Dec 31st, 2008
This from our friends over at Leftlanenews. It’s quite a different story than we’ve been hearing from some dealers especially in the US. But we certainly welcome the news. Here’s an excerpt:
Thanks to healthy demand for its small, sprightly coupes and convertibles, as well as plans for its upcoming Crossman off-roader, Mini says that it expects to see an increase in sales next year, despite a generally dismal outlook expected by most industry analysts. Mini is aiming for a 1 percent increase in sales this year.
It’s nice to see a car company, in the midst of quite a few other car companies, actually doing well. Even nicer, at least to this group, that’s it’s a car we are all pretty big fans of.
[ Mini forecasts sales increase for 2009 ] Leftlanenews.com
Dec 30th, 2008
What a year for MINI enthusiasts. The new Clubman, the new JCW and the continued evolution of the R56. Not to mention new performance products for the R53 and tons of new cars on the horizon. So we’re going to take a look back on 2008 and give you our top ten stories on MotoringFile based on number of comments, number of page views and how important each story was to us. continued →
Dec 29th, 2008
For all those wondering if and when any of the MINI Challenge cars would surface state-side, the answer is a resounding yes. But even better one of those cars is now for sale on eBay. However with a buy it now price of $64,000 it’s not what we would cal racing on a budget.
+ 2008 BMW Mini Works Challenge Race Car / eBay
Dec 25th, 2008
It’s the crazy time of the year again. Motoring from family to family for some, staying put and avoiding the weather for others. Around here we will be busy thinking about things that aren’t really MINI related while we spend some time with our friends and family.
To that end, news might be a bit light for the next few days. But, if you are in need of reading material, might we recommend going back through the archives where you will find more than 6 years of stories that have been posted here at MF, including all of our R57, MINI E and event coverage.
Hoping “all y’all” have a great Holiday!
Gabe & db
Thanks to CJ and Scott for the photos!
Dec 24th, 2008
BusinessWeek seems to think so, via Yahoo! Finance.
But there are some good deals out there in this recession; cars that are worth the price and will hold their value. And in spite of our exasperation, we don’t advise buyers to to ignore the American brands. Our outlook is more nuanced than that, although unfortunately for the Wee Three’s sake, it’s still not the story they want to read. Here’s the breakdown, and the logic behind it.
There are a few cars that actually made the list like the Honda CR-V and BMW 328i. Oh yea, and the MINI.
The Mini makes this list because it gets very good fuel economy (28/37), has a huge following (Mini dealers have pretty much failed to create a sustainable certified-used program because Mini owners are so reluctant to sell their cars), and Kelley Blue Book rates the residual value of the Mini the highest on its list for the past five years.
[ Recession Proof Cars ] finance.yahoo.com
Dec 23rd, 2008
When Hot Chocolate first debuted in the R55 Clubman there were scores of people asking about it’s availability on the coupe. It seem as if MINI may have heard the calls for more chocolate. We know for a fact that the new MINI Convertible will be getting the color starting this Spring. However we’ve also learned from a well placed source that the R56 coupe will also get the brown treatment sometime later in 2009.
Dec 22nd, 2008
Final show for 2008. We manage a full crew and everything. And, of course, we end up with a crappy connection. So, apologies around for that extra hiss in this shows recording.
We covered news of the week from Motoringfile.com as usual. It was nice to have Gabe with us tonight and he added quite a bit, as he usually does.
Then a bit of recap of the year that was WRR/MF. We did some really cool stuff this year! If you missed any of it, you can go back and check the MTTS and AMVIV. It doesn’t seem like much, but remember MTTS did stretch over a combined time span of almost 2 weeks!
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