Mini hints at its future look with disco-floor Vision concept

 

 

 

Seven years can be an eternity in automotive design, even for a car like Mini whose very appeal lies in decades-old styling cues. Eager to continue Mini's growing global sales, its BMW overlords have been prepping a re-engineering of the Mini line, with the first models scheduled for a reveal this fall. Today, Mini's design director provided a preview of sorts with this concept, called the Mini Vision — showing that many things old will be new, again.

If you're not a Mini fan, this car will look mostly similar to the hundreds of thousands of Minis on the road, but the acolytes will spot a number of alterations — of which the LED ring around the headlamps that serves as a daytime running light may be the most production-ready feature. The grille has been chiseled outward into a more geometric shape, there's a cooling inlet ahead of the front wheels and the cladding takes some interesting detours around the body.
With such a constricting set of rules to work with on the exterior, Mini's designers focused much of their energy on the interior. Once again their efforts range from the realistic to the sci-fi; the "Driving Experience Control" that changes the color of the dashboard and interior lighting sounds well within reach. The "disco-like" floor with light-up arrows underneath the passengers' feet seems less so unless Mini has a special Studio 54 edition in the works. We'll see more of the future in September.