Worldwide MINI Sales Up 25% for June
Official Release: MINI has achieved its best-ever first half-year with 165,938 MINIs delivered to customers, an increase of 25.8% on the same period last year. Sales in June were up 25.4% to total 36,025. “With strong double-digit growth, MINI has had a flying start to 2015,” said Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management BMW AG, responsible for MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad.
“We’ll continue this momentum into the second half of the year and expect that the new MINI Clubman we premiered in June, which will be on the market from October, will bring us even more new customers. With our recently announced strategic and visual re-alignment of the brand, we’ll build on the MINI success story and achieve a new record year for MINI,” Schwarzenbauer added.
Global sales of the 3 door MINI grew by 33.0% in the first six months of the year, with customer deliveries totalling 62,599. The new 5 door MINI was handed over to a total of 44,943 customers worldwide in the same period. Sales of the MINI Cabrio are up 3.3% compared with the first half of last year with a total of 9,148 units sold.
<p>To improve on next year’s sales, perhaps MINI’s Design Department needs to read this:</p>
<p><a href="http://jalopnik.com/ten-car-trends-that-need-to-die-1702535593?utm_source=taboola" rel="nofollow ugc">http://jalopnik.com/ten-car-trends-that-need-to-die-1702535593?utm_source=taboola</a></p>
<p>Nailed it. I would love a shift to authenticity. Fake exhausts, fake noises, fake vents, fake diffusers … those things communicate a disheartening statement about some of the customer and brand values currently in play.</p>
<p>Re-read the post about MINIs strategy shift. That’s basically what they’re saying. It’s encapsulated in the Superleggera.</p>
<p>Lets hope it’s not just mainly marketing talk and they actually achieve some (preferably all) of the points in that Jalopnik post. And not just with the Superleggera, but across the whole range. I have my doubts though.</p>
<p>If you read the release they’re pretty specific about the Superleggera being a preview of the thinking.</p>
<p>If you read the Jalopnik article, they discuss more than MINI has alluded to in any press release that I’ve read. Could you please point me to the press release that covers what MINI is going to do about all of these things mentioned in the article:
Cut-off wheel arches
Four-door coupes
Economy turbos
Enormous wheels
Fake engine noises
Fake vents
Bad seats
Fake exhaust tips
Bloated wagons
High beltlines
I’m not saying that I agree with all of these things necessarily and MINI’s sales seem to be improving anyway even with fake engine noises, higher beltines, fake vents, economy turbos and what I see as more bloated cars. I’m just saying that I do hope that MINI gets back on track with their new Superleggera ethos, but I’m not holding my breath.</p>
<p>That article is link bait. Most of that list is a reality due to legislation either directly or indirectly. And I can’t believe you’re quoting a Jalopnik article. I know the founder very well and read it daily. But it’s not what I would call a gold standard.</p>
<p>I’m quoting lines from a link in a post by MVJCW which happens to be a Jalopnik article because you just kept telling people to read the release without actually addressing any of the points. I actually think there are more important things for MINI to address than the list above, but that wasn’t what MVJCW and Mr Remi were discussing.</p>
<p>I did post this article even though I don’t necessarily agree with all the points mentioned. However, some are very relevant to what MINI has been doing for the last 5-6 years, and just about every European as well as American car magazine has commented (negatively) about the ‘fake vents, hood scoop, poor ride quality due to big wheels/run flats, busy, trendy styling, etc, etc. I’m an industrial designer, and I know quite well about legislation, regulations, ergonomics, tooling costs, etc.. But I also know about trends, fads, monkey-see-monkey do detailing, etc. The front end of the 1.5L MINI looks good, functional, and apparently meets legislation. Putting that oversize “lip” at the bottom of the S seems to follow BMW’s current obsession with “ducts and nostrils”. On the JCW it’s just plain ridiculous ….. man!…. is that legislated?. An Aston Martin with a V-12 and massive brakes doesn’t have 8 vents in the front!. I could keep going, but I think you get the point.</p>
<p>100% agree.</p>
<p>What’s the difference between mechanical “fake” noise and computerized noise? And the complaint about high torque turbo engines is a trolling type of comment.</p>
<p>The global sales figures for R60 Countryman and R61 Paceman, for the first six months of 2015, are conspicuous by their absence.</p>
<p>It is only a press release and they are only highlighting positive results, so I guess R60 and R61 sales had dropped globally. Even more conspicuous in the <a href="http://www.bmwgroup.com/e/0_0_www_bmwgroup_com/investor_relations/corporate_news/news/2015/vertriebsmeldung_juli_2015.html" rel="nofollow">full press release</a> is that the BMW 3-Series wasn’t mentioned. The complete numbers by model can be found in BMW Group quarterly reports.</p>
<p>In the US anyway, Countryman is currently the top selling model and sales were up (reported recently on MotoringFile).</p>
<p>Yes, I am well aware of that. It was a subtle ‘tongue in cheek’ comment :)</p>
<p>I was highlighting the fact that global sales of the Countryman – previously MINI’s second best seller – are now falling fast. Although the US is the largest single market, it represents less than 20% of global MINI sales.</p>
<p>are we still comparing to months with dealer inventory issues related to the F56 rollout or was that all resolved by June ’14?</p>