As it should be, they're a dime a dozen. Not to go off topic but when the new mini was introduced a new search on ebay had to be created , classic was introduced, worked for a short while. Now you do a search on classic mini you get 20K hits, mostly new mini.

I fail to see anything "classic" about them.

It still works on ebay.uk under classic, now I find I have to search Austin or Morris.

Geeeesh, I'm turning into my father, just more hair !

RANT mode off, blood returning to brain, voices going away.

Now returning you  .

Maybe she saw a car "just like hers". Some people do not recognize the difference in size and ageof the cars. I've had someone say "My daughter has one exactly like your car." My verbal response was something like "Really! That's interesting (...good/nice/...)" I imagined her daughter had a red Bini wiht white roof and stripes. My mental response was "I seriously doubt it!"  To be fair, the red on my car is (in some paint catalogs) "BMW Red 1".

 

With the Moke, I get a lot of folks yelling things at me in traffic.... With all the wind noise, all I hear is "BLAH, BLERGH, BLAH!" Usually with a thumbs up..... or, it might be a middle finger. Shrug.  [rolleyes]
 

Overthinking the response?  Maybe she knew, or did knot know heritage of mini/MINI.  Who cares.  I think you did the right thing, thanks, smile wave.  We all know that folks give thumbs up and 'like' comments if you drive your mini all the time.  Your response and acknowledgement is proper. Compliments should always be that, compliments with acknowledgement.  Anything beyond that is the start of a new conversation.  Hard to do in traffic.... I could not imagine for us regular drivers to return compliments to all the thumbs-up and comments on the road every week."Yea, I think your 1997 Dodge Minivan is cool also?"

Real Car people understand the etiquitte. You are correct.  

Yeah, what's "cool" in the sense of recognizing a car with a thumbs up or a wave, if it's a new car off the showroom floor, as all the BINIs are? Even a brand-new off the showroom floor Ferrari isn't really "cool" in the same way that a classic Mini is, or a Deux Chevaux, or a Nash Metropolitan or even an AMC Pacer, let alone a '55 Chevy or a '40 Ford. What's just slightly interesting is that maybe the lady did recognize a classic Mini, whereas I'd say 90% of MINI owners don't know a real Mini when they see one.

Love it. Don't fish lady, your car is only cool because of my classic heritage. Your German bodied French motor car is neat, but only to a point.

To be a real D***, you should've said, "I would have said cool car if it was...." [rolleyes]

Edit: Unless you thought she was date material than you should've said, "Oh, your car is so much cooler than mine...."
 

First gear stop and go crawl. She was very excited about my car, I guess I just wasn't as excited about hers.

So, how slow were you and the lady driving?

So I'm driving down the main street in my humble Cape Cod town with my window down, a new Mini (Bini or whatever you choose to call it) is coming the other way the woman driving says "cool car" my response was a curtious "thanks" with a wave, as she is driving past she says "you're supposed to say cool car to me" Wow I am? I guess I didn't get the memo. I've found that generally when someone compliments you a "thank you" or "thanks" is a proper response. What if was a Toyota Prius? am I required to say cool car?(OK maybe if it was Spank's prius) I guess maybe I'm just a D***. But my car is cool.