MINI Plant at Oxford to Expand?

Thanks Matt for the heads-up on the link.

In seemlingly unrelated news (via Automotive News Europe):

“BMW plans to further expand its US assembly plant to build 200,000 units annually and add a third model.

Last year 109,501 X5 SUVs and 56,589 Z4 roadsters were built at the plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a production record.

Norbert Reithofer, BMW's head of production, said it is “very unlikely” the plant will build only two models forever.

About 40 percent of the cars built at Spartanburg are sold in the US.

But Spartanburg plant manager Helmut Leube said any expansion will not happen soon.

“First we have to be able to cope with the amount of growth we had during the past few years,” he said.

Leube said Spartanburg has the same level of flexibility as BMW's German plants in Dingolfing, Regensburg and Munich and can compete for the production of future models.

He added that Spartanburg matches the quality of BMW models built in Germany.”

Not that I'm implying anything but… that would be one way of dealing with currency issues that BMW is facing.

the five door wagon you refer to, according to a the service manager at yaletown mini, fresh back from a 'meeting/training' in the east, is the turbocharged all wheel drive traveller proposed for 2007. let's hope they address the issue of gas mileage…

And in other BMW expansion news…

http://www.germancarfans.com/news.cfm/newsid/2040511.002/bmw/1.html

There is an aftermarket conversion company called “Carrozzeria Castagna” located in Milan, Italy. They have already made some conversion MiniWagons as shown in the link below:

http://www.motoringfile.com/search.php?search=castagna

These were regular 3 door MINIs that were stretched a few inches in the back to creat more rear passenger leg room and a slightly bigger boot cargo area.

I think BMW has closely monitored public reaction to these wagons in events such as the Geneva Autoshow.

I remember reading (I think in MINI2.com) that while the Castagna conversion look neat they did not look very well polished up close and in person.

Still a very interesting 'insight' into what a BMW made MINI Traveller wagon may look like. The real challenge would be to add a pair of rear doors with suicide type opening.

I doubt Castagna has the ability to churn out these wagons in massive numbers so basically the ball is in BMW's court at this time to see if they want to get down and dirty and make this 3rd variant a reality sooner rather than later.

If MINI waits until 2007 (R56 platform) to release the Traveller, they would have already given out on a Silver Platter the increasingly small wagon market. Look Scion already has the xA and xB models. Mazda will soon release a MINI sized 5 door hatchback to penetrate in MINI's market head on with a 5 door alternative….

So will BMW/MINI will allow themselves to be caught off guard this time around?? We shall see.

Now that the Cabrio project is done and out of the way, MINI needs to put the Traveller at the very top of the the project list. Delaying this car could be costly and a big mistake.