Section: MF Feature
May 8th, 2012
As with the MINI USA sales numbers, fewer business days in April led to flat year-over-year sales in the wide world, yet overall sales for the year are up nearly 9% over 2011. Here’s the official breakdown:
[Official Release] With 23,789 vehicles delivered in April, worldwide sales for MINI remained at last year’s level (prev. yr. 23,839/ -0.2%). In the month under review, MINI achieved strong growth in several European countries such as France (1,569/ +22.2%) and Italy (1,652/ +13.9%), however there was lower demand in southern European countries such as Spain and Portugal. The brand also experienced dynamic growth in Asia, such as in Japan (1,353/ +32.4%), China (1,905/ +36.1%) and Korea (450/ +50.0%). The new MINI Roadster has had an excellent start with nearly 2000 units (1,976) already delivered to customers since its launch at the end of February. Year-to-date, MINI sales are up +8.6% with 92,000 units compared to 84,699 in the first four months of 2011.
[Source: BMW Group]
Apr 17th, 2012
[Official Release] The MINI Inspired by Goodwood is the most ambitious and luxurious special edition model the brand has ever launched. To celebrate delivery of the first customer cars, a single example is going on display in prime position at Harrods, the world’s most aspirational shopping destination.
The MINI which takes inspiration from the design team at Rolls Royce Motor Cars, forms part of a specially created window display. It is also visible from inside the iconic Knightsbridge store, allowing shoppers, pedestrians and drivers on the busy Brompton Road to see it. continued →
Mar 13th, 2012
News from Motoringfile, including an interview with Rob Pasaro, Head of the BMW App Center Mountainview. And as Todd prepares for his actual birthday celebration, he continues his quest to remind you of famous people who were born this month.
Moving on to Ask Chad, one of the questions was about Cooper exhuast systems. The ones we mentioned in this episode are the Megan Racing, Magnaflow and the Borla. Since we are talking Cooper, we also have a bead on a JCW Sound Kit for the R50 if you are interested. You can hear Todd’s original review here.
Woofcast 417:
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Download| 1:19:10 | 39mb | WRR @ iTunes | Show Notes
Mar 13th, 2012
Official Release: The BMW Group is confident about the current financial year after a record year in 2011. “We are targeting new highs in sales volume and pre-tax earnings for 2012”, stated Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG at the Annual Accounts Press Conference in Munich on Tuesday. The Automotive segment remains on course to achieve an EBIT margin of between eight and ten percent, in line with our long-term profitability targets. Provided that the global economic climate does not take a turn for the worse, the BMW Group forecasts an EBIT margin in 2012 for the Automotive segment at the upper end of this corridor. continued →
Dec 23rd, 2011
Just for MotoringFile readers, here’s a special set of MINI winter wallpaper. These shots come from MINI’s recent Snowman event in Innsbruck, Austria. Sizes are 1600×1035. Get the full set here, or see them all after the jump. Enjoy. continued →
Nov 29th, 2011
Here at MotorongFile we’re making December JCW month to celebrate five years of the GP as well as discuss the future of the brand. And there is no better way to start this celebration than re-running some of our favorite pieces on the mythical JCW GP over the years. Today we give you the first of three articles from the MF Vaults that tell the story of the most special (new) MINI made yet. We’re going to talk about the details behind the car as well as another epic drive in it. Finally we’ll focus on the future of JCW. But today we want to present our very first full review of the GP as it was posted on MF almost five years ago to the day.
The MINI JCW GP is the ultimate expression of factory performance for the first generation MINI. It’s a car that eschews most of the typical compromises to focus on performance both at the road and track. But what’s it like to actually live with a GP for a week? Is it a car that can become part of daily life or does the lack of compromises make it less useful as regular transportation? With all the recent GP reviews over the last few months we thought it was more appropriate for our review to focus on these questions rather than simply the basics covered elsewhere.
My week with the GP started with frigid temps and salt encrusted roads. Having driven in winter conditions since I had my license, I was generally prepared for the lack of grip. But it’s hard to be truly prepared for the power of the GP if you haven’t driven a seriously modded MINI or JCW MINI. And it was that power that made winter or cold weather driving so interesting and at times fun.
continued →
Oct 5th, 2011
It’s rare when someone affects our lives as much as Stve Jobs has. Whether you have an iPhone in your pocket or not, Steve Jobs has defined our technological present and future more than any one man in the world. And today he passed away at a young 56.
When the iPod Mini was released, Steve said Apple was inspired by the minimalist design of the MINI itself. He thought the MINI was cool because it was small. Less is more was the idea and the iPod Mini delivered on that in a new smaller form-factor. Why does it matter to us? Because here was a man that created the future by looking at what was around him. In this case it was the MINI that inspired his team. In other cases it was the button on a Lecia Camera. Whatever the situation was, Steve took what was right in the world and created something inspired and new. And ultimately something that changed the world in which we live.
Steve and the people at Apple have inspired automakers like MINI and BMW to create in different and distinctive ways. MINI Connected and BMW ConnectedDrive are here (more or less) due to Apple. But you could go further in saying that BMW’s recent gamble and total re-think of it’s brand with BMWi is more inline with Apple’s re-invention (and Steve Job’s mantra of ‘Stay Foolish’) than anything from BMW in its history. And one could make the argument that the closest automotive equivalent to what Apple has done recently is actually the launch of the original Mini in 1959.
In any case, Steve, we will miss you greatly. continued →
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