I'm just kinda riding out the wave right now hoping BMW rights the ship a little. I think the Clubman is a great family hauler - I just sold one today. Family drove the Countryman and Clubman back to back and the Clubman was an instant winner from the moment the wife sat behind the wheel. I'm not worried about the Clubman and Countryman. Those cars are the vehicles that print money for the brand and make a case for the brand's existence, much like Porsche still carries on to this day, using the Cayenne, and now the Macan, as floaties. The direction MINI takes the hardtop in within the next 5 years will tell the tale. The new cars are fantastic in their own right, Eric at Helix will attest to that. No, they're not R53s. And no, they're not R56s either. They're still MINIs. But different. Evolution is about change, and while not all change is good, some doesn't hurt, because without change we wouldn't have progress and innovation. Luckily, I got myself an R53 and I plan on hanging onto it for a while.
Everybody always talks about change being good but never remembers how long the original mini was made without any major changes. That was what made it th European car of the century. Lack of change and keeping it low cost and keeping a mini.
Exactly...except there was a tremendous amount of change thruout the Mini's life, it just wasn't as evident as what's going on now.....and even while changing and improving it stayed pretty much the same size. Much like the VW Beetle..... However, the price escalated substantially over the 50 years they made it, even accounting for inflation.....but even so it was more affordable than the current direction it's gone.
And eventually the lack of change rendered the original Mini obsolete by modern crash test standards, fuel economy standards, and emissions standards.
And JD Power initial quality surveys. That's the reason why the window and mirror controls were moved to the doors and the speedo to behind the steering wheel.
Coincidentally Mini stopped selling it the US in 1968. The first year of safety & emissions mandates. Even before that the sales were so low here it didn't make sense to make the needed changes for this market.
They're going after a totally different demographic now. They risk going the route of the PT cruiser, initially popular, then the novelty fades, as they go after the crowd that's into fads goes to the next one, instead of developing a hardcore following, such as Porsche. With MINI, the truth lies somewhere in between the Porsche analogy and the PT Cruiser analogy. Time will tell if it's enough to keep the brand solvent, and the flip side is if they stuck with just the original R53 type model, the brand would have died, kind of a catch-22. I won't buy another one, at least of the current offerings, as simple as that. There are much better choices from a reliability standpoint and performance standpoint at these prices. MINI was all about a small, low priced fun car, but now they're going premium and expensive, and taking the fun out of it in the name of refinement. This is never what MINI was about. IF, and it's a big IF, BMW would have done something like the Rocketman, I'd have stayed interested. The current MINI is just another car brand to me now, the specialness is gone.
Oh, but it was. Just not for long. ^ I'd still buy a new one. Maybe not for me at this time, but for the wife. It just doesn't make sense to buy a new one because she's a little... rough on her cars. It's tough to find small cars that are both fun to drive and don't feel like little tin cans. The MINI is still fun from behind the wheel, especially the turbo 3-cylinder model.
Yes. As long as it isn't a boring 65 hp city car that immediately gets lumped in with the Smart, Spark, i-MiEV, and Scion iQ. Start with the promise of the Rocketman concept car and pack some credible performance into the package. Give it some swagger.
Yeah.... Rocketman JCW or GP would be totally acceptable as long as they don't come out with a 4 door...
MINI needs to have other models to make money, just like Porsche does. But they should have kept the spirit of the R53 in the hardtop and left the refinement for the other models. Porsche's brand is build on the 911 and maybe now the Cayman. Their money is made on SUVs and the Panamera.
One of the biggest issues is to save $$ on developing a new car, the chassis and engine had to match typical BMW shapes and sizes..... Let's face it, the experience BMW/MINI had with partnering with a 3rd party to build a motor was less than ideal....and the fact they wanted/needed to share a chassis, like with the "f" series to have costs savings....means MINI will be a small BMW for the foreseeable future..... The volumes needed to amortize the development of a new small chassis and motor makes MINI as a standalone car difficult.... On an emotional level, I would love for them to come out with a small, more basic, fun car, in the spirit of a gen1, but the reality is, I doubt the true sales volume is there for a high cost European company like BMW/MINI.... An Asian company with lower costs, and other small platforms, maybe..... So MINI tosses the old hardcore folks a "bone" occasionally.... A GP, or a JCW car, and hope it is enough.....but when a new gen3 is about the size of a golf, and more $$, an no longer a "best kept secret" underdog of a brand, I kinda doubt many will follow longer term like Porsche..... While Porsche evolved their cars over many years,. MINI went through fairly radical changes, and fairly rapidly, in both desgin and costs....sure, the playbook is still getting copyed with the higher margin SUV'S getting sold, but the former core was, IMO, abandoned a few years back....
Oh come the **** on - the F56 2-door Hardtop is NOT the size of a Golf. Do you know what actually is the size of a VW Golf? I mean, literally, within an inch in ALL measurements? The Clubman. The "big, fat, YUUUUUGE" 2016 Clubman is... wait for it... SIXTEEN INCHES LONGER THAN A 2016 2-DOOR HARDTOP AND ELEVEN INCHES LONGER THAN A 4-DOOR HARDTOP. And only a half inch longer than a 2016 VW Golf. Please, let's stop beating the 'MINI is maxi' horse already. Their biggest family hauler wagon is the size of a modern econo hatch.
Two comments: 1. The MINI brand strategy of retaining loyalists may have succeeded if the F56 was designed with those customers in mind. The end result speaks for itself. They missed the mark a bit. 2. Rocketman and Superleggera may be dead? "[Schwartzenbauer] said Mini will add a fifth vehicle, but he has hadn't decided what it will be. The car will be something that can sell to a broad audience, he said." If the fifth model truly has yet to be selected, it will be years until we see any new model from MINI to fill out the lineup.