MINI Takes the States may be over, but the press coverage lives on. This time it’s Brandweek and they not only cover MTTS but touch on the brand’s health as a whole and talk new products with Jim McDowell. Here’s an excerpt:

>“When MINI started, we sold 20,000, which was good,” said McDowell, a two-time Brandweek Marketer of the Year in his days as vp-marketing at BMW. “And now we will grow slowly. There is more worldwide demand for MINI than there is supply. But there is no danger that MINI will ever grow too large.”

>He acknowledged a recent market research study in New York in which participants were queried about a MINI crossover; “I was there, “ he said. “We asked if they could imagine MINI, as a concept, that had all-wheel drive as in a crossover.”

>The results are still being tallied, he said, as MINI ponders an elongated vehicle tentatively named the “Clubman” for U.S. release in 2008.

Hey look at that, some confirmation on the Clubman name that we reported awhile back. Looks like we don’t make this stuff up after-all! You can read the rest below:

[ MINI Takes a Drive To Spread Its Message ] Brandweek.com

For the record, brandweek mentioned the new 2007 MINI is six inches longer than the current car. That is incorrect. We can only assume they got some numbers either mixed up or they were confused with the Clubman which will be around eight inches longer.

For the record part 2. The Clubman is not expected to be all-wheel drive. That little bit of technology will be saved for something that looks likely to come down the pipeline later in the R56 production life-cycle.