DW TV Takes Look at the MINI at 50
DW TV recently created a feature on the 50th anniversary of the Mini that looks back on the car, the culture and racing successes through the years.
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DW TV recently created a feature on the 50th anniversary of the Mini that looks back on the car, the culture and racing successes through the years.
<p>Mini and Rauno are the Best! MINI always – MINI forever!</p>
<p>Cool little vid….</p>
<p>Always a treat!!</p>
<p>Happy Birthday, Mini, at your half century mark.</p>
<p>Rauno states (in German) that it was car for all, even for the poor(Armen). Not today’s BMW Mini!</p>
<p>Yes a “base” R56 can be had for an MRSP (without the ridiculous dealer markup – if you can find a dealer what won’t charge it. No out here in Calif.) of $19,200 (that includes dest. and handling).</p>
<p>You get a choice of 4 colors, (White, Red, Yellow and Oxy. Blue (eecch!!), (no silver though, a basic color for most cars these days), it doesn’t come with DTC (a safety item, yeah I know, some folks that post here are anti-safety/ or feel it’s a waste)</p>
<p>The only reason it comes with Dynamic Stability Control is because it’s US Gov. required. (I can hear the anti-safety folks already saying “darn Government”) No MFSW,(add $250.) which comes standard on 95% of cars costing more than $19,000. If you want Automatic that’s another $1,250 (not everyone wants to drive a manual, and some folks can’t), fog lamps – $250,(if you live in a place with lots of fog, that’s a need) Car alarm $500 (if you live in the city and don’t have a garage, better get it).</p>
<p>That comes to: $21,450. Then you have to add the robbery of “dealer markup” (anywhere from $1,000 to 2,500).</p>
<p>That’s no longer a car for the average working person.(or the poor) Yes, it handles great and it’s fun, and all other “fun” stuff, but it’s gotten to pricey, especially when the list of items that should be standard aren’t. It gotten to be a “style” car with a “status” price.</p>
<p>I’m not saying it should cost around $10,000 but I feel it should be a car with with some need options (MFSW, DTC, fog lamps, lower cost Automatic, etc) shouldn’t cost more than $17,500 to $20, 000. And no dealer markups, especially when the car is only sold at MSRP. I think BMW/Mini should take away a dealers selling rights for adding dealer markups especially in light of today’s economy.</p>
<p>That’s my view on it. In reading the posts on here for over the last 4 years, many people have the money to burn and spend. Good for them. Many of us don’t and it is my opinion that Mini is not (should not be) a high end pricey car. It’s slightly above entry level. Options are fine, but they should be “non necessary” options. For those that want to spend $35,000 to $40,000 go for it. Glad you’ve got the money. But for others who want a nice good handling car with a little fun, it shouldn’t break the bank.</p>
<p>Really surprised MINI didn’t put together a 50th anniversary model or at least an mini event or promotion of some sort. Maybe an Alex Issigonis Mini sketch napkin set or something??? Geez.</p>
<p>@ Tim</p>
<p>Dude, I am not going to get into an argument with you here. But keep in mind that you are talking about a car that is built in a country where “Min. Wage” is set at a fair level and workers are treated like they are human beings. The market is not flooded with MINI’s driving the price down either. I’m sure if you were on the other side of the fence you would be wanting the cars to have more gross in them that the 1-2ooo. From a sales standpoint…that 1-2 grand in the car I get 10%…Thats 1-2 hundred dollars/car. The rest of the grose goes to pay the rest of the delership and the various parties who the car passes through on its way into your hands. Its like when you go to the movies…the theatre doesnt make a dime on the price of a movie ticket…they make their money selling you over-priced popcorn…but you buy it because who goes to the theatre and doesnt buy popcorn? If you are going to take this standpoint on MINI and BMW…why dont you go protest in front of the AMC as well.</p>
<p>A very fun little video.</p>
<p>Still have to say that I adore the brand. Although the BMW Mini isn’t exactly a small car it did hold to many of the same values that Sir Alec laid down. Just sad however that so soon after celebrating the 50th year of the original small car we are seeing a complete turning their back on the history of the Mini brand and what it stands for. BMW does what it does the best, making cars ever heavier and larger. Sitting here thinking the original car is much more relevant for today than the R60 will ever be. Quite a way to celebrate 50 years, by making something that has no link to the history of the brand, they might have well decided to make a direct competitor to the 7 series in size and weight, would make as much sense to me.</p>
<p>Happy Birthday MINI – I feel I am truly blessed to be selling you on your 50th Birthday. Thank you for allowing me to do something in my professional career I truly love – selling MINIs!</p>
<p>Regarding entry level pricing, I might have to remind Tim that most customers at that price point aren’t really the correct market for the MINI.</p>
<p>At the price of an entry level Just-a-Cooper, it doesn’t even make it worth my while to really sell it to him when I make less than $250 for my efforts on spending four or five hours selling him/her a car that he/she then argues with me back and forth for on 250 dollars for this and that and then has the gall to ask for free mats, a stuffed thing and a t-shirt and argue with me on “why are you charging me $399 for a dealer processing fee?”</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I won’t turn down a minimum deal – but you’ll probably feel slightly neglected when a $43,000 JCW Clubman want-to-be owner walks into the showroom wanting to buy your showroom model.</p>
<p>When my sales goals are roughly 15 to 20 MINIs a month and I’m only making $200 to $250 a car – I may as well look for a different job.</p>
<p>So before you complain about the price of the car, think about all the value that you’re getting in the base car, all the people that made it possible to get the car to you and finally, all the time the Motoring Advisor spent with you to get you the exact car (with nothing really) you wanted. :-)</p>
<p>@ Kurt Collins: “all the time the Motoring Advisor spent with you to get you the exact car (with nothing really) you wanted. :-)”</p>
<p>The Motoring Advisor I “spent” time with did little to nothing. He was to “busy” to take my order in person. He told me to fax or phone it in. I tried to get another MA but the Manager said because the MA started the process, he was my MA. No other Mini dealers near me either. What did he do for his money, took my order over the phone, didn’t send me a copy of the order, made a mistake on the order. He spent about 10 minutes with me on the phone. Then when the car came in, called me and told me I had to come an pick up the car within 2 days (he called on a Tuesday). When I picked up the car he handed me the keys and showed me the car. That took about 15 minutes. That was what I got and he made $250 dollars for that. (Multiply that by about 7 cars that day. He told me that he had 6 other folks picking up their car that day) That’s more then I make in day. I complained to the Manager about the service. Nothing. I will say he does not work there anymore (he went on to Mercedes)</p>
<p>I’m also curious on what you wrote: “that most customers at that price point aren’t really the correct market for the MINI.” What customer would that be who is correct for MINI? Upper middle class? Does skin color come into play? A white collar worker? I thought it would be someone who wants a small fuel efficient car, that is a bit sporty, and isn’t overly pricey. But since you sell MINI’s what does BMW tell you who is correct for a MINI?</p>
<p>Do MA’s receive a guide on who the correct buyer of MINI is? Interesting.</p>
<p>Tim most of your points of valid. But there is not much dealer margin on a MINI. Thats no excuse for bad service though. The Japanese car sales guys rely on volume. Do you think BMW want to or can build a cheap “peoples” car? Try VW they seem to get the mix right.
You notice that MINI USA do not take the basic ONE version – this is more compareable to basic old Mini. The old Mini Cooper was more expensive and limited production. This created more demand. Thats why tuning companies started up for owners to make their basic cars into “Cooper replicas”.
BMW wants to sell this car as a Premium small hatch. They target young buyers 20-30 range, just look at the ads. Problem is that this market is limited.</p>
<p>Now after that rant – This video is compulsory viewing for all MF readers. This is the heritage.</p>
<p>Tim, I did the MA deal for a little bit and I can tell you that BMW never told me to show or sell the car to a specific customer demographic. Like any other vehicle, there is a basic vetting process that takes place to see if the car is a good match for your customer in terms of needs/wants. The other 50% of the transaction involves the financing side of the deal, making sure the customer has decent credit, can be qualified for lease/loan, etc. Again, that is the normal process that applies to virtually any new car purchase regardless of brand.</p>
<p>Perhaps there are dealers out there that “profile” their customers based on skin color or socio-economic status. But that wasn’t the case where I worked.</p>
<p>I do agree with you that these cars are getting very expensive and that you, as a customer, have an expectation of good service from your MA during and after the sale. At least for me, I made sure to spend good 1 to one and a half hours going over the car with the customer and explaining all features and answering questions. I enjoyed making him or her feel special about their new purchase.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in car sales there are good and bad apples and seems to me you got stuck with a rookie that could care less about the product he was selling and much less about customer satisfaction. Those leeches give car salespeople a pretty bad name and further perpetuate the stereotype of the car business as a scam driven enterprise.</p>
<p>Tim. This is you :(………. We have a thing here called the “free market”. If you don’t like it I recommend you work harder like everyone else vs whining about how things are unfair because you can’t afford the premium imported car you want. Or, move to Cuba.</p>
<p>Is Mini the lonogest continuously produced car still being produced? I know the Vette appeared in ’54 but had a year or two when it wasn’t made.</p>
<p>Mini was launched in 1959 and the last one rolled off the assembly line in October 2000. Some 41 years (Give or take).</p>
<p>I believe the VW Beetle has the Mini beat in numbers/years of production….It was produced from 1938 until 2003. Last one rolled off the VW Puebla, Mexico plant.</p>
<p>@ Tim</p>
<p>Wheeeeeeewwww… glad you were able to get all that off you’re chest. I appreciate Motoring File giving us this forum to to vent. My sincere thanks to everyone who keeps it going.</p>
<p>Ah yes the Beetle. I forgot about Fritz the house painter’s gift to the world.</p>
<p>Compared to the classic Mini, the old air cooled VW Beetle was a pretty crappy car. Even the last ones made by VW in Mexico (The last batch of 3,000 beetles were sold as “Sedan Ultima Edicion”) had a 58HP engine and a top speed of 81 MPH. Perhaps for only US$7K-$8K you could not ask for anything more from an ultra cheap new car.</p>
<p>The old beetles had terrible handling, terrible power, terrible brakes, but they were pretty acceptable common man cars. The old Mini by comparison was a fighter jet in nearly every front.</p>
<p>That’s why Der Furer called it “the people’s car”. Just right for Tim.</p>
<p>Remind me never to buy a car from Kurt Collins. What an attitude, especially in this day and age. I hope not all MINI “Motoring Advisors” are like him.
Actually, in my experience, the MINI “Motoring Advisor” was entirely superfluous. I built my car on website, and that was it. No selling. No haggles. My “Motoring Advisor” simply facilitated my order, and took my deposit. 5-6 months later, he called me that my car had arrived. I went to the dealership, arranged the payment with the finance lady, and then my “Motoring Advisor” gave me the keys, took a picture and offered, of his own volition, some floor mats.
Don’t get me wrong, my “Motoring Advisor” was a nice young man. In fact, most of the MINI employees at my dealership are young. But with regards to my purchase, that was a very easy $250 earned for my “Motoring Advisor.” A shoe salesman works harder than he had to.</p>
<p>I will say, that while my sales experience was similar to Tim’s – in that my “Motoring Adviser” basically collected $250 for about 30 minutes of actual work (though he was very pleasant, unlike Tim’s), I will counter that I feel it was money well spent, in that my MINI drives and handles unlike any other car I’ve ever driven, and I’ve driven some nice cars in my day. That kind of engineering costs money I don’t think you’ll find that experience in a sub-$15k car. That said, if the Fiat 500 comes to the US, we might see a fun-to-drive, cheap car.</p>
<p>Love it – thanks for posting.</p>
<blockquote>The old beetles had terrible handling, terrible power, terrible brakes, but they were pretty acceptable common man cars.</blockquote>
<p>Having owned a (new) ’71 1302 Beetle in College, compared to other small cars of that era, it handled very well, had great power, and good brakes. I rallied it more than a doz. times and routienly placed in the top 10, over MGs, Minis, etc.</p>
<p>Uh oh. A Mini Beetle war. Do they still make the “new” generation Beatle? I thought that was kinda cool. Didn’t it even have a turbo option?</p>