Anybody remember the Mini Vans?

[Fin170]

Well I don't (few years before I was born) but in case anybody feels a bit nostalgic....

MINI Clubvan concept revealed | News | Auto Express

Can't see it being much of a rival to any proper van but I guess you can win yourself some good advertising. Given I made a 206 van work I reckon I could run it easily enough but you can bet anything it will be hideously over priced :deal:

 

[Guest123]

One of the forum members had a stunning example of the original mini van.


I quite like the new one TBH.

 

[imago]

I wonder if the definition of 'nostalgia' and 'rose tinted spectacles' are the same? Mini vans were absolute pants, too small, the roof was too low, slow, unconfortable, noisy as hell. In summer they were hotter than Old Nick's nuts, and in winter they were colder than an Eskimo's bog roll. The competition wasn't much better!

You young'ns with your heaters, air con, electric windows and sat nav don't know you're born.


I remember driving to .... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Eh?! Where's me cocoa?

 

[Octopus]

The problem with the new Mini is that its anything but Mini - its huge.

 

[ipf]

Takes me back. Embarassingly, I had one in the 70's. OK in winter, as long as you had sweaters, heavy coat, a set of jump leads and a can of WD40 in the back. The germans don't know what a real mini is.

 

[sparkdog]

Yes I had several and every week something would either wear out,drop off or crumble into rust.

 

[robsparky1975]

My dad had one,if memory serves it was blue with wooden trim everywhere,it reminded me of the waltons(do you guys remember that),then he had a bulletproof transit van with about 500k on the clock,it never broke down once,well aprt from the lightstalk,which he rewired with a 1 gang sw on a surface box(no drylining boxes in those days).what would the average bloke do now without power steering?

 

[Geordie Spark]

In 1966 or thereabouts, the firm I worked for had two of them, and one of the lads I worked with had one. He made a trailer for it using the van part of another mini van & used it to transport his Go-Kart around as Go-Karting was a hobby of his.

 

[MarkieSparkie]

They only had to see building sites or winter rock salt and the rear sub-frame bushes clapped out, causing interesting handling issues when loaded.

 

[telectrix]

i had one in 70's. sliding windows, never broke down. just fell apart one day.

 

[hermetic]

broke the back subframe on ours attacking a hump back too enthusiastically whilst heavily loaded, fitted a new one over the weekend (they were about £25!)

 

[parker56]

you know when your in a tight space when you change the bottom hose on a early mini or the hose between the head & engine block.
Use to do clutches for a pass time,still have the pully kit.

 

[Andy 7671]

Rear subframe bushes...jeez that was the worst job I ever attempted, nuts were rounded off, the captive plate inside broke through the rust that was impersonating a sill...both sides...grrr, .. cost a fortune for a mobile welder, then when Id finally got it back together, ready to go and be pumped up (hydrolastic) it rubbed the two rear tyres to shreds on its 10 mile journey to the garage, I was stopping and getting mud from ditches to put on wheel arch to stop the smoke.

Still have fond memories of it though...