Feb 14th, 2011
MINI’s latest concept is going into production. However we’ve heard through sources that its name may not follow it. Yes the Paceman will likely be called something entirely different. Could it be something as simple as the Countryman Coupe? Or perhaps another crafty name featuring “man” in there? We have our own ideas but we (and MINI) wants to hear yours. continued →
Feb 13th, 2011
Courtesy of our friends at totalmini.com comes a photo of the twins filling up while driving around the Oxford. Expect new photos to pop-up in the coming weeks and the special launch group at Oxford begins to get their cars for the usual real world testing.
The Coupe will be officially revealed sometime this summer (we expect July) and will start production sometime in August. Look for them to make their way to dealers by late September. Also expect some changes to the JCW formula in time for the release. continued →
Feb 11th, 2011
MINI’s Viral Marketing has been undone by the lack of a tarp. This sad scene was captured by reader Mike Schiml today as the convoy west on I290 outside of Chicago. There’s no word on whether this was the result of a mechanical issue, lack of fuel or MINI simply needing to transport the two long distances. Our bet is on the latter. However one thing is clear. The message is a little less compelling in this configuration.
Unless of course this has now become an ad for a towing company. (another picture after the break) continued →
Feb 11th, 2011
Auto Express has shots of a pre-production MINI half-cloaked in yellow swirly nonsense. This time it’s the Speedster and we’re getting an even better view of the retractable boot lid spoiler. Just like the Coupé, it’s looking an awful lot like its concept car, cloth top and all. continued →
Feb 10th, 2011
MINI is off to a great start in 2011 with a big jump in January sales. Led by 3,505 delivered Countryman, MINI is seeing positive growth around the world. continued →
Feb 9th, 2011
This just in. A pre-production prototype MINI Coupé was spied in partial camouflage. It appears that just as we’ve reported previously here on MotoringFile, the production car won’t vary much at all from the Coupé concept we’ve seen before. The backwards baseball cap roof is more or less intact, as is the squared off rear end. What we’re also seeing in these photos is our first look at the automatic pop-up rear spoiler. With this car surfacing, I imagine it won’t be long at all before we see the whole car in the flesh. More photos here.
Feb 9th, 2011
I’m not even sure what to say here, folks, to be honest with you. Last night Gabe and I pulled more than 25 comments from the MINI Super Bowl commercial post before just closing comments all together. I’ve seen some sniping and name calling on MotoringFile before (and been on the receiving end of it), but I’ve never seen anything quite like what I read through last night. So, I have a few things to say this morning.
First, an apology for not moderating that thread more closely. It got out of hand and Gabe and I didn’t have our eye on it until it got so bad that people were actually writing in on the Contact page. You would think that on a site full of MINI fans, we wouldn’t have to moderate every single comment moment by moment, but it looks like sometimes that’s the case. Either way, I pulled more nasty comments last night on this one post than the whole time I’ve been Editor here at MotoringFile and I really wish I would have gotten to them sooner.
Second, let’s clarify once and for all what is and isn’t acceptable in the comments.
We want to see more of this:
- Please have an opinion about MINI stuff
- Please disagree with me and Gabe
- Please disagree with each other
- Like things
- Dislike things
- Be passionate
- Be ornery
- Be skeptical
- Be enthusiastic enthusiasts
- Defend the automatic transmission
- Love your clutch
- Hate the very idea of the Countryman
- Passionately endorse your R56 Cooper
All of these things aren’t just acceptable, they’re encouraged. I didn’t delete any comments just because the commenter didn’t like the ad. Hell, I didn’t like it either.
However, we don’t want any of this:
- Trolling (leaving comments with the sole purpose of pushing people’s buttons)
- Thread hijacking (the R53 is great, but that has nothing to do with this post about the Countryman)
- Name calling
- Ad hominem — This is the big one. Disagree with ideas and even specific people all you like, but let’s stop attacking the author his or herself just because we disagree with them.
- Defamation — This includes race, orientation, geography, automatic transmission preferences, politics, pizza preferences, etc.
We’re all on the same team here, folks. We’re better than this. We’re MINI enthusiasts. This is not YouTube. This isn’t a free-for-all message board. This is MotoringFile. This site is one of the reasons I bought a MINI in the first place and I’m thrilled to be a part of it now in the Editor role. MF wouldn’t be what it is without our readers and yes, our commenters. What I read in the comments for that post is nothing new, but it certainly hit a new low. We’re better than this.
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