Official Release: MINI has achieved its best-ever first half-year with 165,938 MINIs delivered to customers, an increase of 25.8% on the same period last year. Sales in June were up 25.4% to total 36,025. “With strong double-digit growth, MINI has had a flying start to 2015,†said Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management […] (visit MotoringFile for the full article) More...
Then don't just compare with last year. The release says, "MINI has achieved its best-ever first half-year".
Again, in the begining you had to order cars and wait months. MINI had no stock! Also they only had 2 models, MC and MCS. You cannot compair current sales to other generations.
Why are we even arguing this? The take home point is any way you spin it, sales are strong, and the company is no longer centered around the two door hatch, similar to what's happened at Porsche (who would have ever thought the Cayenne and Macan would lead sales?). Some of it may be a little lead time bias due to the recall, but in the end all that matters is the bottom line today. The brand in its current iteration is stronger than ever. It's still growing, it's what BMW wants. It's passed me by, but I get it.