Worldwide MINI Sales Up 27% for February

Following [decent sales for the US](https://www.motoringfile.com/2015/03/03/mini-usa-sales-up-51-for-february-2015/), MINI announced today that worldwide sales for the brand are up **27.1%** (i.e. **20,303** units) in February compare to last year (i.e. **15,976** units). The release of new models along with strong volumes from a number of countries (i.e. Germany, Great Britain, Italy, North America, South Korea, and China) are the primary drivers for this month’s performance. While Global numbers are not broken out by model, MINI’s press release offers a number of interesting tidbits:
– January and February 2015 amount to the best year start ever for MINI with **37,678** vehicles delivered so far
– F56 sales are up **69.8%** with **7,877** cars sold in February 2015 compare to **4,460** for the same month last year
– F55 sales reached **5,088** units in February
As we said in the past, this significant year-over-year increase has to be considered with caution given where sales started from due to the model change between the end of 2013 and early 2014. Similarly to the US, dealerships worldwide were affected by low inventories while production output of the F56 was ramping up.
Since the 4-door Hardtop’s release, we have been wondering how much this new model contributes to overall Hardtop sales and with this month’s announcement we finally know what the breakout is. The F56 2-door makes up **61%** of total Hardtop volume, while the F55 4-door makes up **39%**. For a model that recently came out and that is a brand-new addition to the historical lineup, it’s safe to say that the F55 is off to a strong start. We also know that the US is MINI’s largest market and a good predictor of global trends, so if we apply these percentages to the most recent US sales, approximately **1,470** F56 and F55 **950** were sold in February.
Although it is too early to tell, we remain optimistic that the 4-door Hardtop might become MINI’s best-seller in 2015.
13 Comments
<p>Taking a broader view, the total number of Hardtop sales Worldwide for the past four months, November – February, amounted to 64,996, of which 19,951 were F55 sales, almost 31%. Sales month by month since November for the F56/F55 are as follows:</p>
<p>Nov – 13,248/4,033
Dec – 16,418/6,954
Jan – 7,502/3,876
Feb – 7,877/5,088</p>
<p>Industry analysts are predicting that MINI will buck the established trend of 5-dr Hatchbacks outselling 3-dr Hatchbacks at a ratio of 2:1, and the above sales figures seem to support that. Personally, I think it’s too early to say.</p>
<p>Builds seem to be done faster than I expected. I ordered my F56 S Cooper on Feb 23rd. It’s already built (Mar 8th) and loaded on the ship. Since I’m a kind of glass half empty person (lol), I could look at this two ways. 1. Built so quickly (too quickly) it was rushed and will have problems, or 2. the process is very streamline, efficient and well coordinated that builds don’t take as long anymore as they did 11 years ago. I’m hoping for #2 .</p>
<p>I remember when I ordered my R50 in Feb 2004, didn’t receive car until May. Now according to Ship Cargo tracking, car will reach west coast port Mar 31st. That’s only a few days over a month from order to build to arrive. Of course it will be a few more days (7-10?) after arriving at port until it gets to my dealer. That’s darn fast. wow.</p>
<p>Your car’s time on the line was only around 3 hours and 20 minutes from start of build to complete assembly. It spent most of it’s time in the order queue waiting to be built.</p>
<p>3 hrs & 20 min? wow. That doesn’t seem like enough time to build a car. In viewing the you tube videos on making a MINI, there is the assembly of body, then corrosion control coating, painting, curing of paint, engine and components install, seals, etc, etc and then quality control inspection.</p>
<p>Hmmmm.</p>
<p>That 3 hours and 20 minutes figure includes paint kiln and cooling times (where it does a few laps around the paint shop to cool/cure).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8C6tc9qXaY" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8C6tc9qXaY</a></p>
<p>Final assembly takes only 33 minutes; this is an 18x time-lapse of the final assembly. :D</p>
<p>Wow. I would have thought 2 to 2 1/2 days, not 3 1/2 hrs. Thanks for video.</p>
<p>I ordered my custom f56 end of Oct and picked it up in Marin on Dec 28. Took about 8 wks. And arrived in perfect condition. So far so good. Been easy on the engine break in for 1500 miles but a little hard on the cornering…great hugger.</p>
<p>Do you know how many days it was at distribution Distribution center and then to Marin MINI? Of course it being around the holidays, I guessing it might have taken a bit longer than normally, or? Any idea of how long car is kept at Distribution center. Thanks. :-)</p>
<p>I think 1-2 weeks from distribution to Marin</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Those F55 numbers are a bit surprising. I suppose a lot of those to date are to folks like me who’ve known and have been waiting for it, as opposed to the general market. Even among car enthusiasts, I’m always explaining what I’m driving. With F55 numbers already this strong, though I don’t see 2:1, 1:1 or even 1.5:1 is a possibility.</p>
<p>Those 3-bangers are definitely the best looking of the F bunch. :nod:</p>
<p>Yes the 3 cyl does look nice. Drives nice too. When I test drove both the Base and S, I did find as some are reporting that the Base Cooper Brakes are soft. Motorweek reported that ” Brakes weren’t quite up to the task, however, halting our tester in a rather lengthy average of 135–feet from 60.” (they tested the 3 cyl):</p>
<p><a href="http://www.motorweek.org/reviews/road_tests/2014_mini_cooper_hardtop" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.motorweek.org/reviews/road_tests/2014_mini_cooper_hardtop</a></p>
<p>But they did say/write: “found the I3 to be the most impressive.”</p>
<p>By the time you add in various options such as sport seats, front fog lights, 16″ Rims/Tires, different interior dash surface (dislike the standard Base Interior Surface , plus some other items which are standard on the S, the price of the Base came within about $1,100 of the S that I configured. That for me it didn’t justify getting the Base.</p>
<p>Regular seats are not very comfortable, at least not for me. Also the 15″ rims are plain horrible looking. I don’t mind getting 15’s, but not these. Back in 2004 for the Base, you could chose from three diff 15″ rims at no cost (and 2 steering wheel at zero cost).</p>
<p>I will say this tho, you can hear a bit of a rumble in the Base exhaust when giving it gas. Not as pronounced as the R50 but it’s there.</p>