The nation's 82 Mini franchises are out of cars, and dealers can do little more than take orders and deliver preordered units for the rest of the year.

As fuel prices have risen, demand for the Mini Cooper has outstripped supply.

"For the last three months, we were selling from inventory," said Jim McDowell, vice president of BMW's Mini division. "There's no way (July) can be as good."

McDowell said that dealers have a one-day supply of cars and that 81 percent of the cars delivered this month have been those that consumers have configured and ordered.

In June, Mini sold 5,211 units, up 24.8 percent from the same month last year. That followed sales increases of 52.8 percent in May and 39.4 percent in April.

Through the first half of the year, Mini sales are up 33.6 percent to 26,400 units.

Dealers who have been asking for more cars won't get much satisfaction soon. Mini will boost production for the United States, but only by between 2,000 and 3,000 cars this year.

The Mini plant in Oxford, England, is running three shifts, seven days a week. It builds about 800 cars a day for 80 markets.

McDowell also said Mini plans to expand its dealership network to 95 stores by 2011.

He said that in some regions of the country, dealers are too far apart to service customers.