23 replies to this topic

[THE ANORAK]

well, after receiving my copy of this months mini-world i found a small article about mike cooper ending production on the classic mini tuning kits.

he is quoted as saying that he is happy for people to replicate the kits but they can't call them "cooper kits"


it would seem to me that he's been spending too much time with the BMW people.

for the son of the late great John Cooper to have turned like this is truly a sad time for the history of the mini. I'm sure that he realises that a great deal of his fathers success was because of the mini but he still chooses to turn his back on it.

it seems that money is a more powerful attraction to theses people.

i wonder what his father would have said ???


am i being to harsh on the guy or do i have a point ???

(i'll try and scan the peice in later)

[who_loves_the_mini?]

I agree with you, what harm would it do for people to continue to call them cooper kits? he would still get a royality if he was worried about money and it would keep classic owners happy. seems a great shame

[Silicon Skum]

I can sort of see his reasoning for not allowing them to be called or use the name "cooper", because they would have nothing to do with the cooper name. Afterall, it would only take a few bad cheap knock-off kits to give the Cooper name a bad rep, or the Cooper name used to give some false idea that they are genuine Cooper parts.

Put it this way, I'm a landlord - and I provide the same basic housing services as the council........but I don't claim to be part of the council housing dept or use their logo / name.

As long as the parts can be reproduced freely, then it's not all bad - just means the loss of the Cooper name (unless someone with the name Cooper starts producing them......then technically...... ).

SS

[biggav]

they shut it down a while back. it's just not a viable option to carry on doing them.

People still own VHS and record players but they don't kick up stink when they can only buy new stuff on CD/DVD.

as time goes on, there is less and less call for these tuning kits and now with Vmax and others doing super chargers and umpteen different companies offereing Vtec and bike engine kits.

They had to draw a line at some point.

[THE ANORAK]

OK, good points, but why not hand them over to one of the big mini companies and allow them to use the name on license.

surely he would benefit from royalties and the coopers can still be tuned whilst keeping the "official" tag.

[THE ANORAK]

OK, just for the record, here's the article...

[THE ANORAK]

I can sort of see his reasoning for not allowing them to be called or use the name "cooper", because they would have nothing to do with the cooper name.

SS

right, just reading back through the comments and wanted to add something to this...

a lot of the manufacturing on the stuff that "cooper" did to the minis was actually done by other people, for example the rover cooper was based on the MG metro engine. the point is, john cooper was the person that took control and guided the development, this is true even on the 60's cars.

as these kits were developed by "cooper" then as long as the original spec was followed, they would be proper cooper products.

yes ???

[redhotmini]

the proper cooper kits are available from www.classicminis-online.co.uk, tve bought up all the remaining classic mini stuff from the old JCW Showroom.

Mike Cooper stopped the cooper kits probably because there was little money involved, and the sales of the kits were slowing down to a point where its not financially viable to keep them going. It happens to a lot of things, a bit like the VHS/DVD thing, there is more call for the new product so why continue with the old one? in the case of minis, so many companies offer similar kits to the cooper one anyway, so another reason could be lack of sales through competition.

The decision to stop had nothing to do with BMW management, if anyone is aware, the JCW showroom closed down, so they could concentrate efforts on the updated Cooper S.

That is my opinion anyway.

[THE ANORAK]

i think that "sadly" you are right, but it would be nice to think that somethings are more important than "financially viable"

good job mike coopers not running Heritage then

[redhotmini]

i think that "sadly" you are right, but it would be nice to think that somethings are more important than "financially viable"

good job mike coopers not running Heritage then

lol at the heritage comment.

it could be more than just 'financially viable'. it was just something i saw in the motor trade newspaper a few weeks ago. i think in a way, the sale of the showroom might have had something to do with the decision to stop all the classic mini stuff. if you go to the old showroom now, its full of smart cars.

[smudger]

When did John Cooper Garages buy the trade name back?

As far as i am aware, John sold it to Rover (the name Cooper that is) and they sold it on to BMW.

With this in mind, (assumeing he didnt buy it back) you wouldnt have to have his permission to sell the kits as "Cooper" but BMWs.

What do i think his dad would say? Well he was a realist and would accept that if your not making money then stop.

Hey Ho.

(and lets face it, who has bought a tuning kit from them?)

[biggav]

Mike cooper has a golden handshake deal with BMW (they don't own the name so much as use it with his permission) there are legal ties but he does quite well out of it.

[smudger]

I just remember John Cooper saying he had sold the name "Cooper" as a brand to Rover.

[biggav]

yeah... but they can't go around telling anyone or business called cooper to change their name like they do with the Mini Brand. John cooper garages were the only "non Rover" dealer who were able to sell brand new (classic) Mini's.

They have a common business interest and both do well from the "MINI Cooper" name. Mike Cooper will have a very Lucrative future with BMW.

[smudger]

and you have to look at it from a business point of view, not a personal one.