Re: Mini Cooper fails to find niche; Beetle/Cruiser win sales race

I was right there with you until you tipped off the edge of the planet at the end.

;])

I'm one of those SUV haters but it's not because of the psych profile you mention.

I won't get started on what will turn out to be thread drift but will get back on topic with this: Here in the SF Bay Area Minis seem to well represented, right along with (now discontinued) Firebird/Camero, Mustang, New Beetles, PT Cruisers, Subaru WRX and now STI, and to a certain degree the continuing Mazda Miatas, etc.

Of course this isn't the Midwest or Texas, or where ever so it's skewed as a favorable market for the sporty type car but I don't think Minis are in any trouble around here, at least right now.

TBerk wow, look at the x-posting, I removed air-cooled at least.

T Berk wrote:on. Here in the SF Bay Area Minis seem to well

Dunno what the sales figures are for the Mini-- but here in the middle of the country, they seem to be selling well! Pete

Go back to sleep, dearie. We're talking about the real world, not the never-never land that is San Francisco and vicinity, where the schools won't teach you how to write a complete sentence (viz. above) but they'll make sure you have good self-esteeeeeeeem.

DS

LOL. Real World?

This coming from a still-wet-behind-the-ears recent college grad from the Midwest?

That is priceless.

p.s. You might want to check your inaccurate quoting as well Einstein.

Besides the fact that you don't seem to know what you're talking about it's awfully nit picky to slam me for missing a dropped BE in my sentence.

Why not stick to the subject at hand?

I don't see the Mini getting as much market share as the Miata did.

(See how easy that was?)

TBerk

I don't mean any slur towards differing parts of the country. And YES I have been most every state in the US except the deep south (I did lay over in Hotlanta for a few hours).

I haven't been in the middle since the Mini was introduced, that is more my point- I know my own area is all.

btw- we have people here just as real.

Doesn't it make sense Mini USA would see the SF Bay Area as a higher percentage market?

TBerk

Here are some news items below. My local Mini dealer hardly has a car to sell. You can order one and the wait is about 3 and a half months. I have an '84 A1 Cabbie (8V 1.8) and am looking at the Mini as a replacement because of the similarities - the Mini is 3 inches wider and 1 foot shorter, stiff suspension, sure handling. I'm not sure I'm convinced by the gearing in the mini (either the 5- or the 6-speed), however. And despite that, I'm not sure that the fuel economy is that much better, especially with the high-test requirement.

-Michael S.

Over 100,000 MINIs delivered this year, UK and USA biggest markets.

Sales of the MINI brand rose in the first seven months to 106,603, an increase of 39.4% in comparison with the same period last year, at 76,471 units. In July, 16,723 vehicles were sold worldwide (+19.0%, prev.yr. 14,056).

The strongest market is still the United Kingdom, with 4,343 units in July (+83.9%, prev.yr. 2,361), followed by the USA with sales of 3,084 vehicles in July (+7.6%, prev.yr. 2,866). Important markets apart from these are Germany, with sales in July of 2,477 vehicles (+5.4%, prev.yr. 2,350) and Italy with

1,972 units (+12.5%, prev.yr. 1,753). .

Information courtesy MINI Press.

MINI - Record Sales in the UK

Biggest ever UK market share for British-built MINI.

MINI has achieved a sales record in July by taking its biggest market share since it first went on sale two years ago in July 2001.

MINI sales accounted for 2.18 per cent of the UK market equating to 4,282 cars registered. This is 80 per cent up on sales during July last year and means more than one person in every 50 buying a new car chose a MINI.

Before reaching this month's sales record, MINI's highest market share was 2.08 per cent in January 2003.

With the latest addition of the MINI One D to the family, MINI has sold 24,381 cars so far in 2003.

Information courtesy MINI Press.

Exactly what I did to the first dozen or two of them. But it doesn't seem to stop.

You see the newsgroups listed in teh "to" field of your message or something equivalent, depending on software you use. VERY easy to remove the groups that have nothing to do with the discussion. And you only need to do it ONCE, after that the next person to reply to the message thread will no longer see the removed group.

That is irrelevant, are you not famialiar with netiquette or newsgroup rules or just plain decent manners? You don't post OFF-TOPIC messages to ANY newsgroups, such behavior is ALWAYS frowned upon. I'm just trying to be nice and informative and kindly ask you (all) to remove one line from teh recipient list, because the content of these mesages do not belong there and are considered spam. Do you like to see Spam everywhere you go?

What about viruses? If you get them on your computer, do you just ignore them? Veeeery close to being exactly the same kind of thing. They don't belong, and hence the source should be blocked.

Well, if you decide to make an ass out of yourself, that is your business. But don't be surprised if you make a few hundred enemies by doing so. The majority of our group members are getting tired of this (to us) worthless drivel and would like it to stop. I, as an elected leader of the group, am speaking on behalf of my community.

Jan

Ok, got a grip. Now what do I do with this thing? ;)

No, that is not the way to deal with messages that are off-topic in newsgroups. First you try to inform teh involved parties about the situation and calmly and reasonably try to ask them to ONCE trim their settings. (it's all it takes and the thread will continue in the proper forums as before) Adults should be able to negotiate sucha minor detail without resorting to bitching and moaning and telling others to suck it in and tolerate all junk messages dumped in their front lawn. Do you people seriously just ignore all the spam that keeps pouring in to YOUR newsgroups? I can't believe it. Treat the cause, not the symptom!

I do not need help with newsgroup software. Obviously it is you and some of your friends who need help understaning Usenet newsgroup rules and proper netiquette. Educate yourselves.

I think this is just plain sad.

Jan

I don't see why, SF really isn't a "car town." The Mini's appeal isn't its size, its that its a fireball. SF seems like a place that would sell lots of Priuses, VW TDIs, and Insights, but not many PT Turbos or Mini Coopers.

...................The Corvette has survived for just about fifty years now in a small niche. The Mini isn't that much more of a "mass-market car" than the 'vette and may well prove to have a lot more potential customers. Doomed? BMW has been adept over the years at finding what sells to special niches of potential buyers and then giving it to them. Rolls Royce is another example of their strategy of marketing to a 'small niche'. They don't seem to be too worried about winning some imaginary 'sales race' with the larger manufacturers. When has anyone with half a clue traded their 328 or 540 in for a GrandAm or Monte Carlo?

...............As for Oldsmobile, GM is killing it because their marketing people finally figured out that it was mostly competing with other divisions of GM and failing to draw any customers into Oldsmobile's showrooms that weren't already inclined to buy from GM regardless of what brand. The same thing happened to Plymouth.........Voyager........Caravan.........Chrysler Town & Country.............who cares?

I smell a 442 in his future. :)

Cherry showroom example, of course. Make a nice present to him. (hint hint)

..............By the time I finish putting three brats through college, he'll be an octogenarian!

....................I have been keeping an eye out for an early ('49 or '50) Futuramic. He'd get a big kick out of finding one of those sitting in his driveway.

"Can we build one for you?"

I miss those cars. And the GSX, Roadrunner, Charger, Torino...

Consider the AREA, it's more than San Francisco proper. We have a wide range of folks here, many 'Greens' but lots of Conservatives too, and most every body else (the bulk of em) is in the middle.

We have every thing here from those Electrified Golf Carts for the street to Big ol Gas Guzzling Tanks for the street (Hummer 1s & 2s).

Back to the Mini. Lots of em on the road around here. Lots.

Lots of Mustangs, lots of New Beetles, lots of Volvos, Lots of Escalades (sp), etc., etc.

TBerk

Didn't they had once a Volare Road Runner (there even revived the Duster name in the Volare line-up in 1979 and 1980)?

Also add the R-body Gran Fury arrived one year after the R-body Newport/New Yorker and St-Regis who arrived in 1979

There was also a much further slight going back further in the past in 1960 when Dodge introduced the full-size Dart (not yet known as the A-body compact) who was the same size as the Plymouth while the senior line-up Custom Royal and Royal was renamed Polara and Matador. Styling of the 1960 Plymouth didn't helped (it looked too much like the 1957 and the front end was a bit ackward) while the Dart was more attractive and Plymouth lost its

3rd place against Rambler. And Dodge gets its own dealer network while Plymouth was dualled with Chrysler after DeSoto death. (before that, there was Dodge-Plymouth, DeSoto-Plymouth, Chrysler-Plymouth dealer in the US while in Canada it was Plymouth-Chrysler and Dodge-DeSoto before DeSoto pass away)

An other opportunity lost, was in the 1980's when Shelby did some versions of the Charger/Omni 024, Shelby CSX, Omni GLH, Dodge gets all Shelby attention and no Plymouth! Homever some try to created a Cuda's version who could had been a counterpart of the Shelby Charger but Caroll Shelby said a big no

Also the death of the Barracudacould had played a role with no halo cars at the Plymouth line-up.... andthe Venom concept car showed in 1994 could had been a start of a new Cuda. Stéphane Dumas

allowed

Your cluelessness apparently knows no bounds.

I'm with Jan on this one.

Delete Air Cooled from the address line.

What's the beef?

TBerk

LOL.

Who is forcing you to read the thread?

As long as you're "with Jan on this one," maybe you can answer a VERY pressing question:

When and where was the rule regarding crossposting not being allowed "in Usenet" made?

Thanks!