White Roof Radio 652: I Don’t Know How to Drive an Automatic

<p>Excellent discussion and enlightening information these last couple podcasts about the current and future state of MINI USA. This does provide hope for us early adopters who have been in the game since 2002 (and who have stood by loyally these 17 years).</p>

<p>A sub-point worth discussing related to the more recent converts to the brand and the ’07-’10 R56 N14 cars (and the reliability issues that both you guys and Pat touch upon).</p>

<p>These cars are now pretty plentiful on the used car market. Potential first time MINI owners see an ’07-’10 R56 S and think “hey, I’ve always wanted a MINI — this one seems nice, and the price is in a range that I can afford”. So they take the plunge on an N14 car unenlightened on the issues.</p>

<p>So maybe this new convert suffer some of the expensive repair issues not uncommon in the N14 — or maybe they get lucky and don’t. But if they do, how do they remain engaged in the brand after an expensive mistake on their part?</p>

<p>How does the brand build long-term success as long as these N14 cars remain in the used car pipeline? “Oh yeah, but our quality is GREAT now!” Well, that doesn’t help that recent convert who is now in a financial predicament over what should have been a reasonably reliable 10 year old car. They don’t give a rip about today’s quality — and likely won’t be back…and for years will tell everyone they know that “in my personal experience ‘MINIs are crap'”.</p>

<p>As long as these 100,000-ish cars are out there, the poisoning of the well continues.</p>

<p>Or that’s one theory, anyway.</p>

<p>I was hoping that someone was going to bring that point up in the discussion in this ‘cast.. But since nobody did, I hope I’ve planted the seed for a discussion point for the future.</p>