Most liked posts in thread: New R60 Cooper Countryman SD member

  1. CHKMINI

    CHKMINI Club Coordinator
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    #2 CHKMINI, Aug 13, 2012
    Welcome to the addiction. I wish we could get the diesel in the states....this should be a great looking CM:Thumbsup:
     
  2. Countryman

    Countryman New Member

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    #3 Countryman, Aug 13, 2012
    I have uploaded an pic of what it should look like in the gallery if you want to take a peek. I wasn't aware you could not get the diesel in the US, any ideas as to why?
     
  3. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    #4 Nathan, Aug 13, 2012
    Welcome, thanks for joining Motoring Alliance.
     
  4. Jason Montague

    Jason Montague New Member
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    #5 Jason Montague, Aug 13, 2012
    :cornut: Welcome to M/A! Congratulations on the Countryman! Down here in Texas, I'm seeing scads and scads of Countrymans on the road. The general public seems to be taking to them more so than to the smaller MINIs. What ever helps MINI(within reason) helps all of us MINIacs. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. :Thumbsup:

    Jason
     
  5. CHKMINI

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    #6 CHKMINI, Aug 13, 2012
    I suspect it's an emissions thang!
     
  6. Justa Jim

    Justa Jim Well-Known Member
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    #7 Justa Jim, Aug 13, 2012
    Welcome to the Alliance.

    Jim
     
  7. Mr. Jim

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    #8 Mr. Jim, Aug 13, 2012
    Welcome to M/A :Thumbsup:
     
  8. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    #9 Dave.0, Aug 13, 2012
    Welcome to M/A the FUN Mini site.
     
  9. old81

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    #10 old81, Aug 13, 2012
    Welcome to M/A. An SD Countryman could be a good seller in the States.

    Although I suspect the quantity that would be sold keeps it out of our sales area, to many other diesels offered by some of the bigger brands.

    Time to go look at your picture, post up your impressions after you have it a few weeks. And Congratulations, my first true Sports Car was a 1960 Frog Eye.

    Don
     
  10. Countryman

    Countryman New Member

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    #11 Countryman, Aug 14, 2012
    A good old frog eye sprite eh, I have driven a few but never owned on. My very first car was a Honda 800S coupé. Now that was a real drivers car. It was awesome in every way. I'll try and dig some photos out and put it in 'my garage'

    With reference to the emissions thing the SD puts out 150g of CO2 / km, would this fall into the US margins?

    Have a good all:wink:
     
  11. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    #12 Nathan, Aug 14, 2012
    I believe in the US that it is the particulate emissions that are the issue. I may be wrong.

    I've also heard something about the way we handle diesel emissions here in the States where a urea tank would need to be added. If I remember correctly there are packaging issues for a tank of sufficient volume as well as the maintenance headache that refilling such a tank would be for the average consumer.
     
  12. Countryman

    Countryman New Member

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    #13 Countryman, Aug 15, 2012
    Urea or not Urea, that is, the question.

    I have just been reading about this urea business, seem pretty tricky to me, but there is mention of a cartridge system used by Mercedes, these being changed at service time, which I would imagine is reasonably compact and easy to service but liquid tanks are definitely an issue.

    There does seem to be a question of product placement too. There appears to be a worry that only the Mini die-hards would purchase a diesel version making it a lost leader, presumably due to the initial higher cost and the urea issue, so in theory less will be sold; conversley sale figure may drop significantly from the all ready popular 1.6 petrol but I cant think why this should be an issue.

    There would be an issue with residual vehicle market value. By the time the car is up for sale second hand at 3-5 years old, would it still be a viable product because of the extra service maintenance costs compared to the petrol engine and the possible high costs of replacing the urea equipment should this be required at some point in time.

    i think this is a can of worms best left to the "Men In Black" who know all this stuff because there is a lot more to it than this. I do know it is used in Europe a lot and with success. Here in the UK we are lucky I guess but pay dearly for our fuel.

    I hear rumours that Mini are playing around with new 3 cylinder and 4 cylinder engines and a gas powered engine. Now that might be interesting.

    Have good day
     
  13. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    #14 Nathan, Aug 15, 2012
    Diesel has a perception problem in the US still. While it's not as bad as it once was there is still many that equate diesel with truckers and feel that they cannot obtain diesel fuel as easily as they can obtain gasoline.

    There is a recently published doctoral dissertation the different cultural perception of diesel cars in Europe, in particular Germany, and in the USA between 1949 and 2005. American car drivers claim that diesel cars are an oddity. They clearly favor gasoline-powered cars and SUVs over diesel vehicles. European consumers, in contrast, have started to purchase an increasing number of diesel automobiles in recent years. Up to now, these developments have merely been explained economically. The deficit in this line of argumentation, however, is that it neglects technology itself, as well as environmental policy, and the users’ perception.

    From the dissertation overview:

    Source - The demise of the diesel car in the US and its rise in Europe (1973-2006) | Gerpisa
     
  14. Countryman

    Countryman New Member

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    #15 Countryman, Aug 15, 2012
    Thanks Nathan, took some reading through but I found it very interesting.
     
  15. Angib

    Angib New Member

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    #16 Angib, Aug 15, 2012
    In Britain we were a halfway house between the rest of Europe and the USA. For 10-20 years after diesels had become really popular in the rest of Europe, Britain remained gas-only for private buyers. Then one day the tipping point was reached and within 5 years, diesels had become the norm for big vehicles and then spread elsewhere - like the SD Roadster I'm waiting to have delivered.

    So while diesels may be a rarity in the USA today, don't be so sure that this will still be true in 10 years time. I don't envy Mini having to guess when in the future the tipping point will be reached - they will lose profit if they develop and sell US diesels before that point, but then lose profit after that point if they don't have US diesels ready....

    A lot of people think buying a diesel is not a rational economic decision because they only weigh up the extra purchase price against the fuel savings. But in Britain now, the most important thing is the effect of a diesel engine on the car's residual value - because later owners have less money and so the economy of the diesel is valued more highly. In things like minivans, it would be worth buying the diesel version even if it used the same amount of fuel, just because it will depreciate less over the typical period of ownership.

    This has quite a knock-on effect - for example Chrysler sell its Voyager and 300C models over here (admittedly built in Austria) and they now only sell diesel models of these, as these count as large vehicles in Europe whose fuel economy is more important. And the reverse of this is my cousin and his wife who both run gas-engined large cars since the gas versions have such reduced value second-hand that they reckon it's cheaper to buy the gas version and pay more for fuel.