Totally disagree. That is just you and other "enthusiasts". The masses, the nameless vast majority who could care less about performance, handling or car forums, DO buy on impulse and cuteness. The car is cute.

If your inside the box, it takes a lot to separate your view and move outside the box to see how the majority who buy cars really buy them.

There are many, many women who buy cars ... not to disparage our lady enthusiasts on this board but they are NOT the vast majority ... do you think they really care that they can go .2 secs faster to 60 or pull .91 gs? LOL, I serously doubt it. CUTE, on the other hand, does sell.

MINI doesn't market it car on being "fast", it marketed based on "youification", Dressing up the car and "driving thru the twisties". Marketing to both men and women.

 

No prob.

 

Not with the hp & ft/lbs. we are looking at (even at 300). The drivetrain actually spreads the hp & ft/lbs. around more than either FWD or RWD. Any problems for the clutch will remain regardless of whether you have FWD, RWD or AWD.

 

I wonder how long the cars will sit on the lot at MSRP+? At some point, the flooring costs will exceed the $2,000 to $2,500 markup.

The S.F. bay area must have the most upside down allocations vs. demand. Even L.A. - San Diego seems to have better allocations. At least there seems to be more dealers in L.A.- San Diego area that are willing to sell at MSRP without a mark-up.

 

different folks different strokes. I really don't care about what i drive, i do not buy cars to impress ppl.

 

to sligtly undersupply demand, they will still sell every one that the build. No problem with that. But what they're saying in not improving over what was the winning comination of 2001/2002 is

"our market isn't the enthusiast market"
"we'll kiss off the racers"
"we're happy to sell the image/package" to those that want it.

This is all fine and good. But longer times on the lot, and dropping resale values are indicators that the demand is not what it was. And if the world wide production is doubled, as there is discussion of doing at the factory, that will surely change the supply/demand equation.....

Hay, but there are still some deals in the Mini world. I was at the Audi website configuring A3s (and RS4s at $70k+ ) at the heated seats on the Audis are $700!

But who knows... Maybe going to a turbo and having some software hacker change the programming on the boost control may solve everyones problems...

Matt

 

I'm sure BMW have thought of ways to spot or discourage ECU re-flashes/chipping for the upcoming turbo (didn't take Mitsubishi long to take advantage of this popular aftermarket mod for denying all kinds of engine & drivetrain warranty claims on the Evo).

 

Heck, drop a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Converter on it; 1.21 jigawatts of power. (AWD will not be a problem.)

 

I would imagine that if BMW was smart, and I am sure they are, they know exactly what their market profile looks like. Their advertising agency is very good.

You do have the "fun" people en masse with their youification labeling.

You also have their market toward racers in the Challenge Series. However, I would imagine if they cared about that image in the US, they would run real challenge series races here and sell real JCM parts ... yet they don't. What does that mean? Dunno.

So over the pond, they can have the best of both worlds, two distinct targets.

In the US? Exactly what is their target market?

• First time car buyers?
• Small, fuel efficient cars?
• Fun cars?

 

And I guess that's the point of the thread. A lot of the product differentiators for the car have erroded, with little response from Mini. But maybe that's just because we're at the end of a model....

I'll just check my crystal ball..... Oh crap! I left it in Seattle....

Matt