I am a potential first -time MINI buyer who places a very high priority on fuel efficiency for environmental reasons. Of course, I also want the speed and fun that a MINI can offer. I am disappointed that I will not have the opportunity to purchase a car with the latest fuel saving technology, but I can understand the reason why.

I think that you make a very good point. The USA is definitely over run with people looking for any excuse to try to sue someone else. I do not blame any manufacturer for not wanting to introduce a potential warranty issue. It is just this attitude that drives up the cost of doing business in the USA. The manufacturers have to have their own lawyers on staff and carry millions, if not billions, of dollars in insurance to prevent law suits from bankrupting their companies. It is a real shame that that is what it has come down to. We all pay for these large settlements each and every day.

Rant over.

“Lead Foot” is really an understatement. To make only 18MPG in a 1st gen S you must have been shifting near or at redline all the time. Wow!

The upside is that with the alternator disengaged, you will actually have more power at the wheels! Perhaps that could now be part of the 30 sec boost mode?

In rare cases, in every country, there’s load shedding from the electric grid. The earthquake caused several nuclear plants to automatically go offline, and industrial users sometimes contract for discretionary power supply. I haven’t heard that that’s still going on — I believe most of the plants are back online now — but it is theoretically possible.

I doubt any of that will affect MINI at all, especially with the long supply route.

I completely agree with your stand on ‘elegant simplicity’. The argument for, or against, this technology seems to fall along the lines of those who have worked on their own cars, and those who haven’t. Fitting squarely within the first group, I can attest to the reliability issues that plague highly-cycled parts. Non-mechanics don’t seem to realize that everything that moves has a lifespan not rated in years, months or days, but in cycles. Cycle a part often enough and it will eventually fail, no matter how well designed. The funny thing is, it’s usually the smallest possible thing that fails, a spring, switch, or valve that shuts everthing down.

All I need is for my car to refuse to start while I’m stopped at a traffic light and I’ll be in big trouble! Prius lovers out there only need press the accelerator and the electric motor will continue to drive the car without the gas engine. This technology is going in the right direction, but I don’t believe it’s the final answer.

ps. I don’t think the regenerative braking is the same as a full electric car’s in-wheel system pulled from the drive motors. It’s more likely a single generator, driven off of the transmission, post-engine, pre-wheels.

Am dreaming about the all new WRX-STi new design…hopefully its not as bad as the 08 WRX…thats why I am still deciding on whether to get the R56 or to keep my R53…

In the Meantime…Happy Motoring…

The extra unsprung weight of recuperative breaking system might actually make a handling difference – like putting the S-lites back on for those who really seem to care about that. ;-)

You never get something for nothing. I think if you’re looking for über fuel economy, a MINI even with 1-2% efficiency from this kind of technology isn’t going to get you there. This doesn’t irritate me nearly as much as not being able to get a Cooper D in the states. That’s a car that would actually be on my radar if I were looking for huge MPG numbers – and I think a practical candidate for this kind of extra technology. But since the MCD isn’t available here, not getting these extra bits isn’t much of a loss or really much of a surprise.

No. Here in Japan, the quake mainly affected Niigata prefecture, and even there the real earthquake damage was to older homes rather than industrial facilities. (The nuclear power plant is the notable exception. A fire broke out, and TEPCO wasn’t prepared.) Automobile-related manufacturing in Japan is centered around Nagoya, far from the earthquake’s epicenter. Also, because Japan is so far from the Oxford plant, there’s considerable inventory nearer the factory and also possibly enroute. That long supply distance gives both manufacturers some flexibility in any parts shortage situation.

In Tokyo we got a couple shakes (slightly larger in the morning on Monday, an aftershock in the afternoon) but no damage. I think Nagoya was about the same or less. The most interesting part (to me, anyway) is that earthquakes actually last many, many seconds. It’s not just one shake but more like pond ripples which keep going for a while.

We were actually very lucky. The last earthquake of this magnitude in the same area killed over 90 people.

I remembered my neighbors saying that the “new” hybrid technology car they had was having a tiny bit of trouble starting during the cold winters during their intro…but I know its all resolved….hopefully…

and I do know that the hybrid technology described above does not truly apply to the Fuel saving technology that Mini CarCo offers in the UK etc…

smiling…Happy Motoring…!