More News on the Upcoming MINI Facelift

MINI2 has a article detailing what may be coming down the pipeline concerning the upcoming facelift and eventual replacement of the exsisting car. Here's a portion of the story:

MINI2 has seen a lot of speculation about a possible change of the MINI design, a 'face lift' in Spring 2004 being the most recent idea being touted. Well we've done a little digging to try and cut through the speculation and see what we can confidently report as being as close to the facts as we can get this far in advance.

While MINI flatly denied claims in a recent Auto Express article that they planned to unveil a facelift in March 2004, a spokesperson has now said that our information is 'much warmer'. Make of that what you will.

We believe we will see a revised range of MINIs in Summer 2004, probably hitting showrooms around July. This will probably take the form of small product evolution, rather than a dramatic 'face lift', with interior, and exterior changes in store. Externally the car will look much the same to the untrained eye, and most of the work is to enhance product quality and help improve the cost efficiency of MINIs much touted 'made to order' ethos.

We believe the exterior will appear slightly less 'busy' and one of the biggest changes will relate indirectly to the operation of the bonnet or hood. We do not believe the main 'big eye' lights, or the front end in general will be altered drastically in appearance, MINI has always promised evolution, not drastic redesigns. Our sources do indicate however, that the MINI One and Cooper models will probably receive more attention than the current Cooper S.

In other changes we predict the 'Park Distance Control' feature will probably be upgraded to include front sensors in addition to those at the rear. Inside we predict the car will probably gain new seats (much to the delight of many MINI2 members I'm sure) and upholstery choices, as well as different standard and optional equipment, we believe the cockpit layout will also be reconfigured, yet still remain unmistakably 'new MINI', with chrome touches continuing as a key styling feature….

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p>It's a fantastic article that I highly recommend reading. You can check out the full version here.

Analysis

While this information may be based on some assumptions I think they are well thought out and will probably prove for the most part true. All one has to do is look at BMW's product cycles to get a good idea what where MINI might go with it's developement. BMW tends to follow the idea of a mild “freshening” of the design of it's cars inside and out in the middle part of it's life cycle. They introduce this change with both an eye towards moving the brand in slightly new directions while maintaining a look that won't devalue earlier cars. A great example of this can be seen on the previous generation BMW 5 series. The change made from 2000 to 2001 is a perfect example of cleaning up the design while building towards future a future design language BMW was going to be using.

Based on this thought one would have to believe that those of us with '02, '03 or even new '04 cars need not worry about our MINIs looking dated. Nor should we worry about the changes “ruining” the look of the car. While it's true the original designer of the current car, Frank Stephenson, has now moved to Ferrari, BMW and MINI have a strong stable of designers that can easily care for the MINI brand and create new designs and shapes to fall in love with.