MINI Brand Sales MINI USA reported sales of 4,575 automobiles, a decrease of 12.8 percent from the 5,248 sold in the same month a year ago. Year-to-date, MINI sales in the U.S. are up 0.4 percent on volume of 59,910 compared to 59,667 in the first eleven months of 2012. MINI Pre-Owned Vehicles In November, MINI used automobiles (including MINI NEXT certified pre-owned and pre-owned) reported their best month ever on sales of 1,936 automobiles, an increase of 46.8 percent from the 1,319 automobiles sold in November, 2012. January through November, MINI used vehicle sales are up 21.3 percent on volume of 20,079 compared to 16,552 in the same period of 2012.
Hummm maybe the original "niche" car has lost its personality that made it special from the beginning. Everything is not better when made bigger.
Not sur ehow that shapes up to the industry as a whole. But like Dave said, trying to be all things to everyone you risk being very little to nobody.
The WSJ has some interesting charts and graphs for November Sales across all the marques. See Auto Sales - Markets Data Center - WSJ.com These are statistics so you can infer what you want from them.