Report: MINI Sedan Could be the Brand’s 5th Model
The rumors have been swirling for awhile. Now Autocar, that UK bastion of credible automotive journalism, is reporting that a MINI sedan is looking likely. The long awaited 5th model has been rumored to be everything from a minivan/MVP to small city car. However with petrol prices low and larger cars selling well, MINI seems to be edging closer to producing a traditional four door sedan.
Sedan body styles are huge business in North America and China but not necessarily volume sellers in the rest of the world. Nevertheless MINI clearly sees the upside in a car that caters to two of it’s largest markets. As Autocar points out this wouldn’t be the first time MINI has made a four door sedan. The Riley Elf and and Wolseley Hornet were two such cars.
Autocar caught up with MINI product management Ralph Mahler at the NYIAS and while he didn’t confirm plans for a saloon, he did reveal that MINI has been doing quite a lot of research into different market trends and segments.
He said: “For example, in Asia and the US, the sedan [saloon] segment is very big. This is very interesting to us, of course.”
“The sedan concept is in our history,” he said. “So we have roots there. We have to look at it in a factual way. Customers may know of the strong heritage of the sedan concept, but it was never [sold in] big volumes. Most customers would hardly know that, so would they link to heritage?”
Mahler said history was very important to Mini as a whole. “Heritage is our core,” he said. “It will play a huge role and it’s a question our customers will always ask.”
In reference to saloon models being more popular in eastern Europe, China and North America than in western Europe, Mahler said it was “always more appealing if you can sell a model worldwide”.
But he added: “You can have 150,000 global sales or 200,000 in a region, so that’s an easy one to answer.”
Theoretically MINI could take advantage of BMW’s new forthcoming 1 Series based on the UKL front wheel drive architecture to speed development. Even still we wouldn’t expect to see anything on the road before 2020.
Source: Autocar
<p>MINI heritage is important? That’s so laughable, if not insulting to our intelligence…The MINI heritage is an affordable car, lacking a little in refinement, but making up for it in a visceral driving experience. With each generation, BMW is going to a refined car, more comfortable, larger, and less affordable. That’s ok (actually it’s not ok, but from a business standpoint I get it), but don’t try to spin it as they’re staying true to the MINI heritage when in fact they’ve gone in exactly the opposite direction.</p>
<p>Within the context of 2016 and the rest of the automotive industry I’d say MINI is pretty much nailing the attributes you’ve laid out.</p>
<p>If you’re talking the latter attributes, yes. The former ones, absolutely not. The new MINI is an expensive luxury sub compact. That’s fine, but market it as such. It is not a budget conscience car for the masses, it’s a niche luxury car for people with a decent income. To try and play to MINI heritage is disingenuous at best. Heritage has nothing to do with the context of the 2016 auto industry.</p>
<p>Looking at cost it’s clear that BMW made a conscious decision to move the brand to a premium place in the market when it was relaunched in 2000. They made that clear then as they continue to do now.</p>
<p>That has proven exceptionally successful as other automakers have struggled to find profit in smaller cars – some eliminating them all together. On the face of it I’m not sure MINI would have survived into a second or third generation had they traded quality for lower pricing and higher volumes.</p>
<p>And that’s fine. I get that, what appealed to me initially with the MINI has passed me by, I’m not the demographic they’re after and that’s ok. Sitting at roughly 390 WHP on a TVS supercharged track dedicated MINI, thankfully I’m happy with my old R53. But trying to invoke MINI heritage with the new F56? That I have a serious issue with. Call evolution, revolution, whatever, but it’s a totally different gestalt than the original MINI or even 1st generation R53. BMW wants to have it both ways. Just be honest BMW…</p>
<p>Gabe, I don’t think that BMW is proven to be “exceptionally successful” to have found profit in smaller cars, where “other automakers have struggled”. The serious hike in MINI pricing now and declared for the upcoming models, alongside a re-inforced push for ‘premium brand perception’ is actually showing that profit margins have been too low to sustain MINI at the existing level. Serious platform-sharing, even at the expense of BMW’s holy mantra of RWD chassis in those compact-size segments (1&2) that have just managed to rekindle people’s love affair with BMW (“1 is the new 3”) further reinforces the sense of urgency BMW seems to see. Besides, I don’t know any carmakers abandoning smaller car segments due to profit squeeze. Japanese, South Korean, French OEMs, even German VW with the up!/Škoda Citigo/Seat Mii are proving that you can have a very successful small-size or mini-size car if you eschew the “premium” allure. Looking at the built quality in BMW Group’s “entry-level” products, 1er, One F56, I fail to see where the “premium” money manifests. Certainly not in the soft-touch plastics or a fault-immune electronic architecture.</p>
<p>If embattled VW is able to successfully launch the VW up!/Škoda Citigo/Seat Mii plus an upcoming Audi variant, including a pure electric versions with the e-up! and soon E-Citigo, and take top spots in the sales charts across Europe without any premium pricing, then BMW could have gotten over themselves, grow some Issigonis-like innovative spirit, and bring a car like the Rocketman to market. In order to back up their “urban brand, young-at-heart, and mobility-of-the-future” manifesto, they really need to do that.</p>
<p>I don’t see a serious price hike. The base Cooper with no options is barely over 20k. That’s risen a little over $3k in 15 years. Given the amount of technology, safety and performance now standard I’d say that MINI held the line on pricing fairly well without cheapening the product like VW.</p>
<p>Those abandoning small cars? Chrysler is killing its Dart and 200 models. Scion is dead. Mazda has killed the Mazda 2 in the US. Mitsubishi is dead. The Ford Fiesta and Chevy Sonic have been sales disappointments that could joepordize their future in the US. The North American market hasn’t been kind to small cars over the past few years.</p>
<p>Well, that’s not the situation here in Europe. FCA’s Chrysler/Dodge is dead here anyhow, while its Fiat 500 core model and Abarth sells better than MINI – even Lancia Ypsilons still sell on the Continent, no idea why. Scion’s range is regular Toyota here – no one would imagine the Yaris, 86 or Corolla to be on the way out. Ford Fiestas are ubiquitous, as is the Mazda 2. And the Opel Adam and Karl have filled the marketshare left after the retreat of the South-Koreanised Euro-Chevrolets. Not to mention the VW Group’s successful non-premium small-size quartett of cars that you decided not to engage with in your reply – a clear template for BMW, voiding the notion that a small MINI is just not doable at profit.</p>
<p>I can see your North-American perspective on this, and I won’t disagree that low petrol prices and the traffic context makes driving a small-, mini-, supermini- and micro-size car very unappealing in the US. And indeed the New Mini Riley / Saloonman is – as is said in the text – clearly geared as a 4.3m car for the US and Chinese markets. The latter will eventually result in a long wheelbase version of the new sedan, if BMW is really listening to localised taste. In the US, it seems to me to make MINI appear as a serious, more conservative proposition, not a “fourth-car go-kart thingy from Europe, with a stick, like for shifting!” Fair enough, but then, MINI becomes… what?</p>
<p>The US market is saturated with a global and homegrown armada of excellent sedans, which are bestselling across all key demos that MINI is after. BMW is aiming at a seriously competitive and notoriously disloyal market segment in which big discounts shift real cars. A car named MINI offering a subcompact sedan with – realistically guessed – an Accord price tag? You need to really love the brand to buy into this proposition. Or eager for social distinction buying “import” – well, those decades are over, as “buying ‘merican” is back in fashion. Which leaves us with buying the brand… in that battlefield of a market, what will MINI’s distinct USP be? Small and fun to drive with a bit of a roar under the bonnet if you push the 1.5 litre 3 cylinder? It’s not kinda small, and a four door sedan can’t have Cooper dynamics. So… will it be a cheaper FWD BMW 1er? Or just that car that is “like the cool uncle that everyone knows” thanks to Anders video? Cool uncles would drive a Superleggera, or a Corvette, or a vintage VW or Merc’. Not an Estateman or Saloonman.</p>
<p>The entire go-kart stick-shift urban-dweller creative-spirit puzzle pieces won’t work out to form a coherent picture. Sure, after the BMW E30, you still shift X7s and Active Tourers because “it’s BMW”. But as I said below, eventually, this catches up with you and the mismatch will bite MINI in its maxi-sized derrière. And then, the brand cachet will be very expensive to recover. Maybe too expensive if the industry is disrupted by other players, and BMW Group will have to drastically concentrate to catch-up with developments in a context in which it will have limited access to materials, talent and resources to exist in a electrified networked mobility solutions world – esp. in the urban context that MINI is still supposed to be all about!</p>
<p>Before I stop this long-form post, I leave you with MINI pricing up 10% in real terms on average-optioned cars. In Auto Motor Sport, Schwarzenbacher even gave this figure as what they are aiming for. Going for the base model (which is so bare, you can be lucky it comes with steering wheel) and a price rise at inflation levels is a statement I would expect from a car salesman. You know that this isn’t a real reflection of MINI pricing 😉 .</p>
<p>All fair points. Your question of what does MINI become with a Saloonman is interesting. Everything is becoming premium. There’s no car launched today that doesn’t have the word premium in its press materials somewhere. So my question is – what can MINI own? Fun to drive has to be at the base of own able brand traits IMHO.</p>
<p>That’s a very good point. What can MINI own, in terms of brand attributes, that are unique and distinct? And what does its premium status mean, when ‘premium’ has become so ubiquitious, it is effectively meaningless now? That would be an idea for some original content to be created for your site. We should brainstorm 🙂 .</p>
<p>Agreed – this should be an actual article :)</p>
<p>Actually, Gabe, following these recent developments, comments, and our chat here, I would love to write up a short feature on this over the next week. Would you be interested in publishing this on you website here, as a sort of “guest commentary”? Of course if you want to keep MF “your space” I could totally understand. Let me know. The topic clearly hits a sweet spot with the readers here and, frankly, all over the planet.</p>
<p>Yes – that would be very welcome. I’ll shoot you an email with details!
Btw MF is definitely not intended to be my space. But the site is in between contributors these days so it’s more my space than it should be. That said I’m always looking for people that want to contribute.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you what common with the cars you mention – they are all junk that turn into rust buckets in a couple years. I wouldn’t drive any of them. It has nothing to do with their size.</p>
<p>Is the image used by Autocar pure fantasy, or is there any thread of credibility?</p>
<p>It’s an artists rendering based on some guess work.</p>
<p>If the guess work is anywhere close to reality, I say give it two doors, shorten the wheelbase, fix the gawd-awful F-series front end aesthetics…and they just might be on to something. Perhaps a hint of what the R58 could have been.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with the R58?</p>
<p>Hey Gabe…A “baston” is a walking stick or cane while “bastion” is an institution, place, or person strongly defending or upholding particular principles, attitudes, or activities</p>
<p>Make it a 4-door hatch like a mini A7 and please rethink the current hatch taillight design.</p>
<p>Proofreading for accuracy of expression seems to be a lost dart.</p>
<p>This is what happens when a MINI mates with a 2-Series…… ouch!</p>
<p>MINI continues its devolution to being just another car.</p>
<p>That artist’s rendition clearly does not capture the new MINI spirit. Its driver’s door opening is too easy to pass through, the windshield is not raked enough, the wheels are far too small, and the trunk is minuscule. Here is my excellent reinterpretation. I call it, “Just-left-the-Saloon.”</p>
<p>hideous</p>
<p>Indeed.</p>
<p>If MINIs next production model isn’t the rocketman/minor I’m officially boycotting the brand.</p>
<p>I’m on my third MINI, but I’d much sooner spend $25k restoring a classic than supporting this nonsense</p>
<p>Ditto, I’ll move to fiat 500 if there’s no rocketman.</p>
<p>A sedan will kill the brand, BMW get Frank Stephenson back and do the rocketman!</p>
<p>The Hornet and Riley were not 4 door sedans</p>
<p>It looks sweet! 2020 seems a bit far out… Another great small car option to bolster the brand. It sorta reminds me of the Tesla Model 3. Change and heritage are somewhat at odds and both are welcome in business. When the plug-in hybrid Countryman arrives, that will be so far from the classic MINIs and that is totally acceptable as all things do indeed evolve. 50 mpg and sub 7 seconds 0-60 will be amazing and the public will love it, watch!</p>
<p>I can see that it makes operative and financial sense to build this New Mini Riley on the UKL platform, alongside a BMW 1er sedan and a BMW 2er Gran Coupé. The core structure is validated, homologated and production-planned for all three, and you simply add brand-distinct bodywork and exterior/interior attributes with projectable costs.</p>
<p>But it feels that BMW Group is now increasingly banking on disingenuous marketing blurbs (clearly disconnected from the product at hand), heritage mythmaking, and brand equity for both MINI and its core BMW brand.</p>
<p>Sure, there’s real money to be made by cashing in on your brand equity. The sales figures for BMW and MINI prove this more than anything. Thing is, once you’ve spent it, it’s gone, and consumers who tasted the inauthenticity will leave in droves. Winning them back is near impossible. The US’ auto sector and the Big Three went through that after peaking in the 1970s, and are only now seemingly recovering, almost 40 years later (after Chapter 11 re-orgs, brand destructions, and industrial revolutions such as Tesla creating completely new approaches). The German Großen Drei are entering this phase right now, especially VW Group (on technical issues) and BMW Group (on marketing issues).</p>
<p>I am already meeting more people (particularly long-time BMW owners, leasers or drivers) now openly saying that BMW cars lost the plot and have turned into an interchangeable commodity without character – words that just 2 years ago would have been heresy for Beemerista, or been a credibility killer among petrol heads where “M3 über alles” orthodoxies are beyond doubt.</p>
<p>And looking at the reactions in MINI groups and forums about the strategy BMW Group is pursuing, well, they range mostly from annoyed to disbelieve to rejection and anger. I have yet to encounter a statement like “Yaye, New Mini Saloonman, shut up and take my money!” from that eponymous MINI brand consumer who share-inhabits that 30-sqm apartment in the urban landscape of micro-neighbourhoods that Esther Bahne, Head of Brand Strategy and Business Innovation, seems to fantasize about at this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milano. Maybe because those demographics have neither the need for a four-dour five-seater saloon (not even as a shared-drive mobility service), don’t have the money to lease let alone own such a car, or have in fact no parking space, given that Esther talks about “space being finite and inaccessible” to validate her “posh-IKEA” MINI Living installation.</p>
<p>There’s this funny quote from VP Product Management Ralph Mahler, standing next to Peter “Superhero” Schwarzenbauer and Anders “That Cool Uncle” Warming, which tragically epitomises the self-belief and, in consequence, off-logical rationalising process that has taken hold in Munich: “When you first launch a car, you have people say Mini is not the same as it used to be — the ‘early rejectors’ — but after 12 to 15 months, we don’t hear from them again.”
Yes, Ralph, because you loose them as customers!</p>
<p>Some time around the 4th generation certain manufacturers, like VW with the unfortunate progression of the GTI, start to talk about recapturing the “spirit” of the original (in our case the “new” MINI R models). I can’t wait to see what happens with the next gen design, because in my opinion the iconic MINI design language has been stretched to the breaking point by increased size, regulations and cost/profit considerations.</p>
<p>I would still love to see the PREMIUM city car.</p>
<p>I own a highly personalized and moderately modified R56 JCW. It is a blast to drive and I will never sell it. Before the F56 debutted, I would have told you my next vehicle would have been a 3rd generation JCW. MINI’s design and performance IMHO have let us all down. I am happy to say (sorry to MINI), my next vehicle will be a 2016 Ford Focus RS. It is at a level of performance that I had expected the F56 JCW to be at and it’s design I feel, is better executed than the weirdly proportional F56. The FF RS is phenominal – I can’t wait!</p>
<p>James, you and I are of the same cloth, so to speak, as I thought that I’d be going from one JCW to the next generation too. But yes MINI did do some interior improvements, and I could even understand the increase in size, but the ruination and making the Tach now just an afterthought, was a big no-no for me. And the push to 4-doors, to me a MINI is a 2-door, sure a Clubman or Countryman can be in the mix, but the main stay is the 2-door hatchback. It didn’t make it for me.</p>
<p>I did consider the Ford Focus RS, but in the end I test drove a BMW 2 series. The rear wheel drive brought me back to my younger days with high performance Mopars. Never did like the term muscle car. What also turned me fro the Focus other than the wait is that Ford dealers have a nasty habit of forcing sales above msrp. And, my lease on my MINI roadster JCW was up on April 6th.</p>
<p>To cut to the chase, I took delivery of a Mineral Gray BMW m235i manual with moon roof delete and LSD at the PCD in Greenville, SC on March 9th. What an experience, treated like gold, and the car is fantastic. Possibly only could have been outdone by the new M2, but timing on that is/was wrong like the Ford Focus RS.</p>
<p>So, MINI lost another loyal MINI enthusiast. But, after driving my new guy for a month, boy the roads are a lot smoother, which I never noticed before, and the power, yes the power is at almost any speed/range. Plus, fuel mileage isn’t all that bad either. 31 mpg on the highway, and about 20 mpg in town. I can live with that, considering the performance. I like it.</p>
<p>cct1: “Mini Haritage” you’re right.</p>
<p>Michael L: Wow, there’s nothing else to say. I do not have the aptitude to explain Mini’s situation as you did. (Mini get your “stuff” together and go back to the starting point or your brand is lost.)
That would be the jist of it coming from me.</p>
<p>anchoright: I have an R53, which revived the true spirit of Mini, but I give some credit to the 2nd gen. After that they are JUNK as you stated.</p>
<p>Gary: “gawd-awful” is the perfect description. I can accept that view looking into a fish bowl, but not at any form of transportation.</p>
<p>Victor T: I have been boycotting since the 2nd Gen. Having said that, I would most definatly own a GP1/GP2. The Superleggera Coupe is very appealing, but the average person wouldn’t be able to afford its perceived price point. (Based off the price of a JCW Coupe) I rather buy a 2 series.</p>
<p>James D: The Corolla was my first car, then I found BMW in the early 80’s and never looked back. At the time, as an “American”, I couldn’t find and american car that suited my needs or that appealed to me unless it was made prior to 1970. 1st came the E21, then E30, E24, and E34. (E28 M5 is a dream car) When I found out the BMW would revive the Mini I knew it was a perfect match and I waited. I have owned an 03 R53 and currently own an 06 R53. The 2nd Gen is a nice car, but its center console and exterior changes couldn’t win me over. It took 4yrs to warm up to an R56. Now I’m all, but done with Mini. Their departure from its beginnings is too far. I sat in a Ford Focus RS and I couldn’t believe how far Ford has come in the last few years. As Michael L said “buying merican is in again.” There are some nice domestic cars out there. I still have hopes that MINI will hopefully change the front facia on the Superleggera Coupe and put it into production. Until then I’m going back to BMW’s roots and spending my money on an E10. Yes, a 1976 BMW 2002. What a fun well thought out car. Simple, well mannered, timeless aesthetics, and with some suspension as well as engine updates it’s a blast.
Long story long, in 2018 if there isn’t anything inspiring by MINI I’m gone for good.</p>
<p>I have to say I don’t like this concept at all. I understand wanting to grow the design language into new areas and I think the Superleggera is a grey example of how that can be done well, but this design is far too common looking for me. It looks like it would dilute the brand’s appeal as something quirky, different, small and sporty.</p>
<p>There’s an interesting follow-up development happening, also published at Autocar today.</p>
<p>Ralph Mahler, the MINI product manager mentioned above in Gabe’s piece, who was promoting the Mini Saloonman or Mini Riley, talked to Autocar again and said – to me in a kind of defensive way – that “…the firm was looking at whether a small car “can be a possibility or not” and Mini had “nothing against” making a smaller model such as the Rocketman in the future…”</p>
<p>According to Mahler, the MINI Rocketman “inspires him” at the moment, and there’s hope for it as a pure electric. But it’s still unclear how the platform R&D costs could be stemmed, and while Mahler talks about sharing with BMW i, it would require a BMW i1 type vehicle to emerge to actually have a suitable and payable powertrain available. Hence, he speculates about platform sharing with Toyota, or rather with Toyota’s new subsidiary Daihatsu. That wouldn’t be unthinkable, given that the upcoming Z roadster is a platform share with Toyota. Ironically, we would also come a bit full circle back to when Rover developed the New Mini idea in the early 1990s, as it was in a successful engineering collaboration with Honda, co-developing and jointly manufacturing mid-size saloons like the Rover 600 and 800.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/mini-rocketman-and-superleggera-radical-cars-could-make-production" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/mini-rocketman-and-superleggera-radical-cars-could-make-production</a></p>