On 18 November, the new generation of MINI will be launched initially in the European markets. This is a further milestone in the history of the world’s most successful premium small car. The production of the new MINI in the expanded plant in Oxford is already running full steam ahead. Sales of the current generation dropped to 13,821 MINI delivered shortly before the start of production of its successor (prev.yr.: 15,810/-12.6%).
Despite the building work to expand capacity and change over production to the latest MINI generation, sales in the first 10 months of 2006 reached 160,674 units, which is only 8.3% below the comparable value from 2005 (175,229). The expanded capacities will allow MINI to reach a level of sales in 2007 which will exceed the existing 2005 record level of over 200,000 units delivered (200,428).
Source: MINI Press
Hey Gabe,
Just found this web article today, I think you will find what it says to be very interesting:
<a href="http://news.en.autos.sympatico.msn.ca/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1231167" rel="nofollow ugc">http://news.en.autos.sympatico.msn.ca/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1231167</a>
In a nutshell – the new New MINI is now harder to mod than the current model:
“Unlike the current first-generation car, which was tuned by dozens upon dozens of companies (Hartge, Digitec, BRM, etc.), the new S with its 1.6-litre inline-four boosted by a dual-scroll turbocharger has proven to be difficult to crack. It appears that BMW and the engine’s co-developers PSA Peugeot-Citroen didn’t want too many people tinkering around with the turbines, so they’ve basically kept the ECU under lock and key. Even officially, though, this new setup has proven to be tedious for those developing it. Insiders say that the official John Cooper garage is having to go through quite an ordeal in order to work around the much more complex engine. An official hopped-up car won’t be ready until 2008, but when it arrives it should be capable of producing more power.”
Judging from what I’ve seen dicsussed among current owners, sales may be a comparatively peaked in 2007 since it’s a first model year. If, however, R56 is as good as it seems, they’d better be ready for a sales deluge in ’08 and ’09!!!