Any thoughts?

 

Yes. Wait, what was the question again?

They were relatively low production (about 180K 1st gen sold in the US 2002-2006), and every day some of those 10-14 year old cars go out of service. But extinct? Here in San Francisco I see lots of 1st gen on the streets every day.

 

Same in SoCal, lots of Gen1 cars out there.

I would say the split is 30% Gen1, 70% the rest.

 

See a fair number of the 1st Gens around here in the Northeast part of the country. This last Summer we went on a long trip down the east coast and saw plenty of 1st Gen Minis all the way into Florida. On the way back we took a more inland route and a day didn't go by that we would see a bunch of 1st Gens. I noticed, because I was deep into the hunt for a Mini, and even drove a few of examples during the trip. To me, they are still the best looking Mini, and the closest modern interpretation of the original Issigonis design. The 2nd and 3rd generations are OK, but slip away from that original concept increasingly.

 

I put mine up for sale and I can't help but notice how few first gens are in the marketplace. There's not much for sale in four surrounding states. This must be a Midwest thing.

Maybe they're all hibernating

 

" Here in San Francisco I see lots of 1st gen on the streets every day. "

That's SF , LA , NY/ NJ, FL , you will see more MINIs.

In the midwest don't see too many Gen 1 MINIs.

 

You don't see many gen1 MINI's in the Midwest cause most dealers were mostly on the coasts and a few larger cites in the middle of the US..... Remember, the mini brand had very few dealers till many were added in the 2006+ range as mini started to produce more cars by contracting out production and expanding their own factory....

 

We don't even have a Mini dealership in Maine yet. Closest one's are in northern Massachusetts and south central/southwest New Hampshire. I'm just over 110 miles from the nearest. We still have a bunch of Minis running the roads across our state. If you go to cars dot com, you'll find over 600 manual 1st Gen Minis for sale. A pile more for sale if you don't filter out the automatics.

 

I just traded in my 1st gen R50 (2005). She had 165,000 and I just replaced the last original part (alternator).

I'm in San Francisco, and I also see quite a few 1st gen-ers around.

 

Where I live, I see a lot more 2nd gen, and more recently, 3rd gen MINIs out and about. I even see quite a few Countrymans as well. I do appear to see less and less 1st gens. It's sad sometimes, I guess.

Doesn't matter though, Egan has been my buddy for 9 1/2 years, and I hope to continue motoring with him for many more years to come.

 

Southern Maine must be a gathering place for first gen Minis. Saw a bunch while we were out on errands in the Portland area Thursday (24 Dec). We left our 2nd Gen home in the garage... raining, pretty warm and not so nice out, so took the "Winter" car instead.

 

I see lots of all MINIs running around, TONS of Countrymans. But we've had MINI of StL going back to the beginning, and relocated/expanded in recent years. I ordered my first MCS at their original showroom waay back in '02.

 

Not So's are definitely getting to be very popular around here too. Oops!! I mean the bigger Not so mini Countryman Mini. Most that I see in our area are All4 S. Huge Minis. Not really sure if they can have that Mini badge!