Looks like the prospect of leasing an electric MINI is an attractive one for more people than MINI expected. (via Automotive News)
Mini USA is taking longer than expected to select 450 lessees for its electric car because of the deluge of about 1,800 applicants.
Mini USA has whittled the applicant list to about 1,000 people. Applications are being vetted by 16 dealers — five in New York, three in New Jersey and eight in Los Angeles. The dealers will lease and service the cars during the trial, said Jim McDowell, vice president of Mini USA. continued →
Last week we let you know that the Clubman’s own JCW aero kit was just around the corner. This week we have pics. Seen below are both the standard look plus the kit with optional painted arches.
There are many parts of the MotoringFile community both on the site and spread throughout the web. With the recent integration with Facebook on MF, we thought it was a good time to take a look at another piece of MF on the interwebs. MF’s Flickr group is a easy way to add your own photos and video to a huge group of users (over 400) and a substantial collection of photos (over 5000). It’s also a great way to see almost every imaginable configuration of MINI on the planet.
So with that said, may we present to you the latest from the MotoringFile Flickr group:
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BMW Group Release: For January 10,120 (prev.yr.: 15,457 / -34,5%) customers bought a MINI brand vehicle.
The MINI sales reduction was in part due to the lack of availability of the MINI Convertible which ended production in mid 2008 with the new model launch scheduled for March 28th. The previous model accounted for a substantial share of total MINI retail, averaging 16% of sales. More than 164,000 of MINI’s soft-top models were sold between 2004 and 2008, which by far exceeded expectations.
Yesterday we asked the question; how high can you go in building a US spec MINI. Today we’re asking the what is almost the opposite. How little could you put on a MINI from the factory and be happy. Obviously the easy answer for some would be nothing or something aftermarket. But let’s keep it from the factory for arguments sake – the aftermarket question will come next week.
Personally I’m at $24,600 with the MCS above. But we want to hear what the specific option(s) that you can’t live without. How would a bare bones MINI look if you ordered one? What would you option in? What would you leave out? Let’s hear it below.
There’s been a lot of talk recently in the MF comment section about how pricey MINIs have become lately. Even in the US where they have traditionally been relatively cheap, MINI USA has slowly had to raise prices due to a number of reasons. While we’re certainly still of the opinion that the MINI is a relative bargain in some ways, we still are amazed when we see the sticker top out over $50,000 USD.
So our question to you – how high can you really get a MINI? Since MINIUSA.com has hands-down the best configurator of any of the sites worldwide, we’re going to focus on the US market. So get started configurating. Our guess is that the winner will come in the form of a R55 JCW but you never know now that the R57 has been introduced.
1st Gen MINI R50: One & MC Hatch R52: All 1st Gen MINI Convt. R53: MCS Hatch 2nd Gen MINI R55: Clubman R56: Hatch R57: Convertible R58: Coupe R59: Roadster R60: MINI Crossover R61: MINI Crossover Coupe 3rd Gen MINI F55: Clubman F56: Hatch F57: Convertible F60: MINI Crossover F62: Traveller
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Sections: In the Press, MINI E Feb 9th, 2009 14 Comments 
