I don't think anyone here on this forum has any delusions that the purchase of any of the current Mini Cooper line would be a good investment.
Whether the Mini Coupe/Roadster will be considered a classic due to the exclusiveness of owning one remains to be seen, but I will contend that these particular Mini Coopers will have better resale values due to that inherent exclusivity of ownership.
Every time we take our little coupe out people will stop us and ask about the car and the overwelming reaction is one of approval.
The first day we had the Mini Coupe my wife took me for a ride around the lake and as we were driving past the beach a groupe of teenage boys stoped and watched as we drove by. Then one of the boys hollerd out to my wife "your hot!". Well, out came my wifes hair clip, down came her hair, and with a smile she said under her breath " if they only knew I'm old enough to be their grandmother". In that one instance the Mini Coupe became worth ever penny we paid for it. Backwards baseball cap or not, these cars do have an appeal to many out there.
I undestand the sales of the Mini Coupe/Roadster have not been as good as Mini had desired, but that is in part due to the current Mini Cooper market out there is for the most part family oreinted and looking for the extra seating that would help justify purchasing such a small car for a family.
The Mini Coupe/Roadster certainly would not qualify for this market segment and Mini has recognized this by shifting their apeal from the family oriented market to the sports car market where the Coupe/Roadster will have a shot at this market share and, make no mistake about it, this is a very real market for Mini to venture into.
I firmly believe that these new little Mini sports cars will be shown to out perform anything Mini has produced to date and the fact that the current Mini Coupe/Roadsters failed in this respect, tarnished thier appeal as a sportier version of the Mini Cooper with the current Mini enthusiast.
But whatever, my wife loves her little Mini Coupe and it was an instant classic in her eyes the first day she saw it.

 

Tell that to Cadillac Allante Owners.

I am not for a second saying these are bad cars. They aren't. The Coupe styling isn't for me, but not everyone can like everything. I get that many on this board don't like the Countryman.

But the raw truth of the Coupe/Roadster is, they have been sales flops. Since the Roadster launched in Feb 2012 in the US, it has sold 4,225 units. The Countryman has sold 32,527, the hardtop 43,610, the Clubman 8,252 and the Convertible 7,501.

The Coupe is even worse. It has only sold 4,040 over the same time period and 5,139 in total going back to Oct 2011.

It is a simple business decision by BMW. They aren't moving in high enough volumes and need to be reworked.

Only the Paceman looks on track to make the Coupe/Roadster look like best sellers. June for the first time wasn't the 7th place seller for Mini in the US. It sold 310 units, 41 more than the Coupe. In July it managed to still sell 4 more than the Coupe's 222 units.

I don't doubt for a second you get comments as you pull up to stops. I remember when the Allante and Reata first came out and they were a sight to see. They were unique and there was a lot of "oohh" and "ahhh" when someone saw one. They aren't classics though, and there is no high resale value due to exclusivity of ownership. In fact, Caddy had to give Allante owners special trade in values on a new Caddy because the Allante's value fell much faster than the competition.

I say, enjoy your car. That is why most Mini owners buy a Mini, for the enjoyment. Don't buy it because there will be some value to being an "exclusive" model that got killed 2-3 years after release. It isn't selling now because people don't want it. Plain and simple. Not sure why people think it will hold its value more because it got cancelled. It won't make anyone want it more in the coming years. This isn't a limited production Ferrari, or some special edition Porsche that have purposefully limited production runs to hold value. Mini never would have launched these two cars if they thought they'd be killing it so soon.

I love my Countryman, and it wouldn't bother me one whit if it got cancelled tomorrow, but I wouldn't think for a second that it would now hold its value better.

 

Death of the Coupe and Roadster, seriously? I would like to rename it the Early Retirement of the MINI Coupe and Roadster. I look forward to what BMW/MINI will bring to the table as a substitute for my beloved Roadster. While I love and adore my Roadster, I think there is room for improvement in styling and performance as long as they do not water-down the brand. I thoroughly enjoy every minutes spent motoring. I also enjoy the endless comments from passers by and fellow motored at the red light. I don't think any of that enjoyment will end. If anything, it may increase with a new and improved version, sparking even more interest.

As TREX said earlier, his wife considers her little MINI Coupe an instant classic in her eye. I find this attitude appropriate with the MINI owner mindset. Each and every one of them are fantastic vehicles and are completely capable of putting a smile on our face.

 

Agreed. I'm hoping to see a new roadster in the new F-nn models after the hardtop launches. I don't think for a second Mini will drop both models. I could see it coming back as one though, maybe with a soft-top and hard-top version.

 

I think the Roadster has potential as a future collectible. Everywhere we go we get looks that surpass what my C6 Z06 got. You can respond to very post on here with your opinion it won't be, but reality is that you have no idea whether it will or won't. Only time will tell. I didn't buy mine as a future collectible, but maybe I'll keep it until 2060 when I am 100 just to see.

 

Mini is going to screw themselves with all the different models they are "reportedly" going to offer! Like the old sayin' goes... "success is doing one thing very well instead of doing many things very poorly". For example, look at the sales of the "hardtop" vs. all their "new" models!

Come on mini, spend your "retooling" money on making the models you already have to be the best performing vehicles on the road. The mini already has a "classic" look so don't mess with it! If your "designers" can't handle this, then let them go to work for the BMW side of the company where they can make as many different models as they want - I don't care!

 

You mean like the Countryman, which outsold the Hardtop in July? (Not the first time either)

Doing one thing and doing it very well and not branching out is how companies run themselves into the ground. see AOL, Palm, RIMM, Saab.

Mini is doing the right thing. If the Coupe/Roadsrer aren't a sales success, then pick up the pieces and move on. Their next small 2 sweater will be better for it.

 

I previously hoped to buy a Roadster by next summer. With news of a new MINI sports car, however, I may lease a 2014 model Roadster and defer a purchase until release of the brand new model. Food for thought anyway. If I lease, Northern Virginia salt exposure this winter becomes irrelevant because I'll simply turn in the vehicle at lease end. I might consider a lease this year instead of a purchase next year. I prefer ownership to leasing, but it might make sense at this point.

 

Interesting article linked below on the future plans of MINI’s UKL1 platform sharing from Autocar.....diagram of planned models includes Coupe and Roadster.

How BMW and Mini will sell a million cars per year off one platform
BMW and Mini are set to share an all-new platform — and three and four-cylinder engines — to create an army of front-wheel-drive cars that could notch up a million sales a year:
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/ne...r-one-platform

 

But this report was based on that plan, and addressed it in the first sentence. "MINI has hopes for up to 18 models off its two new architectures within the next five years, but don’t expect the current Coupe and Roadster to be amongst them."

Note it says current Coupe and Roadster. There will be one, just not the one you see today, and it won't be a minor revision.

 

Not sure you'll be able to lease your dream machine in the Midnight Black/Toffee combination. You might want to rethink, tampadave.

 

I just love how folks have opinions about why Coupes/Roadsters sell/didn't sell...but don't own one. And yes, they do handle differently than a standard R56 (or any other model for that matter). The lower center of gravity changes the handling quite a bit in my experience...

 

I think a better analogy for the Coupe is to the BMW M Coupe than a Cadillac Allante. Both are very unique sports cars. M Coupes are fetching very good prices on Auto Trader these days, despite being called ugly by just about everyone when they were introduced.

I suspect that if the MINI Coupe gets the axe, they will be among the most sought-after MINIs by MINI enthusiasts who will be empty nesters in 10 years and didn't buy a Coupe because they needed a "practical" car. I didn't buy mine with that in mind but I suspect that is what will happen when/if they are cut from the lineup in the next year.

 

Why is the M Coupe a better analogy than the Allante, the Honda S2000, the MR2 Spyder, or the Pontiac Solstice?

What makes the roadster so unique that it out-uniques the models I listed?

And for the record, I'd argue no FWD car is a true sports car. Period. RWD or AWD.

 

Good For You (yeh, you can read code)

 

A sports car is any small car which is quick and has nimble handling. I think there are many fwd cars which fit this criteria. I have driven many sports cars in the last few years and my JCW hardtop definitely fits the definition. I test drove the roadster and that car did too.

 

Sorry if that hurt your ego. Wasn't my intention to make anyone on the playground cry.

 

I love my Roadster!

 

I just think there is a difference between a sports car (Porsche, Z, corvette, Ferrari) and a sports coupe. Heck, the Lambo is certainly a sports car, and it isn't small at all. The VW Beetle convertible turbo can keep up with the Mini Roadster/Coupe easily, and I wouldn't call the Beetle a sports car either. It is a lot more than sportiness, which all mini's have. I wouldn't call the Countryman JCW or Paceman JCW a sports car either, and they can keep up with a Roadster/Coupe as well, and those are all wheel drive. They are sporty, but they aren't sports cars.

That doesn't take anything away from the Minis.

 

Since USA makes up the bulk of the MINI sales IMO they need to do some more homework before setting out on future projects....

Besides these two models, they also have a Clubman with no rear side glass.....Clubvan.



Somewhat like the Chevy SSR's and some of the surfer rigs of the 60/70s in California. Very cool idea but they forgot one issue about these type of vehicles. The huge tariffs placed on such "commercial" vehicles shipped into the USA which financially prohibits a dealer in the USA from even bothering to order one for their showroom, at least those with any financial common sense. And while I personally love the Clubman, MINI never offers any decent loan rates for that model either, so strike two.....

Any hopes to probably seeing or getting one in my area is nil.

Again, great ideas MINI, but no follow through....somewhat of a chronic condition for MINI.

 

I agree the CM jcw and Paceman JCW are probably not sports cars. That's due to them being compact SUV s. I still haven't seen a sports car SUV even a Porsche. IMO a good sports car is about power but even more than that is handling. One of the "best" sports cars ever made is considered the Mazda miata. I know some station wagons that could beat that car in a race but it is still a sports car. However some people might disagree that a Honda s2000 or Mitsubishi Evo is a sports car. So to each his own.

 

Why not?

I think I'm leaning to Pepper White with the JCW Exterior Package (check your p.m. queue for further details), but why might I be precluded from a Midnight Black and Toffee configuration? Model year 2013 versus 2014? Or are you referring to the 2015 to 2016 'new' MINI sports car, which may lack this combination?

Dave

 

If you are ordering with the lease option, I guess you can have whatever your want.

 

Strange - I would've thought that one would be better qualified to say why people don't buy them if they're among the group that didn't... Perhaps the couple hundred people who actually did buy one would care to enlighten us as to why they don't sell, then?



Perhaps it's a moot point since I'm a non-buyer, but I know I didn't buy them because I find them ugly and consider them to be a bit of a "square peg in a round hole" as I (along with a not-insignificant portion of the target sports car market) adhere to the traditional definition of "sports car", part of which is RWD - so if I'm making the sports car sacrifices in my purchase (only two seats, etc.) I want what I consider to be an actual sports car.

Full disclosure: I don't currently own a MINI, though I have owned two and do intend to own one again some day (from the looks of things to come, it likely will be an R53 or another R56). I'm currently on my third Miata. I always thought the M Coupe was a nice looking car.

 

Maybe this will help answer why they will kill it