MINI USA Lowers Financing APR to 2.9% on All Hardtop Models

It’s funny how perception is relative. For MINI 2.9% is “blowing them out!” For everyone else it is par for the course or a mediocre rate.

Is anyone even a fan of MINI on this website anymore? I’ve never heard more negativity in my life.

Lighten up!

In the long run, this will be a positive, not only for the current “specification updates” alluded to above, but for the future–you can bet the next generation JCW’s will also be better spec’d, and more performance oriented. Although if there are going updates coming on the next year JCW, it will kill the value of the first year model.

IMHO, the JCW should have been a performance first, comfort second vehicle, with its own unique appearance that brought back some of the edginess and nastiness lost on the R56 in this regard (The R56 is a hands down great daily driver, but the improvement in its overall refinement came at a price for the minority hardcore, where refinement takes back seat to performance). I’m still more likely to hold out for a GP variant, but I’m still very curious on what the JCW will evolve into in the not so distant future.

Thirty grand will get you a 370Z; the competition is getting stiff in this price range. Hopefully BMW/MINI will keep up, ’cause that’s where my heart still is–even after goofing around with the 370 ( a great car for that price, but it does have some issues).

@bacione

It’s about time somebody said it. It’s amazing that some people who apear to be on this site all day have nothing positive to say about the car or the manufacturer.

@bacione:

Fortunately, MF is not a fanboi site.

Also have to say that after looking over the Alfa MiTo GTA that the JCW Mini is about to be embarrassed by a cheaper and less powerful car. At the end of the day, Mini has decent performance, higher than average personality, average build quality, and still rather lacking in my view for interior design.

All business models can be tweaked and improved, but I’d much rather be MINI right now than just about any other automaker. Only Kia was up last month, according to the NY Times.

And stop trying to turn it into a small BMW with the typical BMW yearly bloat-add in size and price.

FUD much? Yearly increases in size? There have been none except at the R56 introduction and that was quite minimal and pretty much required by new EU regulations.

Over the last few years, price increases have been minimal and partially because of additional standard features like DSC. Top prices have gone up due to new available options.

Sensationalism doesn’t serve anyone.

Ok, thanks–that partially incompletely clears it up beyond an unreasonable doubt!

Not a problem, I know at times there’s a limit to how much you can throw out there; I’m just goofing off. Nonsensical conversations are just too fun to resist (even C4 couldn’t refrain); when a thread starts to degenerate into a Monty Python skit, count me in!

I’m just glad that there’s hope for the future; looks like the whole JCW performance thing is going to get closer to what many of us hoped for from the beginning (or at least from the time BMW bought it out). Nice to see the change in direction!

Just find myself hoping that whatever comes out about the JCW brand later this year isn’t as much as a huge embarrassment to John Cooper’s name like the current car.

Also with more and more hot hatches it would be great if they decide to produce a true performance car than something with a few tiny performance gains but I find myself not holding my breath for the latter. Think the Alfa GTA will be running around anything coming from Mini for a long while.

Its probably a new color scheme or something… If they are going to upgrade the performance, the price is going to go up. Who the heck will be able to afford it?! They can’t build a more powerful car and sell it for less can they?

Maybe they’ll sell a stripped down racer for the performance minded, no bells/whistles, just more engine, lighter wheels, free flowing intake/exhaust. That would be a cool car.

Is that what the GP was? I’m aware of that car but not really all the details about it. I remember it had no back seat and had red mirror caps, that’s it. I thought it was very expensive though? It was priced as much as a factory JCW is now, back then?

I have serious love for the GP, but can say that I still think it was a bit light and fluffy as a true performance car. No doubt that the GP can embarrass a few cars but still would like to see them take a development further. Still I expect that the upcoming info about the JCW brand is more about a few tweaks to the current model to make it a bit more palatable to perspective buyers. Guessing it will still bow out towards being a comfort car than a sports car. Not likely to see anything super special until the next “GP” in 2012ish.

I’m not seeing how reduced financing rates (which all automakers across the spectrum are scrambling to offer) is an indictment of the JCW car’s specifications. It’s rather obvious that some of you around here don’t like it, but myself and plenty of others have purchased the factory JCW and are quite happy with it. Lots of cars have some smokin’ deals available right now, and yes it’s a sign of the times, not that there’s anything inherently wrong with them. I usually agree with you Gabe on most things but think you’re reading way to much into this current bid to increase sales.