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

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

Brilliant @perchy

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.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Buy yourself the cooper, when anybody says it's a womans car, challenge them to a race, when you win.. laugh, tell them they were right about it being a womans car and that said womans car just pissed all over them.

Done

Definitive proof that a Mini Cooper is a real man's car:
[img] [/img]

Junkyard - lazarus

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.

Actually I've been at work. 😆
I deemed it more important than arguing with strangers as to whether or not a car that was conceived to capture a greater percentage of the female customer base, and achieved it, was a "girl's car".

Don't let this weakness or you accepting it make you rethink your opinion it's ever so manly and virile...swoons

My last car (for I do not currently drive) was a bright red Nissan Micra covered in flower stickers. That's how concerned I am with my masculinity.

I used to drive it to my job in automotive manufacturing. 😳

Night night.

German cars vs French cars, gnarpoons vs ebikes, pies vs veg, [s]Scarface vs Manon Des Sources[/s] GOTG2 vs Dune, my sausage vs your sausage - STW always delivers 'handbags at dawn'.

(Pictures a small office full of mini-me-Clarksons in a noisy bag-fight, punctuated only by regular outbursts/demands for snapshots of each other's wives)

According to a the school run the VW T5/T6 is the fastest growing girls car.

Mans car is anything dirty and over 10 years old.

There is no such thing as a car a girl can't drive. Therefore all cars are girls cars.

Maybe those who think there's such a thing as a man's car should stop confusing their joystick for a gear lever.

It's a bit like equating your Nintendo Ninja status with your manliness.

I used to have a Ford Puma, one acquaintance of mine [s]reckoned[/s] trolled me saying it was a girl's car, to which I [s]replied he ought to have a chat with EVO Magazine and Tiff Needel, whose spirited driving in one had the rest of the TG team making noises like a bunch of girls! Big girl's blouses, more like...[/s] bit hugely

Basically it's just a wind up isn't it. You choose whether to bite or not. Further reading (sorry for more facts!) suggests that BMW choose quite narrow marketing for their products. Seems entirely possible that they've targeteted their marketing and tweaked the product to suit.

According to a the school run the VW T5/T6 is the fastest growing girls car.

Oh good, at least that signals that this 'austerity' thing is now over. (Scans pages of commercial property available in Redditch)

Anyone up for setting up a Converse shoe-shop for surfey-bikey-mums? 😉

epicyclo

There is no such thing as a car a girl can't drive. Therefore all cars are girls cars.

But are there certain types of cars that are more appealing to girls (and women) ? Is there a type of design language that women respond to more than men? Are there colour schemes and palettes which women generally favour more than men?

Is there marketing targeted specifically at one gender and not another?

To say a woman can drive any car therefore all cars are womens cars is missing the point slightly isn't it? I mean all women can take exogenous male hormones and grow beards, therefore beards are a feminine feature. Right 😕

I drive a twingo rs 133. I wanted something cheap but fun to drive after my Audi a4 sline which was boring. Some people think I am mad driving round in a tiny twingo but I love it. Get what YOU want I say.

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

Not really. That is a throwback to the 60's beetles that had the same.
So it's appealing to the flower power/hippy heritage of the car, rather than a gender.
Hth.

nealglover

Not really. That is a throwback to the 60's beetles that had the same.
So it's appealing to the flower power/hippy heritage of the car, rather than a gender.
Hth.

Didn't the Beetle start production in 1938, as a response to a request for a people's car by a certain gentleman with a fairly unique mustache and a fondness for goose steeping? Hard to imagine that flower holder was a big part of the original design brief. It's almost as if they cherry picked a feature from one part of the 60 year production run that was cute and might appeal to women (if you looked at it from a cynical pov).

I just wanted to post a pic of a SAAB 900 Carlsson. This car/gender thing is bollocks...oh..and labia(?).

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

Why are so many people so "right on" that they can't spot a light-hearted forum topic when they see one?

🙂

PS I mainly drive a Mazda estate car that says more about my age than my gender!!

I thought it was more a Clarksonesque humour whereby folk show what they really think and then pretend they are just joking.

So what features make an object that could be used by anyone appealing to a woman?
What is a woman's razor exactly? A pink one in glittery packaging that costs more? I thought we were moving away from pink it and shrink it....

I’m happy if others think of my MINI as a ‘girls car’. Saves explaining my lack of masculinity to others 😀

It’s just a fun car. Destroyed by the 17” wheels that 99% of Cooper S’s have though. Swapping mine onto smaller, lighter 16” alloys with non-runflats was the best car decision I made. I’d happily go smaller again but the front brakes on the R56 are bigger than the older supercharged ones, so not possible.

So what features make an object that could be used by anyone appealing to a woman?
What is a woman's razor exactly? A pink one in glittery packaging that costs more? I thought we were moving away from pink it and shrink it....

I suspect that is a question more for mumsnet than here with a larger number of ladies to answer. But there is no doubt that females pool their purchasing around specific models in a sector - the Mini is a good case in point.

I'm not sure it matters (unless you are in marketing) - consumer power making informed or emotional judgements and buying what they want/like. Surely sexism has moved on from uniformity being the only path to equality. If ladies pluck the pink toothbrush from the shelf (or the mini from the row of small hatchbacks) is that particularly harmful to women's rights?

@a11y smart, a friend of mine jist bought the 4wd car and it was the first piece of advice I gave him, take the run flats off asap, he wants winter grip so all-seasons are a no brainer.

Stereotypical "Men's" cars are cock compensators one way or another - powerful more than speedy (though both count, obvz), and/or costly "status" symbols (by which I include "mine's got the optional exec pack with the bigger-arsed seats") or needlessly capable in some way (see Unimog camper vans with optional axe-rack)

"Women's" cars, meh, who cares 😆

a11y - is correct.

jimjam - Member
...therefore beards are a feminine feature. Right

scaredypants - Member
Stereotypical "Men's" cars are cock compensators one way or another

This. Surely the only criteria for a car should be how many bikes you can fit in it. 🙂

Didn't the Beetle start production in 1938, as a response to a request for a people's car by a certain gentleman with a fairly unique mustache and a fondness for goose steeping? Hard to imagine that flower holder was a big part of the original design brief.

That would be why I said it was a feature borrowed from the 60's Beetles then wouldn't it 🙄

and labia(?)

Beetle Bonnet?

If ladies pluck the pink toothbrush from the shelf (or the mini from the row of small hatchbacks) is that particularly harmful to women's rights?

Of course it isn't, if that's their choice. It's when we have marketing people dictate what they think women want that gets me. For many years, women's sports clothing, running shoes, cycling jerseys were all pink or purple. Thankfully we seem to be moving on from that, although I notice that a lot of women's mountain bikes have feminine names.

Mate of mine happily drove round in a Fiat panda sport for a few years.

He didn't care what anyone thought, 'good power to weight ratio and handles like a go cart.' Was his standard reply! He wasn't wrong it was a nippy little thing.

For many years, women's sports clothing, running shoes, cycling jerseys were all pink or purple.

Chicken and egg though isn't it. Is/was most female sports kit pink/purple because that's what marketing bods thought female runners wanted and therefore would sell or is it what a lot lot of females runners told marketing bods that that's what they wanted....even if the idea of what they wanted was planted in their heads by the previous generation of marketing bods.

Either way I'm glad you don't have to buy pink anymore and equally glad pink is still there for folks that do.

Mate of mine happily drove round in a Fiat panda sport for a few years.

Er, is that a 'thing'? (Looks at Fiat Panda in the drive)

Thing about bangernomics/being married/having general disinterest in cars is you forget that society expects you to be 'sending a message' about who you are. Likewise need to be choosing to drive something that impresses peers/and/or the opposite sex! I failed on so many counts. Even ride a stepthru bike to the shops. Feels like my transport habits to date comstitute some kind of crime against Proper British Manliness or something* 😉

*With the exception of two old and cheap/free German cars, that is.

Out of interest I just asked Mrs MR to list the cars she's owned:

Isuzu I-Mark
Mitsubishi Mirage
1985 Crown Victoria*
1999 Ford Escort estate

Funny, since she's been back in the UK she's been eyeing up Beetles, Fiats and, er, Figaros <-----True story. This could mean that the UK messes with our minds 😉

*(The thought of her slamming a slim, bare-footed tattooed leg down on the gas pedal of those hulking lumps of grief on wheels messes with [i]my[/i] mind 😈 )

[img] [/img]

nealglover

Didn't the Beetle start production in 1938, as a response to a request for a people's car by a certain gentleman with a fairly unique mustache and a fondness for goose steeping? Hard to imagine that flower holder was a big part of the original design brief.

That would be why I said it was a feature borrowed from the 60's Beetles then wouldn't it 🙄

Yes, I noticed that. I was pointing out that the flower holder wasn't an original feature, rather something cherry picked from a 65 years of production. A feature that's almost inarguably more appealing to women than men.

If they wanted to hark back to beetles of the past they could have offered this fetching desert camo and roof rack spec, complete with decal kit.

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

If they wanted to hark back to beetles of the past they could have offered this fetching desert camo and roof rack spec, complete with decal kit.

But they didn't, because they would be somthing like 0.001% of total production maybe. And never sold to the public.
So not not [i]that[/i] strange that they went with the symbol of "60's flower power" that the beetle is actually famous for.

nealglover

So not not that strange that they went with the symbol of "60's flower power" that the beetle is actually famous for.

And yet I can't recall ever seeing one in an original beetle. What years was it actually offered as a feature? There's obviously a connection between the beetle and the 60s, broadly speaking, but I don't think the little flower holder is really anything to do with it. It strikes me as a contrived attempt to offer a cutesy feature to the young women they wanted to buy the car.

Having owned M3s, AMG Mercedes, Z4M coupe, Porsche Boxters and a plethora of 3litre petrol BMWs, I can, hand or heart say that I LOVED my Cooper S Clubman.

Fast, nimble, well equipped, cheap to run, great to drive and fast around Castle Comb at the weekends...though the standard brakes were poor.

I miss mine immensely:

[URL= http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u161/Razors_kiss/Car/6ED22E88-241D-417C-BA5A-C0E3A5D29583_zpscri8htmr.jp g" target="_blank">http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u161/Razors_kiss/Car/6ED22E88-241D-417C-BA5A-C0E3A5D29583_zpscri8htmr.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

And yet I can't recall ever seeing one in an original beetle. What years was it actually offered as a feature?

Porcelain "blumenvase" available on all beetles produced from 1945 to 1975, (then after that, only as an aftermarket accessory)

Originals still sell now for decent money.

It's all about marketing - subliminal or otherwise.
Marketing is an evolution from snake oil salesmen.
As for the mini - don't like it's ever increasing size but that's nothing other than a personal opinion.
Cooper or Cooper s are driver's cars; gender is irrelevant. I would happily ignore my views about size and be happy to drive one of these.
Gender focussed cars? Age focussed cars? What a load of old toot.

I just wish Mini interiors didn't look like the height of bad taste and tack and cheapness. I think BMW know their market though.

I've got a facelift 55 plate Cooper S which has had quite a few mods, handles like a go kart, the supercharger noise is so addictive and this one has the best ECU map that BMW did and it pops and bangs like a rally car on overrun. My mates all love it but wife isn't too keen, not one person has ever said to me about it being a womans car, not that I would care anyway.

We had similar. Cooper S Super charger, noisy stainless exhaust, popping and crackling on over run, great handling and a decent ride once we'd ditched the run flats and put some smaller wheels on it.

The wife loved it, she's a girl. I liked it, I'm not. Eventually just couldn't justify the barely 20mpg if you drove it how it should be, the quite heavy VED and the quite frankly tiring drive if you took it too far. Brilliant car mind!

Irrespective of gender and whether you can walk upright, I've been looking at these since this thread started (as I'm scouting around for a new smaller car than the XC60 I have ATM) 2.0D or 1.6D versions, and manual and does it ride like a shopping trolley on ball bearings or can you sit comfortably enough to hear the radio? I've done the "will the bikes fit in" and yes they will with wheels off, boards on the roof too..
Opinions ?

[img] [/img]

So the evidence is overwhelming. MINI is not a girls car because they made a version of it which was loud, fast and uncomfortable 😆

Comfort in a Mini? I thought so in mine.
It's a very good chassis with a decent suspension set up. So a good start.
Go for the rubber band tyres and you kill that so the answer is no, but a decent height sidewall doesn't affect the handling noticeably and the grip probably increases with the more supple tyre.

PS - the VW Golf is aimed at middle class grannies.

a decent height sidewall doesn't affect the handling noticeably and the grip probably increases with the more supple tyre.

Indeed. Run little 15" wheels and it's even acceptable on the potholed roads of [s]the south[/s] just about everywhere.

I've also done a 2.5 hour stint across the M4 without stopping and had no issues with comfort.

Like I wrote earlier - it's a reasonably practical car with a versatile engine. 150,000 on mine and I can get to Wales from Wycombe area on just under £20 of petrol.

PS - the VW Golf is aimed at middle class grannies.

Oi! My mum drives a golf...... Ah OK. Fair enough.

STW brings me something else I've never seen in the real world - men driving Minis!

STW [i]is[/i] the real world.

Yep, that's right - I really did type that with my actual fingers and you really did read it with your real eyes.

🙂

teasel - Member

STW is the real world

Can you feel the damage my can't-believe-you-said-that-rays are doing to you right now? 😉

😥

😆

Comfort in a Mini? I thought so in mine.
It's a very good chassis with a decent suspension set up. So a good start.
Go for the rubber band tyres and you kill that so the answer is no, but a decent height sidewall doesn't affect the handling noticeably and the grip probably increases with the more supple tyre.

16" tyres cheaper than my MTB tyres too, not sure if I should 😆 or 🙁 at that...

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STW is the real world.

[cant believe I'm typing this - so sorry]

Anyone lived with an automatic Mini in a Cooper s or jcw flavour? Next car will be auto for hip injury reasons. We hired a new Cooper diesel auto on holiday in northern Tenerife and was not 100% won over. It didn't handle switchback mountain roads very well and was always changing the wrong way at inconvenient times. But that's pretty extreme driving. I think the quicker ones get flappy paddles which might help. The lure or a VAG group DSG might be calling otherwise.

[/cant believe I'm typing this - so sorry]

I love them - we're on our fourth now.

I don't think they'll better the R50/2/3 lookswise - they were really well proportioned cars to my eyes. I had a Cooper S which was great fun and the supercharger whine was really addictive. It was deceptively quick across country. One of my friends was always calling it a girls car despite his Alfa Spider not seeing which way it went.

I never really got the R56 - the interior was a bit better but it lost some of magic of the previous versions. The turbo charged Cooper S engine didn't do it for me either.

We've now got an F56 Cooper which replaced the 330 and I think it's great. The ride is good on 17's (non-run flats), its comfortable and has surprisingly goof NVH levels. The three pot is a cracking little engine too. I like the interior too which is laods nicer (in my view) compared to other small cars.

16" tyres cheaper than my MTB tyres too, not sure if I should or at that...

It is indeed a strange world

@bikebouy get a clubman type version, my sister (oops ... 😉 ) has one and it works well with her road bikes.

What @daffy says, fun to drive and pretty fast in real world driving

I don't think there's really such a think as a girl's car and a man's car - there are good cars, bad cars, cars focussed more on styling, more on performance, or more on comfort.

If we're getting at the steretypical manliness thing, anything with more creature comforts and driver aids and/or a lower PWR than the TVR speed 12 is obviously for big girl's blouses.

philjunior - Member

I don't think there's really such a think as a girl's car and a man's car

[img] [/img]

I feel there might be a slightly deliberate attempt to target certain genders going on there.

I feel there might be a slightly deliberate attempt to target certain [s]genders[/s] cartoon-grade gender-stereotypes going on there.

Agreed 😉

Today it feels like going back to the his vs hers 1950s, except now with extra orange-spray tans.

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?

My theory is that women like Mini's so buy them.

However, the question was about marketing and features. I can find no female biased advertising (it seem more male if anything) and I am not aware of any women friendly features (whatever they would be) that the mini has more of than any other car.

Maybe the look of them appeals to women more than many other similar cars, who knows.

Are you saying that the difference between a man's car and a women's car is simply based on ratio of sales? What % tips it either way, 55%, 60% ?

Current model 3 door Cooper S here (4 cylinder 2 litre turbo, 17" non-run-flats, optional variable damper control); much easier to drive quickly and more comfortable/civilized than the Toyota GT86 that preceded it.

My theory is that women like Mini's so buy them.

However, the question was about marketing and features. I can find no female biased advertising (it seem more male if anything) and I am not aware of any women friendly features (whatever they would be) that the mini has more of than any other car.

Maybe the look of them appeals to women more than many other similar cars, who knows.

The 'look' of a car is an inherent and crucial feature. You've just run a coach and horses through your own theory!

On the ratio yes I guess that's how a car gets a reputation. See Honda Jazz as and old persons car or Bentley continental as a footballer/new money car. No idea about the number though - 20% above statistical norm?

[img] [/img]

Well just been to the local mini dealer to have a gander at the Clubman I mentioned ^^, Tidy car, all the nice bits on it and the quality of the thing is quite exceptional. I am impressed, two things that stuck out.. the front seat dunna fold flat, the cabin is really very "thin" as in you sit almost thigh to thigh with the passenger.. hmmm.. will take another look though, quite liked the look and as it'll be me only in it most of the time I may overlook the lack of arse space ..

For many years, women's sports clothing, running shoes, cycling jerseys were all pink or purple. Thankfully we seem to be moving on from that,

Test driving the JCW auto tomorrow.

Also tempted by a cheap mk2 Cooper S but has had 3 owners since 2011 but has 3 extra options pack fitted.

Let me know how you find the auto in a jcw.

if you were going for a cooper s would you not consider the cooper SD? I'm sure I recall it was as fast as a cooper but with better mpg?
if you buy a moderner one it would come with a bmw engine rather than the pug engine.
I think they are nice cars and better looking than the 1 series they compete with.

We've had 2x Cooper S and I liked both of them. Black R53 w/ JCW sound pack was brilliant to drive, harsh but a lot of fun. The R56 turbo was a more practical car, bit less of a hooligan to drive. Check the oil level on the turbo models, the dipstick design is terrible which doesn't help.

Another tip, in an R53 don't try disengage the DSC while hanging your head out the window, the switch is very close to the window controls and you might get your head trapped betwixt glass and roof.

The 'look' of a car is an inherent and crucial feature. You've just run a coach and horses through your own theory!

Again, the question was around what marketing has been aimed at women and what feature of the mini are women friendly (if there is such a thing)

And again, no-one has any answers to that.

I like the look of the mini as do many other men I know. I even owned one 14 years ago.

Again, the question was around what marketing has been aimed at women [b]and what feature of the mini are women friendly (if there is such a thing)
[/b]
[b]And again, no-one has any answers to that.[/b]

I like the look of the mini as do many other men I know. I even owned one 14 years ago.

The aesthetic of a car [b][u]is[/u][/b] a feature. And to be female friendly does not mean it excludes men. The mini has an aesthetic (you may call it a feature if it makes you feel better) that appeals to women. Maybe women's purchasing priorities are more dominated by aesthetic 'features' than men's. As I said many pages ago females purchasing habits tend to pool around specific models in a sector more than men's. The mini has a greater number of women buying it as a percentage of the overall because of this pooling. It does not mean the 'female friendly features' (aesthetics) put men off, merely attract women. This is really not a very hard concept to grasp.

Maybe women's purchasing priorities are more dominated by aesthetic 'features' than men's

Then this place must be packed with undercover women. Each and every bicycle, car, pair of trews, shoes or [s]spoke nipple[/s] handlebar-stem goes through an intense evaluative process to decide whether or not it is aesthetically [s]approved[/s] [s]'correctly-gendered' [/s] appealing. And that's before we even get to colour-choices 😉

*Edited for gender issues.

Then this place must be packed with undercover women. Every bike, car, pair of trews or spoke nipple handlebar stem or shoes goes through an intense evaluative process to decide whether or not it is aestheticallyapproved appealing. And that's before we even get to colour choices ;)l

A Mans Mini:

[img] .html[/img]

or [img] [/img]

but don't call yourself a real man till you agree to drive this......through Granton, on a friday night, playing Beiber

[img] [/img]

^ That pink is only cool if you're a Panther
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convert - Member
Let me know how you find the auto in a jcw.

POSTED 19 HOURS AGO #

Mental power for a tiny car and a huge grin factor!

The auto is fast and allows you to focus on the road/drift without taking your hands off the wheel.

The torque is great for powering out of roundabouts and the traction control kicked in during power slides.

The paddle buttons work great too. Tons of grip and not too much torque steer.

Didn't like the race seats so I would opt for the adjustable leather seats.

You do feel the bumps on bad roads but it doesn't crash around but it is stiff.

Consider it a race car to go nuts/have fun in without breaking speed limits. Although it reaches speed limits quickly.

If it's too harsh, go for the Cooper S.

I feel like I have been in a crazy ride at Euro Disney again but don't need to get to France.

Bit taken back by the add on prices reaching £33K on PCP.

Will give it a serious think over with the options I chose.

Deposit paid and waiting for delivery.