I wish I could say that I photoshoped this abortion over lunch just to see what it would look like. Uh…can we agree that Mini forgets its DNA and steps a little too far out of their box too?
HAHa,
I was just going to post that I really like this. I wish they stayed with the “cap style” roof, and the door window break area is very odd, but I like the exaggerated proportions, wheel scale, super low roof line.
gallery here
That’s a pretty short car to begin with… how does one even sit in that when you’re over 6’ tall?
I don’t know … can we? 
Almost as cool as this:
Or this…
Funny, I just saw this on Autoblog and my immediate reaction was to post about how bad it is… this could have been really cool… it’s not even close though! Ouch, it just hurts as a Mini owner and a designer… shark jump!
A mini coupe could be really cool. When I heard of it, I thought they would make something completely bespoke but with a veneer of Mini styling traits. I’m thinking a Euro update of the Mazda AZ-1 or Toyota Sera:
Unfortunately, the real Mini coupe just looks like something someone would build in a garage. They took the bottom of a Mini and hacked a little coupe roof on it. The swept back A-pillars look completely awkward. The proportion of the greenhouse to body is way off making it look like something squished it. Then you have the bizarre rear end where no attention seemed to be made to integrate the very upright metal to the sweeping glass of the hatch. Lastly, you have that weird kink…but that’s the least of the design crimes in this thing. Ugh!
Should I be ashamed…? I kind of like it. Minus the little flare on the rear white bit on the roof of the cab. And the rear trunk…other than that it’s kinda spiffy though.
Ugly or not, that is a brand that’s lost it’s identity.
I actually don’t think it’s that ugly.
I think that there are some weird little quirks to it, and there are some things that I would have changed about it, but I think that as a concept, it’s sort of neat looking.
Oh, come one guys, it’s not that bad. It’s certainly not great, and a bit of a stretch (or squish actually), but I kinda like it. I’m especially surprised that you don’t like it Yo, as you have the Clubman, right?
Personally (though probably not possible) would have just done a straight “chop” to reduce the height and basically chopped out the rear hatch part to make it a coupe with a flat rear deck.
Either that, or if they do go away from the mini formula, I’d say they need to go even further. Distill it all down to more like something like the Ford 021C by Newson (with round lights). Looks already kinda Mini-ish in profile, no?
quikie photochop below. still looks wacky, and totally squished, but maybe at least more “mini” if something was done to lower the beltline for a better top/bottom proportion? ?
R
now those cars in your last pic Mr.914 are a design crime!
Kind of reminds me of some sci-fi characters
I kinda like it too. But I’m thinkin’ . … … maybe raise the radiator cap and slip an Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite-like substance back under it.
edit - I would kill someone for this car… . . … 
Just a quick sketch. This would be more Mini to me…at the very least, more English. Kind of a throwback.
Wouldn’t it be cool to see a concept with wing mirrors?
okay, i don’t think it’s that bad either… with a little tweak of that really off roof, it could be kinda sweet. Now I just wonder why it’s not the “mini coop concept”
this thing is far from the clubman which is essentially just an extended mini… and the clubman is a heritage model. I like the photo-chop much better than the concept.
I wasn’t saying the Clubman was in the same dept. looks wise, just thought you might be a Mini fanboy
R
I was waiting to see if Yo was going to be for this thing just because he is a Mini fan boy. I thought it was bad enough that he would be honest though.
Richard: I like your concept more than Mini’s. I think lmo’s idea and my drawing would have been even better. Also…those cars I posted aren’t design crimes. They were very good at the time and place. Today they look goofy as heck. I just love anything with gull-wing doors though. That doubles a car’s cool factor.
SAAB fan, Audi fan… definitely not a Mini fan. Not sure where you guys get your info on me sometimes…
We have a clubman because I think it is the coolest small car I could fit 4 people in that my wife liked. The very close runners up where the Audi A3, the GTI, and the BMW 1 series. If BMW brought the 1 series 5 door hatch to the US we would have that. If VW could make a GTI that didn’t fall apart after 40k miles we would have that. And if AUDI would make an A3 in a decent set of colors we would have that (with S Line Trim).
Not that there would be anything bad about being a mini fanboy 
R