only one gender use [ condoms for example or dresses ] but the issue is why you think cars fall into this paradigm of being for different genders. I see no logical reason for this and i see no evidence of any maker specifically saying this car is for women - Gillete clearly says its a womans razor- are there any examples [ genuine q BTW ] from car makers - bet their is in America

*sounds paradigm usage klaxon*

You can tell a lot about a persons personality from the car they drive, I don't have one....

Aww crap

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Newsflash.
Different products are designed and marketed for different genders.
There is nothing wrong with a bloke using a Gillette Venus to shave with, but it is a girl's razor.

Yes, certain products are, but they are typically labelled for male/female or very blatant. That doesn't apply to cars at all.
Tell me what about the mini is designed for female use and what marketing have you evidence of that is aimed squarely at the female driver.

are there any examples [ genuine q BTW ] from car makers -

Yes, there are examples but they stopped in the mid eighties when some people became enlightened. Clearly a lot of people still have to catch up.

For example;
Ford Capri has some adverts in 70's suggesting it was a mans car
Austin had some adverts in the early 80's suggesting the Metro was a woman car.

Oooh reckon I can answer that. A friend has Minis, one of them had a gizmo where there was a selection of colours for the interior lighting, for ambiance or something.

Would a bloke be interested in that feature???

Would a bloke be interested in that feature???

Why wouldn't they be, can men not see colours? I would use the option of changing colour of lighting in the car if the option was there..

Don't know about the Mini but a middle aged bloke near us drives a convertible Evoque whilst wearing a bandanna so I know what a knob head's car looks like.

Your faith in the non-discriminatory nature of marketing is admirable, yet naive. 🙂

Yes - my mate fell foul of this and bought a John cooper works. Sold it a few months later due to all the ribbing he got.... nice car though!

Nope not a girls car (Edit: I see I am in a minority), Pretty quick on normal roads. You can press on in one and stay in touch with a Cayman S for example.

I lusted after the priginal Coopers as I had a stock Mini with a daft body kit, the new car is of course not a patch on the original but one would never pass the safety tests now.

Would a bloke be interested in that feature???

If it impressed the ladies, yes. Apologies and I'll get my coat ....

An Audi TT is what you need to signal your masculinity loud and clear to all.

[quote=sbob ]Your faith in the non-discriminatory nature of marketing is admirable, yet naive.

perhaps you can list all the cars marketed just for women and then we can see whether your smugness is supported by facts
Even you did not try so we know the answer. Dont let this weakness or you accepting it make you rethink your opinion its ever so manly and virile...swoons

😆

I know three people with Cooper S's
Two are female, one is male.
The latter has the JCW version, the former are both the supercharged rather than turbo versions. All are driven enthusiastically.

perhaps you can list all the cars marketed just for women and then we can see whether your smugness is supported by facts
Even you did not try so we know the answer. Dont let this weakness or you accepting it make you rethink your opinion its ever so manly and virile...swoons

I don't necessarily disagree with you, but you don't need to specifically say something is marketed for women or men for it to be a product obviously aimed at women or men.

Take these yoghurts, for example:
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They are in no way female-specific, but which gender do you reckon the marketing is aimed at?

Homosexuals?

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Sold it a few months later due to all the ribbing he got.... nice car though!

Heh...what a loser.

I think most would appreciate a honda jazz or a nissan micra as an old persons car. I don't recall ever seeing advertising for either of these models so it can't be that but I still associate them with that demographic. I guess it must be because most of the one I see are driven by old people....or very young people that care more about getting mobile without breaking the bank paying for insurance than driving a 'cool' car. Using the same logic why can't a mini cooper not be seen as a girls car because a high proportion of them on the road are driven by ladies?

I think the mini cooper (and the audi tt too) fall into the category of girls car partly because their aesthetics is quite a large factor in their overall appeal and was high on the priority list of the designers and appreciating aesthetic design is seen by knuckle draggers as a trait of girls, fags and Guardian reading ponces. Also because both cars seem to be relatively high on the most wanted list for females drivers 'into' cars. They are both coincidentally on the short list for the next car in Convert Towers. We only need one car and I want something a bit sprited and Mrs C wants something smallish and 'pretty' (she likes the look of our chavmobile Clio 197 so her tastes might be a little warped). I would be more than happy to be seen driving either. Certainly a load happier behind the wheel of a cooper s or TT than I would an octavia or similar 'family man' car.

Mini Cooper ads are so effeminate that it makes me ovulate just watching them:

But what does it matter? Seems like the marketing dept are onto you lot: 'This car doesn't care what you call it' ...

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This is a man's car.

Any bloke who thinks there's such a thing as a man's car ain't a man.

Well maybe one of these, but I'll bet Russian girls drive them...

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This is a man's car.

.......parked by a woman. A man would have reversed it in. 😉

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.......parked by a woman. A man would have reversed it in.

Careful. Derek'll scratch your eyes out with talk like that.

cinnamon_girl - Member
Homosexuals?

Lol, hey wait a minute 👿

Well I've booked a test drive of a JCW so there.

Maybe people at work won't hit on me.

Anybody want to buy my old 5 series? Now that is a driver's car...

Blokes car.
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PP was very, very close on the previous page.

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Proper Minis are awesome. My mother's first car was a tweaked S. Jealous.

Proper Minis are awesome. My mother's first car was a tweaked S. Jealous.

Yes in theory but have you been in one in the last 30years? It was quite underwhelming. Very good at being small I grant you and maybe the one I was in had a shagged engine but pretty much everything about it appeared a bit bobbins in comparison to what we drive today. You'd have to have pretty rose tinted glasses to think it was 'good' after driving cars of the last decade plus. Modern mini is clearly a betterer car in every way apart from being, well, mini.

Didn't the new beetle come with a dashboard vase? Surely to appeal to a certain gender?

Good thread for the bewildered unenlightened ignorant.

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This is a blind man's car.

QFT.

As ever, Google wins:

Want to understand the male psyche, its anxieties and inadequacies? Just look at the cars disproportionately driven by men: The car with the most skewed ratio of male to female drivers is none other than the Lamborghini. A staggering 93% of the owners of that Italian luxury sports car are men. [b]The car with the highest rate of ownership among women, meanwhile, is the fuel-efficient Mini[/b], according to a survey of nearly 10 million car registrations conducted for Marke****ch by Edmunds.com.

So it is statistically a womans car. Personally, I would not want to speculate on why it appeals more to women than any other car. I expect that someone in BMW's marketing team would be able to tell you.

Dirty girl car. And by the look on it, about to pass out.

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POSTED 4 HOURS AGO #
Frankenstein - Member

Didn't like the road noise. Think it had 18" wheels though.

I believe they had run-flats fitted, as standard, due to the lack of space for a spare wheel. This affects the ride, apparently.

So my sister reckons, anyway. 😀

Didn't the new beetle come with a dashboard vase? Surely to appeal to a certain gender?

edd china out on his sofa among manly minis

Your faith in the non-discriminatory nature of marketing is admirable, yet naive

Yeah, how are you getting on with those examples of where the mini is specifically designed for female use and what marketing have you evidence of that is aimed squarely at the female driver.

Having trouble finding it I imagine. I have even tried to help you out by looking through Mini adverts and if anything they are aimed towards a male audience. So must be all those features that the mini has which are made to appeal to women, what were they again?

So must be all those features that the mini has which are made to appeal to women, what were they again?

And yet as RichPenny above points out it is the car with the largest female proportion of drivers of all current models. Weird isn't it. What's your theory?

Lol my man loves those yogurts! Should I be worried?!

depends does he have a mans car or womans?

A V8 Ford Mustang is a mans car but women are extra sexy when they drive one (see the latest Rolling Stones video for example which i would link here if I knew how).

Flashie's in love with his Mum.

Drives a remapped Cooper SD so..... ❓

Real girl's car.

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Ah, my dad had one of those...the big girly.

Had an 04 Cooper. Great car on my back road route into work - handled brilliantly. Couldn't drive it on a backroad without grinning.

Test drove the Cooper and Cooper S back to back and settled on the Cooper with standard wheels but Cooper S suspension. On the roads I was driving the ride and handling made more difference than the engine.

That said I went into the dealership with my wife to buy it and it was hilarious watching the salesman trying to work out who he was selling the car to.

Man's car? Woman's car? Who cares. Find a backroad and drive one. You will grin.

Those citroens with the vibrating seats, are they for women? Mstomhoward has just got one, not sure why...