Mar 27th, 2013
MINI quietly brought the Clubvan to both the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and to the Paceman launch in Puerto Rico. With pricing recently released, they’re giving this Clubman variant its time in the sun at the New York International Auto Show later this week. Click past the jump for the press release as well as a bunch of new Clubvan photos (which strangely, appear to be taken in Paris).
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Mar 5th, 2013
The Geneva Motorshow is one of the largest of the year and often a major source of Euro car debuts. Despite this things are relatively quiet from MINI with this year’s major debuts happening at Frankfurt in the fall or via the web this summer. However that hasn’t stopped other automakers from making Geneva a spectacular show this year – especially with the supercar debuts from Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and McLaren. Then there’s the debut of the new Golf GTI, AMG A45 and the Alfa 4C that may appeal to the small car lovers out there.
Click through to check out the entire gallery from today’s press preview. continued →
Feb 21st, 2013
Geneva is a major auto show on the international circuit each year, and MINI and BMW both have used the Geneva venue to make some major announcements in the past. What about this year? MINI has just announced what they plan to bring with them to Switzerland this year, and as much as we’d like to tell you that you’ll see the 2014 MINI Cooper, the F56, it looks like for now MINI is staying focused on a new trim package (The Bond Street) for the Clubman, and a similar emphasis on JCW to what we saw at Detroit in January. They’re still excited about the Paceman JCW (as are we), and of course the JCW GP will be on hand. That, however, is as far as the official information goes. Is that it? MINI may very well have something else up their sleeves for this show in early March. MINI and BMW both are fond of showing pre-production cars as thinly veiled concept cars. Will we see an early F56? We don’t think so. Instead look for something a bit more conceptual but still foreshadowing something eventually meant for production.
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Jan 24th, 2013
At the North American International Auto Show, Gabe and I had the chance to sit down with MINI USA’s head Jim McDowell and Marketing leader Tom Salkowski. We talk about Jim’s expanded role with MINI in the Americas (North and South) as well as the state of the MINI brand in 2013 here in its largest market. And then there are the surprises. From a big event announcement to a hint at a new options it’s well worth a listen.
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Jan 23rd, 2013
If you want to know the current and future state of MINI, you go to the top. And that’s what we did at NAIAS in talking with Dr. Kay Segler. We spoke to Dr. Segler about everything – there was no subject off limits. We started with JCW and the proliferation of the brand throughout the MINI range. As it stands now there’s a JCW model for every MINI model. But Dr. Segler was quick to point out that that won’t always be the case and they want to build a strong sub-brand by keeping it perhaps a little more exclusive moving forward. Yet they also want to broaden the sales of the JCW style packages across the range – much like M has done so successfully for BMW. There’s also a hint of something interesting to come if you listen carefully.
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Jan 21st, 2013
In many ways the JCW Paceman is the car many of us have been waiting for. Equipped with all wheel drive, a retuned sports suspension, a JCW engine and a coupe-like shape, it’s an interesting proposition for MINI fans. The rest of the automotive press might not quite see the point, but we suspect more than a few of you will fall for the design, performance and utility. So we wanted to take a closer look at the range topping JCW Paceman now that is officially landed. continued →
Jan 16th, 2013
MINI at NAIAS was all about one thing – the Paceman. And specifically the fastest of them all the JCW Paceman. Sound interesting? Click through to see a full video recap of MINI’s display at Detroit and of the press conference.
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