There are a handful of inevitable comparisons when the MINI is mentioned. The Beetle. The Juke. The Smart. Since its announcement, the Fiat 500 has been compared with the MINI Cooper Hardtop ad nauseum. In our opinion, it’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, as the two cars really belong in different categories of performance — and that’s just the Cooper. Yet those who insist the two cars are comparable often point to the Abarth as the viable alternative to everything that’s “wrong” with the second generation MINI. So what happens when Motor Trend puts the Abarth head-to-head with the MINI Cooper S Coupe? continued →
Winding Road is currently running a story about small, fun rides that offer driving excitement to rival larger, more expensive sports cars. They’re taking their “Involvement Index” and pulling out the fun cars that are actually affordable. Ranked at #2 is MINI’s new Coupe. They like it. They like it a lot.
Mini Cooper S Coupe: Involvement Score 78, Starting Price $25,300. So good we ended up booking a year-long loan in one. The Cooper S Coupe is the ultimate sub-$30,000 performer for the Mini brand, and goes toe-to-toe on our Index with Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG and V-6-powered Porsche Panamera. It’s go-kart-like driving dynamics and zippy turbo make this two-seater an affordable Involvement alternative.
For the second year in a row, MINI has been named the top service experience by J.D. Power. When it comes to getting your car worked on, MINI takes the best care of you, according to JDP. The experience customers had with their service advisor at MINI dealerships was apparently just that little bit better. continued →
Today at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas BMW Group announced that the Stitcher Smart Radio iPhone App will be the next compatible app for iDrive/MINI Connected. Video of the prototype app in a BMW 650i and press release after the jump.
Lighting up the MotoringFile inbox this week was a story from HealthyStuff.org naming its top ten best and worst cars in terms of material toxicity. You know that delicious new car smell? HealthyStuff.org suggests you don’t breathe that in too deeply. They’re saying that all the plastics, glues, foam and other materials that make up the interior of a car can give off harmful gasses. Just how harmful? Depends on your sensitivity, but seeing we all spend a lot of time in our cars, it’s worth thinking about. What makes this MINI-related is that the Clubman S was #10 on their list of worst offenders. See the whole chart after the break. continued →
Great marketing is often a balancing act. Play it too safe and you’re boring. Push the envelope too much, and you’ll embarrass your brand and even lose customers. Sometimes, it’s the little, seemingly innocuous things that can blow up in the marketer’s face. Take for instance, a recent sponsorship stunt undertaken by one of MINI’s European agencies, Sassenbach. The German Institute of Meteorology offered “Adopt-a-Vortex”, where companies can do a naming sponsorship on a storm front for an economical €299. What would be the harm? The proceeds even help fund Berlin’s Free University. A front blows through, your name is on it during the weather reports. Cheap advertising, right? Well it’s all fun and games until your sponsored front (called “Cooper”) turns out to be a major winter storm and kills more than 100 people across Europe. continued →
2011 was a banner year for BMW and MINI. MINI sales were up 22%, making for its strongest sales year ever. With sales, came profits. Smart on the other hand, not so much. Recently Businessweek did a comparison piece contrasting MINI’s success against the dismal, -$100M loser that is the Smart car. Even though the Smart debuted several years earlier, and at a much lower price point, the MINI has managed to out-sell the Smart three-to-one. In their analysis, Businessweek sites growing model diversification as a key part of MINI’s success over the Smart. continued →
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 May 17th, 2012 22 Comments 
