>>>If MINI had provided more power from the factory, you wouldn't have nearly as many enthusiasts putting 15% reduction pulleys on their MINIs and accepting a voided supercharger warranty.<<<

I think this statement is a matter of perspective, and a lot of speculation. At the recent Mini meet here, there were over 100 cars. At least 85% were box-stock, no frills, straight out of the showroom Mini's. There was only one that I know of with a pulley, and maybe 10 with an aftermarket exhaust (mine was the only Magnaflow in the group!).

I'd like to see the numbers on how many Mini owner's actually do something performance-wise to their cars. You can't go by the forums as these are usually frequented by the "enthusiasts", not the average owner. In fact, I'd almost be willing to put money on the fact that the majority of the Mini owners are totally oblivious to the fact that MCO exists! Otherwise, you'd be seeing more of them on here. Over 30,000 Minis were sold last year in the US....there's now 87 people on this site! That's only around .3 % of the cars sold.

>>>>I don't know if anyone knows this, but I will try to explain it as best as I can. BMW as a company does not just produce cars and send them to a dealership. EVERY BMW manucfactured automobile is ordered by someone. Whether it be a dealer, or a customer, the car is physically picked out by a person with exactly the options they want on the car. The dealership decides how many cars they order, and how many they keep on their lot (besides people buying them at a mad pace).<<<

Then, knowing their supply is limited to the amount that can be made, why didn't BMW initiate a maximum order limit for dealers? It doesn't make sense to have dealers sitting with an empty lot while others, like Fermin, have enough to bootleg them to a non-Mini dealer? Why not look out for the dealer network? It would be easy to set up a guide line that cars can only be sold to private individuals or transferred to other authorized Mini dealers.

 

>>I'd like to see the numbers on how many Mini owner's actually do something performance-wise to their cars. You can't go by the forums as these are usually frequented by the "enthusiasts", not the average owner. In fact, I'd almost be willing to put money on the fact that the majority of the Mini owners are totally oblivious to the fact that MCO exists! Otherwise, you'd be seeing more of them on here. Over 30,000 Minis were sold last year in the US....there's now 87 people on this site! That's only around .3 % of the cars sold.<<

The hp debate aside, I wholeheartedly agree with this. Well, maybe the 30,000 number is a bit high, but still. The dialogue on this site is far from being representative of MINI owners in general.