How useable are the rear seats for kids? Ours are 7 and 3 and the wife is thinking of getting one. Had a couple of minis years ago but that was before kids so can’t remember much about available space in back.

I fit in the back of my mums. I’m 6’2.

Proper mini or the hulking great leviathan they call a mini these days?

Adults fit in the back of a Mini – 3 and 7yr olds are no problem!

We used to have a clubman estate as a family car (in the 70’s)

It really depends on how tall the ones are in the front…

Mmmmm, my wife had a new mini up to this week. She was on her way home on Monday night and had a total power failure, no steering, lights, engine gone, nothing at all but a little bit of smoke coming from the bonnet which did stop, to make things worse she was on a duel carriage way and as a final dying act the car locked itself which is a great safety feature until you’re on a busy carriageway and need to get into the boot which you can’t do without getting back into the car and pull a lever under the rear seats, luckily the wife had the sense to get out of the with the keys which in most cases would be great to open the boot to get the hazard triangle hi viz jacket etc. Wrong!! Long and short of it an old boy hit the car, luckily no one was hurt but that one feature has put me off getting her another Mini, think it will be a new VW Beetle as a replacement.

Could be a one off but it’s put me off the mini.

Never had any issues when we had ours.

I’ve had a Mini hatch for just over a year with two children aged 7 and 4.

It works ok as my wife has a small people carrier type car so mine is the second car. I’m 6′ 1″ and with the driving seat as I want it my son (the younger) has to put his feet apart for me to drop the seat back!

My daughter on the passenger side is ok but as my wife is only 5′ tall she can have the passenger front seat far enough forward to offer good room in the back.

So for short journeys and as a second car it’s fine.

Shame as it’s such a fun car for me on my own, I had a tow at fitted to carry a bike rack so one of the two important aspects are covered!

Proper mini or the hulking great leviathan they call a mini these days?

It’s 2013, if Issigonis was designing the Mini today it would look like today’s Mini.

nothing at all but a little bit of smoke coming from the bonnet which did stop

That’s just being true to the model’s roots, isn’t it?

I have a two yr old and a C1. No probs. If I had two kids of ANY age NO I wouldnt get a mini. Let them have some space etc. Yes you can transport them but its no fun.

Plus I’d want something safer in a crash

It’s 2013, if Issigonis was designing the Mini today it would look like today’s Mini.

would it bollards!

”One thing that I learnt the hard way – well not the hard way, the easy way – when you’re designing a new car for production, never, never copy the opposition,” opined Alec Issigonis, when asked to summarise his approach to car design. An eccentric and often outspoken character, Issigonis was equally dismissive of market research, which he described as “bunk” and even mathematics, derided as “the enemy of every truly creative man”.

so he would have never a designed a “by committee to tick all the cool marketing trend bag of filth that is the new mini”

I mean in 2013 you can “drive in the name of a legend, john cooper” which has nothing to do with the cooper car company, just pure marketing drivel.

The new mini is just a cynical, bloated and rather cack pastiche of an original design icon

Plus I’d want something safer in a crash

4 out of 5 NCAP rating

I mean in 2013 you can “drive in the name of a legend, john cooper” which has nothing to do with the cooper car company, just pure marketing drivel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cooper_Works

haha loving the lucas smoke!!

a friend of mine advised me against buying his as we have a little daughter, he said that we would end up like him and his missis, with a fun enough car that was just that little bit to small. He also said you get quite bored of roof boxes.

so he would have never a designed a “by committee to tick all the cool marketing trend bag of filth that is the new mini”

The new mini is just a cynical, bloated and rather cack pastiche of an original design icon

Tazzy, you have issues! It’s just a car 😆

Tazzy, you have issues! It’s just a car

nah, just like a good cynical rant 😆

NCAP? Im not talking 30mph into a block

Wife has had three minis, the first two mini coopers the second a clubman and loves them all. Clubman better than th ‘normal’ for kids we have a 6 year old and 18 months and works great for both of them. The clubman also has the extra seat in the rear i.e. 3 seats do give a bit more room. She is looking to change the clubman for a different one if you are interested in a 59 plate one with all the extras you can think of including leather, sport pack etc for about £8000.

Another thumbs up for Clubmans here – had a Cooper hatch before and no, wouldn’t recommend for kids (or any regular need to have passengers in the back), just too small. Clubby on the other had has plenty of room, boot could be a bigger but way more practical than the hatch’s. Most fun small car around imho (granted mine’s a jcw :-))

Plus I’d want something safer in a crash

4 out of 5 NCAP rating

Fiat 500 it is then. (5 out of 5 I believe)
🙂