Think the Mini’s big? It’s not

How much have popular cars grown per year of production? The answers may surprise, writes Damien O’Carroll.

Recently I spent a little time in all of the current Mini lineup – hatch, Clubman and Countryman. All three proved to be perfectly likeable cars, with excellent build quality and enjoyable dynamics. But BMW-Minis still attract a lot of hate from some quarters.

And a lot of that hate is due to the sheer size of the current range.

The current third-generation ‘‘new’’ Mini hatch is 98mm longer than the first-generation BMW model and 767mm longer than the classic original.

So, yeah, that’s quite a bit. But here’s something that might surprise you: in terms of overall growth, taken from its very first incarnation back in 1959, the Mini has actually grown less than other small cars that have also been around a long time.

Well, consider this: the current generation of Mini which made its debut in 2013 is 767mm longer than the original, which translates into growth of 14.2mm a year since 1959. Virtually none of the Mini’s contemporary competitors are still around today, but by way of comparison the Volkswagen Golf has grown at the same rate between 1974 and 2013, while the Toyota Corolla sedan (what we call the Corolla hatch here is actually the Auris elsewhere) has sprouted up at a rate of 16.4mm a year between its first and current generations.

The Honda Civic hatch has had an even more dramatic growth spurt across its 44-year life, growing a remarkable 22mm a year since its first generation and the latest.

So small cars have grown significantly over the years, but what about other segments?

We decided to take a brief and unscientific (while length isn’t the only factor in car growth, it is the most easily visible yardstick, so that is why we have used it) look at some of the most popular and iconic long-running models by way of comparison.

When it comes to defining iconic and long-running, there are few cars that fit the bill better than the Porsche 911, which has seen fairly modest growth.

Since its introduction in 1964, the 911 grew 4.3mm a year by its 2011 seventh generation.

Similarly, the Ford Mustang has only grown at a rate of 3.4mm per year since the first car in 1964 and the latest in 2015.

It has, however, drastically changed in size in between those years, with the first generation Mustang ballooning up at a remarkable 33mm a year between 1964 and 1970, before drastically dropping for the second generation car and then steadily growing at a rate of 8mm per year to the current model.

But SUVs have grown massively, right? Well, not so much.

The Range Rover – an undeniably large, iconic and long running vehicle – has grown 12.9mm a year between its original version in 1970 and the current, introduced in 2013.

But that is comparing the original three-door with the current five-door – a better comparison is between the current vehicle and the LWB five-door introduced in 1980 and has seen a relatively modest 6mm a year of growth.

At the other end of the SUV scale, the two vehicles that essentially invented the car-based crossover SUV segment have shown remarkably different rates of growth.

The Toyota RAV4 has rocketed up at a rate of 26mm per year between five-door models introduced in 1994 and 2013, while the Honda CR-V has seen a modest 3.5mm of growth per year between the 1995 original and the current car introduced in 2017.

Popular and long-running cars in this part of the world are, of course, the recently deceased locally-produced Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore.

Between models introduced in 1960 and 2008, the Ford Falcon only grew a surprisingly modest 7.4mm a year, while the Commodore was even more restrained, with just 6.9mm per year of growth between the VB of 1978 and the VF of 2013.

Of course, the forthcoming Opel-based ZB Commodore shrinks slightly by being 50mm shorter than the VF.

While all long-running cars have grown, it is not surprising that the smaller ones have grown the most.

After all, the basic safety and comfort we expect from cars these days has to be fitted in somewhere.

But there are three big factors to what makes the Mini’s merelyaverage growth rate so offensive to fans of the original.

While some other cars have grown more than the Mini, they have also had other models come in under them to fill the void.

The Mini was always on its own until BMW started expanding the range.

Another big factor is the rather obvious jump in size that occurred in the transition from the original (that didn’t really grow at all between 1959 and 2000) to the new BMW incarnation.

It was sudden and jarring, and understandably hard to get over for fans of the original.

It was also arguably a mis-step by the normally meticulous German company, certainly in terms of public relations, as it gave detractors a lot of ammunition that they still haven’t run out of today.

But probably the biggest factor was the fact that people loved the original Mini simply because it hadn’t changed.

It was cute, charming and utterly iconic and people simply wanted it to stay the same, despite the inevitable need for it to move on. And they became very upset when it did.

No one ever got that upset over a Corolla.

BMW’s new Mini was 767mm longer than the original. But that’s not much over 40 years when you look at other cars.

Honda Civic has bulked-up far more per year than the Mini. But is anybody complaining?

The Ford Mustang has only grown 3.4mm per year. Although it shrunk at one stage, which helped.

Both Mini and Porsche 911 are often accused of getting too big compared with the originals. But they haven’t really.

Golf is the German Corolla, really. But it hasn’t bulked up as much as the Japanese car.