MINI USA Sales Up 43% for November
Official Release: MINI USA reported November sales of 4,545 automobiles, up 43.1 percent from the 3,177 cars sold in November 2007. Year-to-date, the division reported sales of 50,511 automobiles, an increase of 31.3 percent, compared to the 38,483 cars reported in the first eleven months of 2007.
“We’ve seen some slowing in MINI showroom traffic just the same as everyone else
in the last month,” said Jim McDowell, Vice-President of MINI USA. “However, we’re still positive about our future sales due to the fact the recent frenzy towards more efficient transportation has introduced more consumers to our brand. This has helped us hit the milestone of 50,000 sales in November, one month sooner than we expected.”
Even during bad economic times people still want their MINIs!
Incredible how sales are up so high. Are there ANY other cars sold in the US that can say the same?
wow – this bucks the trend I heard today that overall auto sales are down 12% in USA.
Only 12%? can this be called a crisis in the auto industry?
I think that the 12% drop in US sales is likely low. Ford reports Nov. sales drop of 47%, Toyota 34%, Chrysler 47%. But also remember that a “sale” for a Dealer is when the car is delivered to the customer, so it is possible that a lot of MINI’s November “Sales” were actually November deliveries of cars ordered earlier.
people buy Minis INSTEAD OF more expensive cars : that is the crisis
Still pretty good sales figures … MINI sales are recorded when the customer takes delivery.
Sales figures history:
<a href="http://www.gbmini.net/minisales.html" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.gbmini.net/minisales.html</a>
What will be more comparitive with the other Manufacturers – who sell off the lot (shop today/drive it home today), is to see how many “MINI purchasing decisions/orders” are taking place in Nov., which will be more reflected in the Jan. Feb. Sales figures.
Remember that MINI released more production to the US this fall – I think a lot of long-standing orders were finally delivered last month.
<a href="https://www.motoringfile.com/2008/08/26/mini-usa-get-3000-more-cars-for-us-market/" rel="ugc">https://www.motoringfile.com/2008/08/26/mini-usa-get-3000-more-cars-for-us-market/</a>
Don’t be surprised if December sales don’t look as good.
– So these are likely orders placed midst the fuel crunch and well before the market slump.
Awesome achievement MiniUSA, great to see the numbers are still running so strong here.
It seems like every time MF posts record sales numbers for the r56 naysayers jump on a wagon trying to make excuses for good sales – yet the following month the same thing – sky high sales figures – and more excuses..
In a world climate where a 1% gain over the previous year is remarkable, MINI is doing something extraordinary.
I have a friend that works at a Mini dealership. Sales are not up, they are down. Someone isn’t telling the truth. Just because a customer orders a Mini, it doesn’t mean they will take delievery. If this is true, that sales are up. Why are they shutting down the Mini manufacturing plant for a month or longer? Someone is cooking the books.
It may help that owning a MINI has always been seen as a lifestyle choice – except that the marketing message has been changed to match the times. And it helps that the changeover from the R53 to the R56 came at around the right time (late 2006/early 2007, just as the ramifications of the subprime market was starting to make itself felt through the US economy)
How so?
An example is how the R56 was touted as having great performance, thanks in part to direct injection, and how a byproduct of that was good fuel economy. Today, the message has changed to emphasize how good the fuel economy of a R56 is as a result of direct injection, and a byproduct of that is more power too! Same results, but different messages.
Another one is how people would look a the size of a MINI and automatically assume the car had great fuel economy because of it’s size. With the R50, perhaps; not so with the R53. But it’s safe to say that this is pretty much true with the R56; and when perception is matched to reality, this helps with sales.
One factor that can’t be ignored, are those people who are downsizing in their vehicle choices, yet don’t want to drive an econobox.
Here, the MINI suits the bill perfectly; small size means positive acceptance factor by the anti-SUV establishment, luxury fittings mean that downsizers are not giving up all the accrouements that they are used to, good fuel economy shouts out that the owner is doing their part to reduce their carbon footprint; good handling and performance means lots of fun on a budget.
Maybe it’s a sort of conceit that fits the times, but perhaps the MINI meets the expectations of the car buyer who wants to be seen as being empathetic with the current global economic climate, while not shedding all aspirations of still having a good life. What do you think?
Heh still think the R53 is my personal choice of brand personally but to each their own. Still has more to do with the public perception of the brand.
i personally dont want mini to do well for the next few months so they’ll lower their prices and offer incentives. this wait for the 2010 JCW (bc i want the interior refresh) is killing me!!
But when they offer lower prices it decreases resale, anyway. So you pay the money up front and you get back on resale; you may save if they drop the prices, but every current owner is hurt, and your resale value is worse.
Think you have a very long wait dc11r, I would be shocked if we see incentives from Mini. As for the interior refresh betting that might also be pushed a little while the automotive industry is in turmoil. Along with that I expect the keep weakness of the R56 will remain a sticking point (the center stack).
Its worthwhile looking at the rest of the industry on Autoblog’s post. While BMW is down just like everybody else, the BMW group has lost less ground than all the others.
But Mini still exceeds expectations in the US. Sales of center stack up 43%, I suspect that only a very small percentage of people really see this as a sticking point, I would not count on that refresh.
For the life of me, I just don’t understand how these conversations end up in the gutter. This is not the R53 vs R56 mantra of years past. The R53 hardtop ended production 2 years ago and the R56 has entered its third production year.
While it may be true that some existing R53 owners have not yet (and probably never will) warm up to the R56, thus not helping to further drive up sales of the current model, I just find it asinine to chalk up any contrary opinions as nothing but drivel coming out of the anti-R56 establishment.
Perhaps the R53 conversation will keep coming back even after the R56 stampings are shelved away because it is the model that helped bring the MINI back into the map and the car that most of us felt in love with.
US car sales are down 36.5% in Nov. Mini are up 43%. That’s success any way you look at it. Next year MINI will not match 2008, but with the way the depressed market is, that’s inevitable. MINI has a higher market penetration in Europe and doesn’t have pent up demand like the US. So the downturn in sales is marked, hence the production cuts. The US saturation of MINI is lower and the sales fall off has been delayed by that. I also think more dealers could still be appointed in the US, as there must be areas that don’t have a dealer nearby.
GABE!!!!! tell us if the refresh is happening or not for MY2010!!!!! i need to know if i should buy now, or wait 9 months.
>GABE!!!!! tell us if the refresh is happening or not for MY2010!!!!! i need to know if i should buy now, or wait 9 months.
We already did almost a year ago: <a href="https://www.motoringfile.com/2008/01/03/the-2010-mini-mid-life-cycle-refresh/" rel="nofollow">2010 Mid-Life-Cycle Refresh</a>