In the last 24 hours we’ve heard from several sources that the sale of the MINI division to VW is imminent. This unthinkable news seems to be brought on by VW’s intense desire to regain it’s historical place in the US market.

Word from several of our sources is that VW is considering re-branding future MINIs as “VINIs”. The new VINIs would be slightly different from today’s MINI in both look and available options. For instance the VINI would only feature four colors, two “packages” and an optional toy “VINI” that randomly quotes lines from Joe Pesci in my Cousin Vinny.

Expect the change over to happen late this year. As part of the deal BMW will be getting Skoda , Seat, and an automaker to be named later.

Happy April 1st.