If you want a diesel so freakin’ bad… buy one of mine. I’m about sick of owning diesels… it really is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Wow! I think that’s the most complimentary thing you’ve said about the R60.

The problem is that to break even, I expect that MINI would have to charge a large premium over the petrol Cooper. Does it make sense to spend $5000 more on a Cooper D in order to save 10-20% on your fuel economy? If both diesel and gasoline are at $4.00/gallon that equates to a difference of $300 in fuel costs over 15,000 miles at 40 MPG (common highway mileage) for the Cooper and 50 MPG for the Cooper D. That $5000 premium will take over $16 years to pay off. Even if the Cooper D gets 60 MPG on the highway the difference in fuel cost is $500 which still takes 10 years to break even.

So unless there is a huge difference in pricing and/or economy between petrol and diesel fuel the cost is not justifiable for most people.

Granted, there are a few people who drive huge distances that may benefit. For example using the same numbers as before 40 mpg vs. 60 mpg at 50,000 miles/year the savings at $4.00/gallon would be $1668/year so the $5000 price differential is paid off at 3 years and 150,000 miles.

If you look at this from the European perspective it makes more sense. At $10.00/gallon with 15,000 miles/year the savings grows from $500 to $1250/year. Then you add in the difference in taxes since they tax based on things like CO2 emissions.

Thanks Gabe.

Amazing how this company has changed in 8 years. Way back in 2001, BMW put their heads under the guillotine so MINI could launch, making next to nothing profit on each and every single car built. Today, they have come up with all sorts of lame excuses aimed at covering up their lack of planning and sheer greed (Not enough profit, BAH!) to make up excuses for not having diesels here.

Unkown to many, the USA has an iron clad agreement with the UK which is, The exportion of as much diesel fuel as possible, and in return, the UK is to export as much gasoline as possible.

Reason is that we – America – cannot produce enough gasoline here due to lack of any gasoline refineries being built due to environmentalist lobby in Washington, D.C.

So we need to seek other sources for our fuel. Hence, there is only so much diesel fuel here to go around for our needs such as farming, trucking and constuction vehicles.

If there was a flood of automobiles equipped with diesel engines sold here, the cost of diesel fuel would go up comensurate with the demand, and the trickle down issues of that would be higher costs for everything, from the food we eat to the packages delivered to your home.

So American standards are set sooooo strict to keep them out.

It’s the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about, but merely talks around………..

Motor Safe, Dave

Once again its my main complaint against BMW/Mini lately. Instead of seeing a high efficiency car in the US we get a lower efficiency micro SUV. heh

It’s too bad the Dooper won’t be here, but not suprising in any way at all.

The new BMW diesels in the USA have been a disaster from a sales perspective. BMW USA just recently put a $4500 rebate on the oil burners to unload them.

This is stupid…I was really looking forward to the R60 possibly having a diesel, but now I’ll have to settle for the NA gas engine to get decent mileage… MINI better wake up and see the potential sales they’re losing to VW…and we all know BMW has a history of hating what VW does…

…This report is specific to the Cooper D that is available as an R55 or R56. We’ve reported on the Cooper S D and even broke last year that an R60 based diesel could see the US market eventually. Those plans are still unfolding.

Perhaps MINI needs a new mission statement.