MINI USA Posts Best Sales Ever for July Up 24%
We always knew the Countryman would help MINI in regards to sales. But never has that been more the case for the US market this past month. The small crossover got within 400 units of out-selling the iconic MINI hatch and was up almost 60% year over year. In fact if it wasn’t for the Countryman MINI’s US sales would have been less than stellar. But what about the Coupe and Roadster?
MINI USA reported sales of 5,855 automobiles, an increase of 24.3 percent from the 4,711 sold in July 2011. Year-to-date, MINI sales in the U.S. are up 9.8 percent on volume of 37,914 compared to 34,527 in the first seven months of 2011.
<p>I’m surprised that the roadster number is so low, and more coupes than roadsters; I wouldn’t have expected that at all!</p>
<p>Logical : the roadster has been launched several months after the coupe</p>
<p>And neither are produced in large numbers. For every Coupe or Roadster that gets built at Oxford, a Hardtop or Clubman doesn’t. The sales numbers will always reflect that.</p>
<p>But you’re not astonished that the Convertible sells less than the Hardtop?</p>
<p>I can see Charlie’s point. I’ve always seen the Roadster as the primary two seater MINI, with the Coupe as an alternate version of it. (On the other hand, I think everyone agrees that the Hardtop is the primary 2+2 seater, not the Convertible. Aside from anything else, the Hardtop was the launch model and the Convertible came along a good bit later.)
Obviously this shows that the sales reality differs somewhat, but I don’t think the perception was an uncommon one.</p>
<p>Wow. Hadn’t thought about it that way. But to answer your question, no, I’m not. I think of the coupe and the roadster as both being somewhat impractical cars (IMHO) for the average person, and so likely to be a 2nd (or 3rd) car for fun. As a fun car, I think the roadster is it, while the coupe just isn’t quite – unless you’re planning on track days, in which case the coupe is definitely the one. All strictly one man’s opinion.</p>
<p>I suppose another way to look at it is the 2:1 ratio of convertibles to roadsters. The drop in convertibles sold July of this year versus July of last year is roughly the same number of units as the number of roadsters sold this July. So the roadster would appear to appeal to some, but not all, of the convertible buyers.</p>
<p>Some of the Countryman sales would have gone to the Clubman if the Countryman didn’t exist.</p>
<p>Not to knock the Countryman, but I really like seeing the Hardtop as the #1 seller. And one of those Clubman S sales is mine :)</p>