As BMW looks at ways to share development costs in the coming years, the idea of sharing the MINI platform has come up again. However this time it’s Peugeot that is the potential partner. Here’s an excerpt from a Financial Times article that broke the news late yesterday:
>Norbert Reithofer, BMW’s chief executive, said BMW was talking to Peugeot about a deeper cooperation, but he refused to give any details.
>Industry insiders told the Financial Times, however, that the carmaker was in “preliminary talks” about a future shared platform for the Mini model family, which the carmaker aims to expand.
>In addition, the two carmakers are looking at ways to share modules – components that can be used in different car segments – for BMW’s main brand.
>The move marked a swift strategic foray by Philippe Varin, Peugeot’s chief executive, who joined the French carmaker in May and since then has met Mr Reithofer twice.
>Volume and premium carmakers have been looking at ways to co-operate in order to increase economies of scale in a competitive car market that has been faced with a sharp downturn this year.
>The implications of such a future co-operation for Mini’s “production triangle” of three plants in the UK remained unclear, as the talks are at a very early stage.
+ BMW eyes Peugeot tie-up for Mini / Financial Times
<p>I thought production in the “Triangle” was pretty close to maxed out as it is, how then would this affect MINI production?</p>
<p>Didn’t GM share lots of components across many lines. Look what it got them – Bland.</p>
<p>VW/Audi does this very well. From the cheapest Skoda to Bentley, there’s a lot of component sharing. GM messed up not making quality for years, having poor designs, and then trying to fix it way too late. It’s not the idea, it’s the execution.</p>
<p>Thanks to you, BMW, for helping me maintain the resale value and ensuring the future desirability of my R53.</p>
<p>You can see where BMW are coming from (financially) with this; as a consumer we have to understand that this is a mass market product.</p>
<p>Still, after having my R50 and R53 for three and half years now, I simply can’t see anything enticing me to get rid of it or ‘upgrade’.</p>
<p>This is just the economics of cars today. Too small a sales volume, and you have to be high cost to carry the overhead. Mini has got to be worried that competition will eat it’s lunch, so it’s grow and partner or just shut it all down.</p>
<p>We may not like it, but really this is the only choice if we don’t want less Minis sold at Porsche Boxter prices….</p>
<p>Matt</p>
<p>Actually since Porsche is going bankrupt, the prices will be very low.</p>
<p>MINIs are already today surprisingly expensive, it’s easy now to hit $30K+, value for money is shrinking fast :(</p>
<p>ZIG ZAG ZUG…. PUG!!</p>
<p>@<a href="#comment-265303" rel="nofollow">Ian C.</a>:</p>
<p>Amen to that Ian. In fact you get a lot more value for the money buying used. Let the first guy take the hit.</p>
<p>no not again with Peugeot. No mini for me anymore.</p>
<p>BMW did a terrific work with the Mini Gen 1. They started to screw up with Gen 2 and Gen 3 doesn’t seems to become anything spectacular… The mini effect is gone. This is sad.</p>