From BMW Press:
Only three years after its market launch, the 500,000th MINI rolled off the production line in Oxford in August 2004. Altogether, sales of MINI brand cars rose to 184,357 units in 2004, an increase of 4.5% compared to the previous year (2003: 176,465 units). Sales of the entry model MINI One went up by 6.8% to 47,641 units (2003: 44,623 units), bolstered by the sales volume of the diesel version, MINI One D, with 16,726 units sold (2003: 9,316 units). The MINI Cooper remains the most popular model, with 77,532 units sold (-11.3% / 2003: 87,378 units). The top model, the MINI Cooper S achieved a sales volume of 40,443 units (-9.0% / 2003: 44,461 units). The MINI Convertible was launched in July 2004 and, by the year-end, a total of 18,741 units had been sold.
You can check out the US sales breakdown by model here. [ gbmini.net ]
<p>So, is it safe to say that because the One and the D isn’t sold in the U.S. and the Cooper and S’s sales are down, that MINI has either reached its saturation point or no one is buying because they already having one and are enjoying it???! What’s the take on this???</p>
<p>The MINI Convertible has been introduced thus sales of the hardtop are down.</p>
<p>Interesting–according to Mini, the Cooper is the biggest seller worldwide, but according to Ian’s chart the Cooper S is the biggest seller in the US, starting with the 05 model.</p>
<p>What this says about the US market or the US economy I’ll leave to others….</p>
<p>These patterns were sorta followed with the classic Mini too.</p>
<p>But,… how many Cooper CVTs?!</p>
<p>Any idea on the sales of the Works package for 2004?</p>
<p>Chris M, you might find it easier to compare Cooper / S sales using <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.gbmini.net/sales.shtml">the numbers here</a> – the MC does beat the MCS each year in USA</p>
<p>The S outsells the non S (and the One and D aren’t sold here) because most people in the US are not fuel frugal. </p>
<p>Not that the non-S is that much better than the S.</p>
<p>Considering that the Automatic MCS is now available I would expect sales of the hardtop MCS to surpass sales of the MC hardtop in 2005 IMO.</p>
<p>Miniusa makes more money per MCS then a standard MC and especially when people load their MCS’s with expensive options like automatic trannies and etc.</p>
<p>Who knows maybe the standard hardtop MC might become the rare one out of the bunch in a few years.</p>
<p>Close comparisons with the original Mini sales figures are bootless, as BMC never made a real effort to sell ’em stateside. They were happy to push TRs and Bs because there was no real competition, whereas marketing forces pushed the Mini up against the VW Bug, and the ‘S’ wasn’t even on the radar for most folks back then. BMC realized pretty quickly they couldn’t sell the 850 here, and put all their remaining eggs in the ‘S’ basket toward the the end. It was lonely road to drive pretty much by yourself as a Mini owner back then, with little real factory support. (Thank God you could home-brew!) However, a general indication can be surmised from the Way-back Machine.</p>
<p>I expect The Allocation to be the limiting factor regardless of what the buying public wants – there are enough pre-spec cars sold here just by themselves to let BMW fine tune the figures if they wanted, just as BMC wanted to sell lottsa drop-tops – where they made plenty of money – so they left the original Mini twisting. Niche cars from past to present, so it’s nothing new. If BMW began selling a lot more ‘S’s than nons nowadays, it would worry me some. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.</p>
<pre><code> BCNU,
Rob in Dago
</code></pre>
<p>Guys,
I see a disconnect here…you all seem so passionate about mini and your own mini but you’re also already thinking of replacing it…no long lasting commitment to your personalized baby?</p>
<p>Sounds like you all lease…am I the only one who went all the way and actually purchased mine? </p>
<p>Actually I don’t know of anyone personally who leased their MINI.</p>
<p>I think people are so eager to trade up because MINI’s resale value is so high.</p>