White Roof Radio #172
Just Gabe and I again tonight, again via Ustream.tv. Yea, I know, you didn’t hear about it. We kinda snuck it in to do some testing, since the last time we did it was such a disaster.
We spend tonight talking mostly about the Clubman, including answering questions from the viewers. To finish, we spent a few minutes on the iPhone.
By the time you read this, Todd is all the way moved and still living out of boxes! That’s why he wasn’t around this week. We gave him the night off so he could finish moving, because we are cool like that.
This week we will be doing our 2nd anniversary show. There is a very good chance we will do it live again, on video. Keep an eye out here and at Motoringfile for details. I can’t say for sure, but if we do a live show, it will be on Thursday starting at around 9PM CST (do the math, forward and back, for your time zone). Sorry to those of you outside of the US that can’t make it. This is the only time we have to actually record the show.
And HUGE thanks to the click monkeys! Everytime I checked iTunes last week, we were at #11! Thanks!
Woofcast #172: [audio:http://www.whiteroofradio.com/podcasts/woof172.mp3]
Hey, Cool new header. What happened to the checkered flag, it was so unique! I will miss it.
I’ll miss it to. However it was time to move on and introduce something a bit more lasting and unique (not to mention integrated).
Some asker about the rear door open / close sequence – The Clubman Exterior video -Rear Cargo Doors – shows that the right side ‘Female’ latch requires the Left door to be latched closed before the right side door can latch closed.
You guys dismiss the seats folding flat. I would not be so quick to do that. A flat cargo bed offers more utility, period, and if Mini had to compete with any other cars they would find that their competition increasingly has seat backs that fold flat. If the MC Clubman hopes to take buyers away from the Fit Sport for instance they are going to find the utility of their storage space widely outclassed.
Look, when you offer a new model you are not creating any new buyers – you are only taking them from somewhere else. I know you can say that the Mini is much more of a drivers car than a Fit (although the fit is a great handling small car), its true, but if you are going to loose some customers that are a little more biased towards utility over driving because the seats won’t fold flat, which you will, then you are leaving money on the table and making it harder for the car to be profitable.
Good point about seats that fold flat. We seriously considered a Honda Fit when we bought our R56. It’s a different car in many ways, but they were the 2 on our radar screen. The Fit has incredible cargo capability and competes more with the Clubman than with the R56.
And as a second thought – I always enjoy the show and look forward each week to the new ones.
>You guys dismiss the seats folding flat. I would not be so quick to do that. A flat cargo bed offers more utility, period, and if Mini had to compete with any other cars they would find that their competition increasingly has seat backs that fold flat. If the MC Clubman hopes to take buyers away from the Fit Sport for instance they are going to find the utility of their storage space widely outclassed.
Great point! But I really don’t think they are going to try to market this at, or attempt to steal buyers from, the station wagon/small truck/Fit or any other car that has seats that fold totally flat. This car, I think, is for the potential MINI owner that needs more room to haul some stuff or people (or both) that isn’t afforded in the R56.
But really, how much do you expect to be able to carry in only 9.1cu/ft of space (32.6cu/ft with the seats down)? It is an increase over the R56 to be sure, but not that much to make this a serious hauler. But it is enough room to take the family on a weekend trip at least.
If I were in need to carry serious amounts of cargo, MINI is the last place I would look.
Well the Fit does not carry serious cargo either, but the magic seats definitely make it more useful than it would be otherwise.
I think seats folding flat helps. In many ways, the MINI is not the most practical car for me and my family. Yet we bought an R56. It is practical in that it gets good gas mileage, is fun to drive, and you really can’t underestimate the importance of good design. The aesthetic quality of the car is also practical. Good design needs to be valued and thought of as practical.
Any added functionality and making the most of the available seats helps us to decide to have this great car. I believe that it is essential to convince more people in this country that bigger is not better and aesthetics matter.