Jul 27th, 2006
Everything’s new — and once again typical of MINI all the way: After more than 800,000 units sold, the MINI will soon be entering the market in thoroughly enhanced design and with fundamentally new features.
The second model generation of today’s modern MINI is making its debut with brand-new power units, a carefully but thoroughly upgraded interior, and evolutionary body design with appropriate modifications wherever required. Indeed, all these innovations underline the individual character and premium standard of the MINI. And while each and every detail has been changed or modified, the new model naturally retains all the proven and unmistakable features of the MINI clearly recognisable at very first sight. This applies both to the silhouette of this compact two-door immediately recognisable from every angle and to the car’s equally unique and agile driving characteristics.
The power units and transmissions, suspension and steering, brakes and safety systems are all brand-new developments from the ground up. And all these features serve to give the new MINI that legendary go-kart feeling right from the start — but now with an even higher standard of agility than before. This, quite literally, is MINI at its best — both in design and handling.
The new MINI is entering the market in the guise of the MINI Cooper (88 kW/120 hp) and MINI Cooper S (128 kW/175 hp), with the MINI One “basic†version following somewhat later. And once again, the new MINI will also be available with a turbodiesel offering a particularly high standard of all-round economy in the drivetrain.
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Jul 27th, 2006
More coverage of the recent R56 preview event, this time from 4Car:
[ Preview: Mini Mk2 ] 4Car
Jul 27th, 2006
Racers take note, looks like MINI is getting serious about Racing (from 4Car):
Until now, competitive race series such as the John Cooper Challenge have been run on a country-by-country basis, but BMW is considering a series of linked international series, all to the same template. There are plans for Mini racing championships in Asia (a pan-Asian series with events in Japan, Indonesia, China and Hong Kong) and North America, and there is also interest in smaller-scale championships in countries including Italy, Belgium and Spain.
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Jul 27th, 2006
Yet another review from the recent MINI R56 Prototype prevew. Here’s an excerpt:
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Jul 27th, 2006
Even though we do know how much out english speaking readers love reading Dutch, we managed to get a translation from our friend Demelza this time:
The car we drove, was still for a small part covered with tape, but you don’t
need much fantasie to see through the tape and conclude that there probably
rarely was a model of which the new generation looks so much like the last
one.
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Jul 27th, 2006
This comes from the Autoindustry.co.uk:
New MINI prices will reportedly be 3-4% higher than the current model’s, and BMW expects its investment in capacity expansion at Oxford to raise output to 240,000 units by 2008. Although the current MINI has more or less doubled its initial forecast volume, and will have made a profit over its lifecycle, it is reportedly far from meeting BMW’s profit criteria, which will be met once the expanded new range is on stream. Break-even volume will be well below the planned 240,000-unit capacity, according to the report.
You can read more here:
[ BMW expects to raise margins with second-generation MINI ] Autoindustry.co.uk
Jul 27th, 2006
The EVO review that we wrote about a few weeks back is finally online. And with the car gettnig 5 (out of 5) stars it’ll surely be a favorite of GP owners. Here’s an excerpt:
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