What is the most middling, non-controversial statement you can say about a passenger vehicle? In my opinion, it is to use the term ‘fit for purpose’. But after I heard that phrase to describe a car on the globally acclaimed automotive show The Grand Tour, I began to wonder what is the raison d’etre of a car? Honestly, at the very basic level, it is to get the owner and his or her friends and family from point A to point B with a certain degree of comfort, reliability and safety. But if that was it, we’d all be driving vehicles that look like glorified toasters. Indeed, in many of the ‘artistic impressions’ of the future, the car is increasingly portrayed looking as exactly that, a toaster.
Though there are many who buy a car for its pure functionality, that isn’t the case for many others. Back in the early 2000s, roads in metropolitan India were populated by vast numbers of Santros and WagonRs, both passenger vehicles, that were not easy on the eye, not exactly ‘fun’ to drive, but got the job done. India’s economic development can be seen through the lens of not only how many cars Indians buy, but which cars they buy.
So, it is quite clear that Indians are not just buying cars that are only ‘fit for purpose’. Increasingly, they want their cars to say something about them. Take the Mahindra Thar for example. After having spent a week in a Thar driving through western Arunachal Pradesh earlier this year, I have no doubts about its capabilities. But a Thar for the city is overkill. And if you are a family man or woman, the three-door Thar, as it is available now, is thoroughly impractical. But showing up to a hotel lobby or a wedding in a Thar says something about the owner, or that is what the owner thinks. It says that not only is the owner an outdoorsy type, they like a bit of fun and they aspire to be an Alpha or already are an Alpha but they also don’t want to have anything to do with a family and that their life’s belongings can fit inside a North Face rucksack, because that is all the luggage space the Thar really has.
So, what does owning a Mini say?
In its Cooper avatar, and believe me, the Clubman and Countryman variants of the Mini are imposters, the Mini is possibly even more impractical. But the Mini, just like the Thar, is a vehicle that you buy to make a statement. But unlike the Thar owner, you are not ‘outdoorsy’. In fact, far from it, the Mini is all about city life. It is the perfect urban runabout. And while both the Thar and Mini can fall prey to gender tropes, we won’t go down that path. Because I love both cars, they are absolutely awesome in what they do.
But I love the Mini more, because I live in the city, for the most part. And I just drove the Mini SE, the electrified version of the small car. And my word, has the Mini come a long, long way from the original Austin Mini, a car developed in bankrupt post-war Britain. For one, the Mini is made by the BMW Group these days and it is a lot larger than the Mini of yore. But it is still a small hatchback, albeit with all the bells and whistles. I absolutely love the metal switches on the Mini, and because I’ve driven the new Mini across the world from Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles to the island of Mallorca, I have very fond memories of the car. It also helps that my father owned an original as a broke doctoral student in Oxford.
How can a person ‘love’ an impractical car? I even gave up trying to fit in my son’s car seat, because I do not have that level of physical flexibility anymore. The Mini SE is more impractical than the regular petrol or diesel version because it has just 160-200 kilometers of range on a full charge. And while you can ‘fast charge’ the car, with such limited range, the Mini SE can only be a city runabout. Although you will likely have to put your shopping on the back seat as the boot space is limited. And an under 200 km range, no matter how you slice it or dice it, is quite low. But like in real life, you often see a couple that, to you, do not make sense — odd tall-and-short couples. But in some cases, when you strip away the fame, lust and money, you see the love. You can drive a brutal BMW M that can put a smile on your face when you find the open road, or a racetrack. But in the city?
Also read: AMT, IMT, CVT, DCT — why you must know your automatic car before you buy one
The Mini SE feels like a Mini should and it certainly drives like a Mini should. Indeed, I’ve driven quite a few electric cars over the past twelve months, cars with absolutely bonkers performance, but they feel inherently different from their petrol-engine counterparts. You turn on the low energy recuperation mode on the Mini SE, and it gives you that same Mini-feel of sheer fun in the city. No other hatchback has the same steering feel and get up and go as this little car does. But it is thoroughly impractical. At Rs 51 lakh, almost Rs 10 lakh expensive than the regular petrol version. But BMW India has already sold out their 2022 quota of 40 cars. And while that makes me sad that there isn’t one available, not that I could afford one, it gives me a glimmer of hope that there are other people like me, who know what it is to ‘love’ a particular car.
@kushanmitra is an automotive journalist based in New Delhi. Views are personal.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)