It will be like coming across a Austin Farina today.

I just wonder who will remember the BINIS in the year 2042, 41 years after their launch ?

BIG AL

Sorry, I didn't intend to imply that Tesla and MINI are in direct competition. I just wanted to make the point that electric has become a big selling point for consumers and that traditional luxury brands are feeling the heat from Tesla. With no meaningful electric option, I wonder if MINI is losing sales back to Toyota, Honda, GM, etc?

The original mini had a purpose (cheap transportation, family of four, space for stuff, good mileage) and it did so implementing revolutionary design/technology (transverse mounted engine).

Over the years it became iconic due to easy ability to modify and personalize.  Special editions and form factors continued to keep it fresh and interesting.

I did own a 2002 MINI (for 10 years) but have been disappointed on several fronts — no ground breaking technology (electric, hydrogen, no pickup, etc).   I would consider another MINI if there was pickup. Also disappointed in lack of range on proposed MINI electric.

currently having fun (sometimes) trying to get a 66 S back on the road. I would love to convert to electric but that would be a horrible thing to do to this car based upon it’s heritage.

MINI was never for everyone.  The MINI has always been a premium small car in the US.  It's the same thing with the Fiat 500.  

The 1 series is not sold in the US.  So their least expensive BMW starts at $35,000 for a 2 series coupe and the base MINI starts at $21,900.  It does absolutely make sense to shift sales to a BMW dealership.  

As for Tesla's Model 3, that company has yet to make/sell a "base" model as far as I know.  And from what I can infer they never will.  But, it is very interesting that they did outsell BMW passenger cars.  

I also think that being relatively late to the electric party is hurting them too. BMW and Mercedes are both running all sorts of sales promotions lately as they are hurting so badly. I can't really say I'm a Tesla fan, but someone is buying them.

https://insideevs.com/tesla-model-3-outsold-bmw-passenger-cars/

It's not a matter of cost. Even a spec'd out Cooper S isn't really that expensive, compared to many other new cars. 

New car sales have been down across the board for years, so it's not just MINI. Younger consumers either aren't able to - or interested in - buying a new car.

My non Mini/MINI daily driver is Suzuki SX4 silver-ish. I don't really know or care what the colour is. I bought it used and had the choice of white or one of 2 silver ones on the lot.  Silver looked less "girly" (sorry ladies) so I chose the silver one with the best tires. One advantage is that in traffic, when wanting to do "spirited" driving, a silver car blends in with all the other silver cars.

My Mini is the brightest red in the paint book of the time.

Wash your mouth out with soap... How could you demean the reputation of a great car....  

The '02 that is...  Wish I still had mine.

"......My father just bought a Toyota Corolla and he got a charcoal grey metallic.   He wanted a bright red but it would've worked out to $3k or $4k more, so he said "no"."

Thats amusing ... When I bought my VW all the silvers, greys etc were classed as "premium metallic" colours and cost about a grand extra.  The only "standard" i.e. non extra charge colours I could have were white and "Salsa Red" ... and there weren't any white ones.  I graciously  accepted the red one...  

Cheers, Ian

....we were able to get nice bright colours.  Most cars today are shapeless, dirty bars of soap.  Ie: They all look the same and come in white, black, grey, off grey, silver, beige, tan or washed out baby poop green if you're lucky."

Not to go off topic here and I shouldn't really comment after a couple of glasses of wine but gees this hit a sore point. My wife is sick of me complaining of car colours these days - colour, ya I'm Canadian. We bought a Mazda and the colour is some eucalyptus green - BUT IT'S GREY! We stop at traffic lights and I comment on the cars going through, white, white, white, grey, black, white, grey, etc. No wonder everyone is so unhappy. I was interested in the new style Honda Ridgeline so stopped at the dealer some 3 months back. They had nothing colourful in stock, see above. The sales guy said they did had a red one but it sold. I asked why they didn't order more colours, he said there's no demand! He took my name and number to call me when a red one came in but no call yet.

Anyway, thank goodness we have the classics to paint the original great colours.

I did look at MINI's at the time we bought the Mazda but couldn't find a salesman. The dealership in our area is a combined MINI/BMW arrangement. We went to the BMW side and asked for assistance. All we got from that side was how there was no profit in the MINI business, blah, blah. We left.

Ron

BMW Minis not the only brand hurting..  Here is the tale of falling Hyundai sales

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-motor-mojo/how-hyundai-motor-once-a-rising-star-lost-its-shine-idUKKCN1N90PZ

Right ! hahahaha. They'll probably ding you another $2k for a "colour option" being as it's a classic colour from the 70's

Wait a minute. Isn't washed out baby poop green a very 70's colour?

"Most cars today are shapeless, dirty bars of soap. Ie: They all look the same and come in white, black, grey, off grey, silver, beige, tan or washed out baby poop green if you're lucky."

Well said Mike!

I only skimmed the article.  Talk about BMW's bores me...….and we own 2 BMW MINIS!

I like my MINI's......but I LOVE my *TRUE* Austin Mini.

The 2 newer MINI's (09 and 2012) have collectively >300,000 and some kms on them.
They've been very good cars, very few repairs, and they drive nice.
They tend to catch the eye's of onlookers in my city and in the north of the province, as we
are not near any MINI/(bmw) dealers so there aren't very many around.
I get nice comments by sexy women all the time ! (Maybe my wife does too....by men?)

WE NEVER KID OURSELVES THAT THESE ARE REAL MINIS !  When approached and we speak
with people, we usually say something along the lines of "....and we have a REAL Mini at home in the garage..."
People over 40 know what we mean and we always get nice reactions and Millenials don't know or care.

Somehow, I've gone off on a tangent here and forgotten my point.

Oh! One reason we bought them was we live pretty far from the city and these things get WAY better gas mileage than an SUV or whatever, plus we were able to get nice bright colours.  Most cars today are shapeless, dirty bars of soap.  Ie: They all look the same and come in white, black, grey, off grey, silver, beige, tan or washed out baby poop green if you're lucky.

My father just bought a Toyota Corolla and he got a charcoal grey metallic.   He wanted a bright red but it would've worked out to $3k or $4k more, so he said "no".

Even as second gen (R56) owners, we look at the newer ones and call them "pregnant MINIs" (they don't even look like MINIs anymore)

At least with the Fiat 500's and VW Beetles they more or less look like the originals.

OK, I am done. (whew)

I still think they should now be BMW MAXI's....

With auto sales having nowhere to go but down, lots of hard decisions are being made. Beetle is dead, Ford and GM are laying off white collar jobs. If you are not making the profit you expect now, it’s not going to get better anytime soon without big changes. My tier 1 employer has cut its workforce world wide. Time for a new Mini pickup!

Do you think sales would be less sluggish if they marketed in North America the non-Cooper-branded variants, which would be at least a little more affordable?

What is ironic when reading the article is the statement that the MINI's are not big enough in an SUV based US market.

What he said! As the size continues to grow they are getting farther and farther away from what they were supposed to be. I would like to see them change the name to BMW 2002!