Love versus lust?

Unreliable wives?

This is a great post!

But seriously:

Here is my angle:

Since the Mini was totally new with nothing to act as a benchmark, or a model, the R&D along with the manufacturing set up had to be staggering.

Think about it.......this car has different ergonomics than any car in the world. The size, shape, form, and fit had to be designed from scratch.

Also, to engineer long lasting lust could not have been cheap either!

 

Hmm,, I agree that R&D was $$, but the gist of what I understand is that the first new Mini is simply expensive to produce and they needed to bring the cost down to increase profitability. I don't *think* the R&D or any related development expenses was factored into that manufacturing cost they said needed to be reduced.

Some good stuff in this thread

 

I have no issues with MINI using electronics and plastics from China. Actually I would have been more concerned about an engine from Brazil .

Ipods are manufactured in China. I've taken one apart and was favorably impressed with the quality of materials and build. Quality does not come from where something is built. BMW chooses a certain level of quality, and then it is up to them to find suppliers that meet their requirements. They can find such suppliers in England, Brazil, China, or anyplace else.

 

Sorry, have to disagree with you there. If a company is sourcing parts from China, their overwhelming objective is cost reduction and not maintaining quality control. Or as the head of NASA once said responding to congressional plans to "improve" things while reducing costs: "Faster, cheaper, better --pick any two of the three".

 

Is the new line using the "just in time" philosophy...that may be why they are sourcing engines in the UK, to save on shipping costs....the logistics of putting a car together with that process is crazy to think about. But, maybe they save money by not having to store components at the assembly plant.

BTW...my wife is English and she is both a bit unreliable and slightly temperamental (I think this must be from her Irish mother)...so I am really not sure why I am even considering purchasing an English (sort of) car. Must be my masochistic nature showing thru again.

 

Hmmmmmmm?

An Irish car?

My wife is Irish and she is incapable of error.....just ask her!

 

Hmm.

The plant itself is apparantly highly automated. I doubt it the plant itself.

I heard from one of the MINI tuners that MINI chose the SC route rather than the Turbo route because its much easier to throw out superchargers than the complexity of the turbos. Cheaper to do.

Maybe its the UK labor costs.

One thing could be capacity. If they can only produce 40K widgets a year ... maybe its economies of scale. Whereas a Toyota plant of Ford plants produces 400K units.

Another thing could be inventory control. Does MINI do Just In Time (JIT) inventory or keep a warehouse of parts? Most car makers went to JIT inventory years ago because its so much cheaper.

 

lol amazingly funny thread, not very helpful to the OP, tho.

rock on!

 

They gotta be makin' more money for the last MINI produced than for the first MINI produce! Thats how "it " works.

 

I've got an '05 MC and I ended up paying $19,800 after taxes and warranty. To me that is an excellent deal for a super-economical very luxurious (for the price) fun car to drive. I also started at 13 miles. So in a since I thought I got a good bargain.

Now if you go for the MCS then it can start getting a little costly. Not only is the purchase price higher but gas mileage is lost in the process for power. Not to mention that parts can get to be a headache with the supercharger.

Just my Thoughts

 

The question has a very easy answer. You mean you guys didn't find the bag of diamonds stashed behind the dash?

 

My thought is that the engine is cheaper to produce, the new engine maybe running a diffrent transmission which probally cost less than the geartrag mini uses now. I also notice that mini integrated the cd player, speedo, and other displays in one unit, thats probally cheaper to build and keep up with compated to 3 seperate units. I figure the light not being on the hood reduces wiring used and the time it took to install the extra wiring, that also probally comes into play with the new cd/ speedo combo quicker to install and less wires to run.

 

I can't believe I said "hood" I grew up saying "bonnet" ..... I must have been over here too long

 

You've been in our hood for too long

 

Don't you guys get it? BMW doesn't want those dirty poor people behing the wheel of a MINI...and I say, keep it up boys! The day we let the un-washed lumpenproletariat in our fine automobiles will be a cold day indeed.


Yes, I realize that I am going to hell for this post.

 

Well, I was talking about the cost to make the car, not the Marx up

 

Hmm... I'm a grad student

Clever girl.

 

Mao, mao, it's not nice to name drop!

 

Which means you'll probably be part of the bourgeoisie some day soon

 

This is gotta be probably the most entertaining thread ive read here
All that talk about how unreliable spouses are makes me think of what the Russian cosmonaut in Armageddon said "Russian components, American components........all made in Taiwan"

 

Here goes, in descending order, the changes saving the most money IMO:

1.) New "hood/bonnet/thing-on-top-of-the-engine-compartment" or whatever you want to call it, will no longer require a seperate asmbly line to put together. Just stamp it, paint it, slap it on. The savings in wire etc are negligble, but the savings in labor and floor space at the factory are significant.

2.) Rear window without wrap around probably costs less than half as much to manufacture because of fewer new defective pieces.

3.) New front bumber facia is also much cheaper to produce for the same reason; less complex design leading to fewer new-defective parts.

4.) Engine and transmission are probably a wash at best the first few years because of warranty cost increases. After 2 years, perhaps a significant cost saving advantage over current design.

5.) The instrumention looks cheaper, --if it actually is then there's another cost savings.

6.) Car wieghs less, so whatever happened to the weight probably included a reduction in costs as well.

 

Not sure what costs more in the 02-06' models. It will be interesting to watch the first couple of years of this new design. If they really do start using cheaper parts we will see more posts of things going wrong.

Glad I got one of the last 06' models. Now I can watch and wait. If it looks good then I will trade in when the warranty is up.

 

I am with you all the way on that. Besides, I like the interior, especially the instrumentation better on our "old" 2006 cars.

 

Actually,
it usually costs more to make things lighter...
Cheap steel versus stronger, lighter alloys. Think of those heavy, high profit SUVs.

 

Well, then, it surely going to be left out of the new car.