It’s official gang! Here is the route for MINI Takes the States 2014. Now Who’s ready? Remember to mark those calendars for July 26th – August 9th, 2014 and stay tuned to MF and WRR for updates as they happen.
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It’s official gang! Here is the route for MINI Takes the States 2014. Now Who’s ready? Remember to mark those calendars for July 26th – August 9th, 2014 and stay tuned to MF and WRR for updates as they happen.
<p>Oh no, there isn’t a stop in Indy, we can’t take our cars on a 4 mph parade lap on the track for a 4th time.</p>
<p>Sure hope that blues Traveler will be a musical guest for the third time!</p>
<p>In 2010 I managed to get almost into triple digits on the Speedway. I guess it depends on where you were in the group.</p>
<p>Woohoo! My plan is to do the whole thing :)</p>
<p>Austin to Boston… I’m in!</p>
<p>Booooooo!
Florida and the Pacific NW excluded again.
South Florida, biggest MINI market in the nation = FAIL!</p>
<p>Have you been to these events? It is just a test drive anyway, a sales promotion.</p>
<p>I did the first one in 2006, the STL to INDY leg, it was not really THAT cool. Yes, we had a photo under the Arch and then it was just a drive to INDY. After an ok lunch we did our parade lap on the speedway. That was it.</p>
<p>Last year in Chicago it was at a cool track but the track was not open to the MTTS attendees. Crappy food and that was it, oh, a small small small auto X with demo cars and a go-cart track.</p>
<p>If you want a real experience go to a local larger MINI gathering. MINIs on the Dragon, A MINI Vacation in Vegas, these are often much cooler than the corporate event.</p>
<p>Agreed. The only MTTS that came to South Florida was in 2008. I guess the grueling summer proved to be too hot and humid to the NJ based brass.
It was a good time, certain events could have been better, but at least the largest MINI market in the nation got a taste of it.</p>
<p>Well how do you think we promote the brand to new prospects AND provide an excuse to party for current owners? I don’t see many manufactures these day (if ever) that organize such a massive cross-country event to this scale.
Last time they came through Utah we were able to head out to the famous Bonneville Salt Flats during Speed Week and go wide-open-throttle out in the middle of nowhere (we even had the local news helicopter provide aerial coverage for the evening news).
Stress your concerns and complaints to the local dealership if you’re wanting to be critical about the local festivities and planning of said events.
I just get excited thinking about all the great people we get to meet that take the time to travel across country and spend the day with us at our new dealership.</p>
<p>actually the track was open in chicago to us later on. b-spec MINIS led us around and the one was going at a good pace</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, where did you find a breakdown of sales via market which corroborates that South Florida is the largest MINI market in the nation? Also, have you looked at common cross-country routes? Florida is very rarely included and South Florida is pretty much never included; it’s completely out of the way. I’m sure there are many other major markets that aren’t included. It would take far more than a week if MINI USA tried to hit more states/markets.</p>
<p>South Florida largest cities are Miami and Ft. Lauderdale (Nearly 3 million inhabitants).. Within a 75 mile radius, this region has access to 5 MINI dealerships (2 in Miami-Dade County, 2 in Broward and 1 in Palm Beach County), and this has been pretty much since the brand was launched back in 2002.
If you ever been down this way, Miami is a car crazed culture, pretty much in the same vein as L.A. and SoCal. MINIs here are ubiquitous vehicles and they are everywhere. SoFla has been a huge, huge market for the brand. Just ask any sales manager/associate that sells MINIs in this area.</p>
<p>Remember that MTTS 2008 was organized very differently from the 2006 event. Instead of a big cross country drive, MINIUSA organized events (Don’t quite remember if they were concurrent or not, but they happened within the same week) in different cities across the US. Miami was one of the “MTTS party cities” and most events were organized at the Homestead-Miami International Speedway. The guys from White Roof Radio were even here for that event.
The format used in ’08 caused many complaints, so every other MTTS since then has been a long drive, following the road trip format of the original 2006 MTTS.
Yes, we leave way out of the way, but MTTS 2014 seems also to have excluded the entire US South East region as well.</p>
<p>I’ve driven down south in my MINI a number of times: down to Daytona once (I also love that you can hear the Speedway from the airport when I’ve flown in), MINIs on the Dragon in TN once and a trip down to Charlotte, NC and Savannah, GA. Charlotte in particular had a great car culture, but honestly most major metropolitan areas can boast of that in addition to multiple MINI dealerships which is why I wanted numbers. Any sales associate at a dealership is going to be boastful of their dealership and market so that cannot be taken into account. If you look at the map of MINI dealerships, there are plenty of other major markets skipped over, and as others have mentioned MTTS has been to FL before. Look at the map and you’ll see that some sacrifices have to be made somewhere. For example if the route went to FL, it would likely have skipped the Chicago area.</p>
<p>Daytona, Orlando and most of North-Central FL doesn’t count. You hardly see any MINIs upthere, which surprises me, because there is a small but very tightly bonded MINI community in and around Orlando, along the I-4 corridor and excellent dealerships to boot. Tampa Bay is the same. You could be there 2-3 days and not see more than a handful of MINIs.
South Florida is a totally different beast. Next time you are down this way, you’ll see what I mean. And I recall in MTTS ’08 MINIUSA people satying that this was their biggest market at the time.
The Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Portland) has been by passed consistently in every MTTS since 2006. How can you explain that one? Not sure what is the market demographic in that part of the country but with the amazing roads and beautiful geography, I just don’t understand why the NW keeps on getting the shaft.</p>
<p>Perhaps MINI USA will feature the Pacific Northwest in the future, but if the goal is to stop and celebrate with other MINI owners or inspire others to buy a MINI, that assumes you take a route where MINIs can be purchased. If you started in the Pacific Northwest and took the northern route across the country, you’d be traveling across a lot of land whereas there aren’t MINI dealerships or any people for that mater. You would also completely skip California or at minimum skip LA and San Diego because there wouldn’t be enough time to drive south from the Pacific Northwest down the west coast and then across the country in the amount of time available. California has a huge car culture and is hard to skip. If you did start in the Pacific Northwest and went down the coast through California and then traveled across the country, you’d probably have to stop somewhere in the mid-west (this assumes the duration of MTTS isn’t increased).</p>
<p>Could it happen? Sure, but then you’d slight everyone on the east coast, Florida included unless the trip was a Northwest to Southeast trip. Such a trip is a very long distance and would be 100-300 miles longer than the current trip which might not be permissible in the time available. In the end someone is always going to get slighted and unfortunately geographically the Pacific Northwest is pretty isolated which isn’t something MINI USA can change.</p>
<p>As of 2012, they were trying to make the route go from Seattle to Miami for 2014 per a MINI USA contact. However, they depend on dealerships to play host to all of us along the way, so they must not have been able to find the dealer support/cooperation in those areas. It’s true that the number of dealerships in the NW are far and few between so logistically, they may have just been too far apart. The driving route has to accommodate all ages/experience level.</p>
<p>That said, I was hoping the original route would work out so I could finally get in a drive up the coast to Seattle! Bug your local dealerships to increase their participation. SF MINI sponsored a feeder route, MINI Takes the Coast, last year which joined up with MTTS down in LA. Perhaps some Florida or Oregon dealerships would be willing to do the same for SF & Boston.</p>
<p>Oooh, this will go much closer to me and my local MINIacs than ever before. Can’t wait to see the exact, detailed route and specifics! Keep us in the loop, DB. Thanks.</p>
<p>It’s coming to my town, though on a date that typically falls during my beach vacation. If I’m around for it, I’ll definitely go check it out.</p>
<p>Driving across the country once with a bunch of MINIs sounds like more fun than a clown in a clown car! Driving first from the east coast (home) to the west coast would still be fun but also potentially costly, lonely, tiring and would use up lots of vacation days. for past MTTSs, do people ship their cars across the country? From what I’ve looked into doing so is about $1200. I was wondering if there are any other means, if dealerships have any ability to do so or at least at a discounted rate, etc…</p>
<p>Hey Jason, Late reply but I was in the opposite boat as you for the 2012 drive. I live in CA and had to get to NJ! MINI posted some options for shipping but they were in the $1200-1500 range. I decided to use all my vacation time and drive it by myself. It was definitely worth it! My trip was 25 days (8700 miles). I spent $900 on gas and about $1700 on lodging (I splurged on a few nights heh). (airbnb, couchsurfing.com, or even camping could help save.) Plus, I had some friends to stay with at a couple spots. Flying myself and shipping my car would have tallied 0 fun points and cost about the same 🙂 MTTS 2012 was exhausting but I was basically euphoric the whole time. As others have said, you meet great people along the way and nothing tops being part of a 300-MINI caravan through smalltown America each day.</p>
<p>Plan on boycotting it again this year since once again we learn that the only market MINI gives a damn about on the west coast is California. The Northwest is forgotten about once again so in equal measure I plan to ignore MTTS. Have fun guys!</p>
<p>Love to see a Coupe in the drive from SF to Reno… :)</p>
<p>ok folks I have inside contact for MIS in Michigan, a little side trip to the track for a lap or two.</p>