My guess is that the large car companies are looking at the forecast of high fuel prices for at least the next 10-20 years and are forecasting a long term shift to smaller more fuel efficient cars in the American market.

We’ve seen the Toyota Yaris and the Honda Fit compete against the MINI in this market, in terms of the size of the car (not necessarily the quality of the drive) and fuel economy. The big 3 (or is it two now?) keep talking about how they’re playing catch up in the fuel efficient cars department, but I think that’s just their lobbying ploy; they’re already producing and selling small, fuel efficient Opels and Ford Ka’s and Ford Focus’s overseas. All they have to do is bring them home to the U.S., tweak the designs slightly to adjust for U.S. aesthetics and introduce them as “new” designs.

So I think BMW’s looking at this as a way to expand their marketing of the higher end luxury/performance sector of mid-budget small cars. Yes, you can buy a C30 or a 135i or a GTI. But my feeling is that BMW’s looking at a future where the small car market is going to become even more congested, and the MINI will soon not be the smallest car out there (I’m ignoring the Smart, obviously, as I think that will eventually fade owing to its poor quality). Hooking up with Fiat, which has a great new re-modeled small car in the 500, seems to be a great move in shoring up a strong presence in this sector of the U.S. car market.

Interesting reads none the less….

Matt

Not really, but I feel your sentiment. That is quite possibly one of the sexiest beasts on any road in the world today.

I’d like to state for the record that I’m a huge fan of the 500, I think it rocks.

My wife and I would like to move to California’s central coast. I would have to drive 2-3 hours to a dealer in the San Jose area or… unless a MINI dealership ever came to Santa Barbara’s BMW dealership, drive back down to one in LA area…. 2-3 hours.

Now why would Frank want to go backwards???

Maybe the MPV’s then?