I personally am a little nervous about the economy (not enough to stop from buying a new Mini) and think a lot of companies are in (big) trouble.

Overall, I think Mini should do better than a lot of other companies. They get good gas mileage, have a lot of character, make people smile and are relatively practical for something so fun.

I have spent some time at the dealership lately and noted that they have presold their entire October allocation. I don't imagine too many others doing that right now.

 

Well since I see no new MINI's on the lot at my dealer and there were probably about 10-20 last year this time I doubt there is an issue with selling MINIs. Mostly can be attributed by the hot sales have depleted all dealer inventories by now and that we have reached the end of the 2009 production run. Normally you wouldnt see this impact but since demand has outpaced expectations there was no buffer for the switch over. Don't worry this just makes our cars more valuable

 

In the words of Papa Joe, I call bull$#!t.

 

The time frame mentioned(difference between 2 months) is a very poor indicator of market forces on the brand. The change over the 12 months is a better measuring stick-which shows that Mini has the second lowest loss.

 

No manufacturer is immune to market forces, and economic woes are putting tremendous downside pressure on sales. Banks won't provide car loans or home equity loans, unemployment is up, retirement accounts are down an average of 20%, and people are generally feeling very uncertain about the economy in general, and their own finances. Not a great market for new car sales, as all the recent numbers show.

 

% change is also not fair. GM and Toyota sell A LOT more cars each day. If they decreased their production level to similar to MINI's, they would be on backorder for years.

 

Percentage is the only way to measure this fairly.

How is a percentage unfair? to count the sums of both would be unfair.

 

I was at MINI of Mountain View on Wednesday for an annual oil change. I waited for the car, so I was there for a few hours. Some of the time was spent in the lounge at the BMW dealership across the street (same owner as the MINI dealership). At MINI, there were a few people looking at cars, and placing orders. At BMW, no one was looking at cars. Most of the time, I was the only non-employee there. Occasionally, someone came in to talk to the guy at the parts counter, but I never saw anyone car shopping.