Attention MINI owners. If you or someone that you know is looking to order a MINI Cooper Hardtop, Cooper S Hardtop, or John Cooper Works Hardtop please contact your MINI dealer ASAP

MINI Hardtop production will STOP in late June/early July. All MINI dealerships have been given their final allocation of cars and have until the end of next week to modify their orders for production. After that you will unable to order a MINI Hardtop until January or February of 2014!

 

So 5/24? 5/25?

 

Doesn't affect me, but curious as to why? Summer vacation and 2014\new model tool up or what?

 

The 2014 hardtop will be the F56, an entirely new model from the ground up. The factory necessarily needs time to retool in order to begin production. While we won't see the new model here until spring 2014, it will be available in Europe starting in the fall, hence the need to make the change sooner. The Cabrio, Clubman, Coupe, Roadster, Countryman are not affected by this change, as they will remain the same for 2014 (and the Countryman/Paceman are built in Austria anyway).

 

So each Mini model has it's own separate assembly line?

 

I thought I saw a video somewhere where the clubman is produced on the same production line. I could very well be incorrect.

Just for information sake. What is the typical cutoff for ordering MINIs? It would be good to know for future purchases.

 

There's only one line in Oxford. All the variants (except the Countryman) are made on the one line. It's flexible enough that it can make a mix of body styles concurrently.

 

So the Clubman is FOR SURE not affected then?

 

Supposedly not affected.

 

i will be hugging my mini tonight

 

Making the f56 alongside the R5x models sounds hard enough. Are they really going to keep making those while simultaneously retooling the plant for the next gen hatch? Surely they'll have to shut down for a while, right?

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using NAMotoring

 

 

 

A question I had is in what way is this official? Do you have a link to some actual pronouncement from BMW about this. I havn't seen it.

I would be entirely unsurprised if this were true, that's how the R56 cut over happened. There was no MINI production for several months, until the new models arrived in early 07.

However, as of lunch time our MA knows nothing of this, he's expecting a normal summer vaction in August/September and production to start again in October. We going to be buying MINI number 6 on Sunday, so if this is true, we'll be just in time.

 

I was up at the local dealership with my wife looking at a Countryman last weekend and our MA (same one that sold me my Clubman) was aware of this change.

--Matt

 

Thanks for letting me know.

MA I worked with today wasn't aware of this. I was only looking at the Clubman and Countryman, so maybe he misunderstood me, but he didn't know anything about it. I don't think he got exactly what I was saying though because he kept telling me that 2014s wont' be there for a while, so I just dropped it.

 

Somewhere I have a pic like this from when I traded in my first MINI. Sad day.

 

My MA was not aware of this

 

Our MA was still convinced this isn't true, but we ordered a new one for production next week anyway.

 

All models are going into 2014 except Hardtop, Hardtop S and Hardtop JCW. 2013 R56 will continue in production until October.

 

Are you saying there is a period of several months where no one can order a car? If the last date to order a 2013 is late May, when will they start taking orders for 2014 models?

 

There will be a period of several months where they will stop the production of R56 models to produce F56 models. Dealers will sell out the remaining R56 until F56 arrive at their door steps. The last date to order for a R56 is not late May according to my sources...

 

Does anyone know how long I would have to order a 2013 R55 (Clubman)?

 

Til the end of this week. Dealers are aiming to take 2014 orders this friday or early next week. MINIUSA configurator will switch to 2014 hopefully in early to mid July.

 

Any indication of changes for 2014? Colors? Packages? How are dealers taking 2014 orders without a Configurator change?