WOW, sorry to break this to you but MINI is not a company, it's just a name, therefore it can not make cars, or be based in the UK.

BMW is a company: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BMW.BE&d=t

 

I wonder what the senior management of BMW and the senior Brit management at Oxford think about this subject?

There have been several good points made in this thread. There is something about the fact that i drive to a german dealership to get my car serviced that makes me lean toward German..... that being said....I also read GOMINI and it is all about being British...... I guess the question I asked earlier....do you think of the BMWs made in SC or the Mercedes made in AL as American or German? I realize that the MINI badge is English as the heritage but that just serves to confound the issue.

 

I agree.

Basically, the MINI name is British, the actual product is 100% German.

 

In the very literal legal sense we all aknow this but we are not talking about the "letter of the law".... we are talking about the "spirit and soul of the car" This is a "for fun" discussion not for legal disclosure.

 

Oh, the MINI is definitely British at heart.

 

OK lets see here.

GM: Chevy, GMC, Buick, Caddy, Pontiac, Hummer, Sabb, Fiat, Holden, Vauxhall, Fiat, Ferrari, Maserati

Ford: Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Jag-U-ar, Aston Marton, Land Rover

Diamler Chrysler: Mercedes Benz, Chrysle, Dodge, Smart

Honda: Honda, Acura

Toyota: Toyota, Sicon (sick)

Nissan: Nissan, Renault

VW: VW, Porsche, Audi, Seat, Bugati, Lamborghini, Bentley

BMW: MINI, BMW, Rolls Royce

Hundai: Hundai, Kia
Yes I know that I have left out the Russian / Eastern European cars. and the Chinese cars.

 

Don't forget Skoda. VW's Czech sensation!

 

Or Volvo under the Ford group...

Or Lexus under the Toyota group...

Or Infiniti under the Nissan group...



I'm impressed you put that list together so quickly though.

 

Porsche is a 100% independent company, and I give them alot of credit for not having sold out to a larger company when going through hard times in the early 90's.

they have a strong relationship with VW/Audi, but are not owned.

 

Correct. I didn't even notice that he had them in the VW group.

 

So how can this flip-flop ever arrive at one single answer? Seems the thread that never dies, has no definitive solution.

It's all a matter of perception. If you feel at ease thumbing through your German owners manual, great. Should you remark to your peers that your British car is mis-behaving in an Austin Powers voice, fine. If you slip on your German racing gloves to grab your Momo (Italy), "English leather", shift ****, you've begun to see the light.

I hope the controversy isn't about proper bragging rights. Casual lookers want to hear about the car, not get into absolutes, heritage etc. Tell 'em it's a MINI, the car defines impressions not who branded her. No one really cares about the methods to arrive at good results. So, say and believe what you like, you are correct with both nationalities. If others claim the opposite, get over it.

 

Also, other then the Porshe, Fiat, maserati, ferrari inacuracies there is another problem with this chart.

All of the names here are CAR MANUFACTURERS which got baught out by some larger manufacturer, Exept Mini. Mini is car model, not manufacturer.

So, we all agree that Mini is the name of a car BMW took to produce the first FWD BMW as stated on the BBC website.

This would conclude this discussion pretty well.

 

My MINI is just that. A MINI. I don't feel a need to compensate by calling it a BMW.

 

you would only be compensating by calling it a BMW if you thaught BMW was a greater more prestigious name then MINI.


I know I dont, and that's why I can accept the fact that it's a BMW.

 

No, I still disagree with that.

MINI is a brand, not a single model.

The MINI is as much a "brand" as the BMW brand itself. If the MINI was just a model in the BMW line-up, it would be called a BMW MINI Cooper.

MINI is a seperate brand, as much as Lexus is seperate from Toyota or Audi is seperate from VW.

 

Yes, that's why it's written "BMW Mini cooper" on my registration and insurance papers.

You can disagree all you want, but MINI is not a brand like Honda or Toyota. Mini was never a Company, it's a car, and within that model of car are different models.

This is a fact.

The only way you can prove your point would be by finding a Mini corporation finantial statement, and everyone here knows thats not gonna happen.

 

My two minis aren't either British or German... they are New Zeland and I'm proud of them!

 

The odd thing about ownership of brands/companies is that in much of the world it's different. What's owned in the US (majority stakehold) is, from what I've heard, different for other countries. I've been told that legally, if Mazda were a US company, Ford wouldn't own it because Ford has a 30% stakehold. According to Japanese law, that grants ownership, but according to American law, you could be a majority stockholder, but not necessarily the owner. This usually grants the owner of such a large chunk a board seat, which is sort of how GM plays with Subaru.

Anyway, the MINI, imho, is a German car, designed to be British. If BMW had tried to build a completely new line upon British styling, much like how Smart was originally a Swatch (Swiss) car, I think most of us would be calling it a German car, inspired by the British.

It's the history that makes this a murky issue.

 

I will tell you $ to donuts that BMW thinks of it as a "brand."

How much proof do you need?

IF/When BMW decides to unload MINI, they will sell a "brand" not a model....that is the whole point....that is where the true value lies

 

I will agree with you that BMW speaks and advertizes MINI as a brand, becasue as a brand it is worth $$$ on the market.

The fact still remains that they took a car model from rover and made it a BMW brand (MINI).

After all this debate, probably the best argument is that the car is made in a BMW factory (does it really matter what soil it's on) and is sold by BMW, and is serviced in BMW dealers.

I understand everyone debating that it's a british car becasue they think it has this huge heritage bla bla bla bla....

That's exacly what BMW wanted consumers to feel, and it was used as a very strategic marketing methode.

 

The Honda and Toyota divisions are not seperate companies either, they're branches of Honda Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. respectively. Just like MINI, which is a division within the BMW corporate umbrella, along with Rolls Royce, and the BMW Division (not to be confuesd with the BMW corporation, they share a name but are NOT the same).

How about Chevrolet or Cadillac? Are they not companies? No, they are not stand alone corporations, but they are still very much their own entities, under the GM umbrella.

MINI is the same way.

 

I just can't imagine how anyone could honestly say, without qualification, that a MINI is a German car?!?!?! Perhaps the same is true about saying it's a British car.

 

ok, is there a point to this???

we have established that cadillac is GM and american... nice.

 

its a british orphan adopted by german aristocracy(that happens to know a thing or two about cars)

People are going to think different no matter what... kind of like when people differentiate there cars as being boys or girls...

Were lucky BMW decided to create the new MINI... I mean if Mercedez would have bought out mini and created the newer version, we might only be able to drive in auto(not poking fun at the MINIs with auto, but I think you should be able to have the choice) I like BMW... theyre all about sport luxury

If the classic mini had never been built, who knows if wed ever had the MINI, but without BMWs help...just my opinion...it would not be as close to perfect as it is.

 

Ok, I give up...lol

We agree that the MINI is a BMW product, therefore making it German.

We'll leave it at that.