MINI UK Press Release: 50 years of Mini and MINI to be celebrated in England
2009 will mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of the original Mini, and the second generation new MINI will be commemorating this incredible achievement in style, right here in England.
The MINI United festival, which in recent years has brought together thousands of classic Mini and new MINI owners to celebrate a British icon, will be staged at a renowned race circuit in England and kicks-off on 22 May 2009. The exact location and further details will be announced in the near future.
You can keep up to date on MINI United 2009 at MINIUnited.com
Todd in Chicago having way to much fun talking to some of the 1,000 MTTS attendees from all over the event site.
Including an interview with Harold Stanfield, who has 281,000 miles on his MINI. And its Silk Green! He didn’t even replace and brakes until after 180K miles. Amazing. So concludes our Chicago coverage.
With the price of fuel at an all time high and consumers continually looking for ways to save on fuel costs, talk of the MINI Diesel rears its head once again. As noted here before, the costs of development in bringing the diesel MINI to the US would not be recouped by the estimated number of diesel MINI sales in the US. The new twist is that the estimates of how many diesels would potentially sell were done looking at $3/gallon fuel. Now that fuel prices in the US are between$4 and $5/gallon and projected to be $7/gallon by 2010 (WSJ – 6/26/08), the question of a diesel in the US, apparently, needs to be readdressed. The downside to this is that diesel is currently selling for almost 18 percent more than regular unleaded.
The challenge is squarely on the shoulders of marketing gurus to educate the public on the benefits, ease of use and maintenance of a diesel MINI. Most of us see it as simple math – 47-60 MPG (diesel) is better than 35-40 MPG (unleaded) even with 18 percent more cost at fill up. The 50 percent greater efficiency of the diesel wins every time. This has been discussed ad infinitum and nothing has changed about the facts of the situation. What is changing is consumer demand and if enough consumers demand a diesel MINI to offset development costs. It remains a possibility.
We’ve been watching this happen over the last few months as on-hand MINI supplies dwindled from 5 days, to four, then down to 2 days. Now, they are out. From Autoweek.com.
The nation’s 82 Mini franchises are out of cars, and dealers can do little more than take orders and deliver preordered units for the rest of the year.
As fuel prices have risen, demand for the Mini Cooper has outstripped supply.
“For the last three months, we were selling from inventory,” said Jim McDowell, vice president of BMW’s Mini division. “There’s no way (July) can be as good.”
That makes a certain amount of sense that July sales might be down a bit due to lack of inventory. Even with the lads in Oxford working 3 shifts per day, 7 days per week, 800 cars a day just isn’t enough.
This past Saturday at MTTS Chicago Todd got the chance to interview Edgar from Bosch about the MINI Cooper Diesel they have in the US for testing.
It’s a great conversation about a car we don’t yet get but everyone (it would appear) wants. Hopefully they will have it in LA for us to check out during MTTS.
Most of us around the MF offices are pretty big fans of Top Gear. We thought it was especially nice when BBC America decided to start sharing the goodness that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May dish out on a weekly basis. Eventhough they aren’t showing the current season, we still have ways to keep current, and with good reason, especially this week. Check out the video after the jump!
More in our continuing MTTS 2008 coverage. This time, Todd and I talk from Road America!
We got the chance to talk to some listeners and about the event. I think you’ll enjoy this. I have since talked to Todd on the phone and he tells me he has some great stuff coming up for you later in the week, including an interview with the man that has the highest mileage MINI in the United States. Should be awesome!
Those crazy kids over at Webridestv.com have decided to see if the MINI Clubman actually handles like a go-cart by taking it to a local indoor kart track and racing it against one.
Before you go all crazy and yell foul, watch the video, the result is not what you think.
A quick warning. While not riddled with cuss words, the presenter is a bit loose with the language. No f bombs or anything, but you could get some raised eyebrows in the office.
According to Edmunds, it would appear that the US will be getting the JCW MINI at the same time as the UK, Europe and Japan.
Good news for American Mini fans: the 208-horsepower Mini John Cooper Works cars are coming to the U.S. at the same time buyers in the U.K., Europe and Japan are getting them. That is to say, right now. The U.S. is Mini’s No. 1 market.
In fact, some of you have seen the cars at your local dealer already and some will even get to drive the new JCW this coming weekend at MTTS Chicago. But it wasn’t always this way.
It used to be that an R50 (with CVT no less) fit the bill.
But that’s when my family was younger and smaller. The kids were 4 and 2, so the miniature rear seat worked fine.
But the kids, as they do, got bigger. Luckily, so did the MINI.
The 2008 Mini Clubman served as my family transport vehicle last weekend, and guess what? My kids fit in it. Now they are 10 and 8, so like the Mini Clubman, they’re considerably bigger. But also like the original Mini, I’m not sure how long even the Clubman would work as a full-fledged family vehicle. With the driver’s seat adjusted for my 6-foot frame my eight-year-old daughter didn’t have a lot of room to spare. Pretty much the same situation existed for my 10-year-old son behind my wife.
Great write up over at Edmunds. Something to think about if you are struggling to make the MINI your family car.
Mini USA vice-president Jim McDowell took some time this week to talk to the guys at NextAutos.com, the new site by Windingroad.com. Much of the information here was covered in the Fox News interview we posted earlier this month. There are some new nuggets here as well.
Recent word of 500 electric Minis coming to the U.S. is accurate (but the announcement caught them “by surprise”) and plans are to have cars in the hands of actual customers “about this time next year.” That said,it isn’t clear whether these cars will be sold, leased, or otherwise disbursed. It is also undetermined whether these cars will be offered outside of California. continued →
MF Exclusive: A MINI Diesel is Coming to the US Market but it’s not the Cooper D some might expect. Instead MINI has been working on a new model designed from the ground up with an engine that will comply with laws in all 50 states. You know it as the R60, the public will know is as the MINI crossover.
The diesel powered R60 could use a new BMW derived 4 cylinder engine and will feature an urea injection system similar to the one seen on BMWs. The R60 is expected to launch worldwide in late 2009 as a 2010 model in a range of petrol engines (including the new JCW 1.6L turbo) and we would expect the diesel to be at least six months behind that schedule.
For all those waiting to see pricing for the 2009 model year, wait no longer. First off all models will increase $750 but will now include dynamic stability control. And as reported a few months back the package structures have changed slightly as well. But one package related item to note is that the sport package will now include not only DSC but DTC – dynamic traction control – the same technology that replaces LSD on the John Cooper Works MINI.
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1st Gen MINI R50: One & MC Coupe R52: All 1st Gen MINI Convt. R53: MCS Coupe 2nd Gen MINI R55: Clubman R56: One/MC/MCS Coupe R57: One/MC/MCS Convt. R60: MINI SUV
Sections: MINI United Jul 31st, 2008 11 Comments 
