Most liked posts in thread: Automotive News: Mini tries to go maxi without losing fans who saved brand

Possibly. I'm on several MINI forums.

Edit: Oops. I initially read your post as "I think this was *here*" [emoji15]

 

That's true if the death of the brand is a result of the ongoing brand strategy of targeting more mainstream buyers to increase the bottom line.

As far as the lack of enthusiasm from fellow MINI owners, this was superbly articulated in a post by rkw that I stumbled across on another, nameless site. It's exactly what I've been thinking but have been unable to convey. So without permission here's a quote of the majority of that post; I don't believe rkw would mind the attribution. The bracketed comments {} are my own:

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"When the MINI came to the US in 2002, it was like nothing else on the road and would be the smallest car sold in America for years (other small cars like Smart and Fiat 500 didn't come until much later). At that time, when people first saw a MINI{*}, the reaction was truly a surprised, "Whoa, that's a really small car!". In a land of SUVs, driving a MINI instantly marked you as being different and a bit of a rebel, and MINI promoted this image in its advertising.

{*I still remember seeing my very first MINI in an adjoining lane on the DC Capital Beltway in 2003 and thinking how absolutely and amazingly cool it looked. Being familiar at the time with the racing heritage and history of the Mini, the fact that a little piece of that heritage might now available to me as a buyer was really exciting. I've been drinking the Kool-Aid ever since.}

"But it wasn't easy to buy a MINI. It could mean getting on a 6 month waiting list. When the S first came out, its wait time grew to something like 9 months. The few cars on dealer lots had high markups. Some people ordered their MINI from out of state dealers to get on a shorter waiting list. You had to really want a MINI and make an effort. Even in late 2005 when I bought my MINI, it was still a 3 month wait. For years, the tight supply also contributed to high resale values. The process of obtaining a MINI automatically restricted buyers to those who would be committed and enthusiastic about the car. This created an engaged and closely knit owner community that made for a vibrant energy...

"...every month someone would still discover something new and interesting about the car, and a new type of mod would appear. All of this was obscure and fascinating stuff. There was actually a guy (Randy Webb) who was making a living by driving around the country doing "pulley parties" installing mods on MINIs. Some of the new mods that I saw introduced included under chassis bracing, engine dampers, and custom dyno tuning. The GP still hadn't come out yet.

"What's changed is that it was a small focused community for whom MINI was their hobby. Both the car and the owner community and have now gone mainstream."

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Sadly, recapturing that "engaged and closely knit owner community" on a national level isn't going to happen with the present direction of the brand. That engagement still exists within local MINI clubs like ours, and at larger events like MOTD where the cultivation of long-standing personal friendships among the repeat participants complements the love for the car and keeps them coming back. It's interesting to see the ongoing survival of MTTS in view of the fact that it depends on the engaged MINI enthusiast community for its success--exactly the audience that is no longer being targeted as the market for the car. One would guess that even MTTS as a corporate-sponsored event cannot survive very long with a dwindling and disenfranchised community of traditional enthusiasts.

No, what it will take is for MINI to once again offer a product more closely tied to its heritage (i.e., small) that instantly marks its owner as a bit different and somewhat of a rebel...something to rally around with your fellow rebels.

 

^^^Either MINI / BMW management doesn't understand this...

Or they do understand this and view it as a detriment to the growth and want to take it more mainstream... More of a MINI Camry... Broaden it's appeal to a larger base... Less of a handling, performance car, more of a people mover with lots of gadgets...

 

Great post Gil-galad !!

 

Porsche almost did the same thing to the iconic 911.... Which would have killed it... Can you imagine how close they came to making a major blunder...

 

I wouldn't have a problem with MINI growing the range with the County-guy and even a Maxi-MINI, as long as they still offered the affordable fun little car like the one that started it all again in 2002.

Think about how VW started way back when, then quickly offered a multitude of models, many larger and more versatile like the transporters and pickups and so on, but the core vehicle always remained and served the same part of the fleet.

But when the only models you can buy are all huge (compared to the 2002 version) AND up around $40K - they have lost the plot completely.

Growing the business is one thing, making slightly smaller and just as expensive BMWs and selling them as MINIs is another.

 

If MINI is "trying to go maxi without losing fans who saved brand" they are admitting they have already lost the core enthusiast that made the first Gen MINI successful.

No new BMiniW for me. I will stick with my R53

 

Amen.
Want 'iconic': get a Jeep. But then again, they too are about to do a redesign that supposedly will lose the fold down windscreen in an effort to be more crashworthy (rollover) and to go with a further curved glass in the name of aero.
No fold down windscreen will sure make it more difficult when it comes time to install a cage

 

BMW is doing the same thing to their cars. They are status symbols now. No longer the "ultimate driving machine".

 

And yet, people keep buying them......so maybe we don't know what they heck we're talking about?

 

We know what we like. There must not be enough of us to make a difference to the powers that be at BMW/MINI. The ship has sailed.

 

Based on their ad campaign... Hipsters, tennis players and fashionista dudes.... We are out gunned and out manned....:cryin:

 

That doesn't mean a storm can't come along and cause the ship to take on water. :biggrin5:

 

The good ship BMW/MINI is taking on water & has a slight list, but the band plays on. :biggrin5:

 

MINI has always targeted hipsters and fashionistas, since the beginning. I guess tennis players are new, though.

 

No, we did not have Hipsters in 2002 and life was better.

 

You beat me to it...
I was pretty sure the world didn't have hipsters back in 2002...
But I'm thinking MINI may have created the hipster unknowingly...:cryin:

Before the "Hipsters" we just had lumberjacks with a sense of fashion...:eek6:

 

in 2002 Hipsters were just known as Nerds and nobody listened to them just like now. :devil: