Magical mystery touring
Retro Roadster
When a parked car is capable of pulling three busloads of camera-happy tourists away from a postcard-perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge, you know it's a hit. When motorcyclists nearly kill themselves asking about the car in the middle of city traffic, you know it's a big hit. And when all this fuss is over the shortest car in America, then you've got a phenomenon.
The Mini returns to America this week. A total redesign of a classic British car that dates to 1959, the new Mini is the latest splashy entry into a part of the market that appeared to be thoroughly ground under the tires of the SUV--the compact car.
Unlike the Volkswagen Beetle, an American icon for decades and then reintroduced in 1998, the Mini is virtually unknown here. Some 10,000 were sold in the United States between 1960 and 1967, and in an early survey Mini marketers discovered that only 2 percent of Americans were familiar with the original. But to Europeans, the boxy, bulldog profile is a common sight. The Beatles all drove Minis (Ringo had his modified to fit a drum kit), and the car has made appearances everywhere from the classic crime caper The Italian Job to Queen Elizabeth's driveway.
No fad. This comeback story has a major name behind it: Looking for an entry into the small-car market, BMW bought the marque in 1994 and decided to redesign and sell it as an upmarket small car. "There's a lot of efficiency there, but we want to keep the brand identity separate," says Mini USA General Manager Jack Pitney. "We want to build Mini into an icon, not a fad."
Csaba Csere, editor in chief of Car and Driver magazine, warns that nostalgia alone won't be enough "Once that initial splash is gone it's got to stand on its own merits."
And there are plenty. The Mini Cooper turns heads and packs a 115-horsepower engine with pep enough to motor up San Francisco's steepest hills and cruise well above the speed limit on California freeways. Inside, the Mini is bigger than it looks. The front seats slide back far enough to accommodate a 6-foot-5 driver with headroom to spare, though four adults is a pinch. The fashion-conscious have 14 color choices and two-tone paint jobs available at no extra charge, plus a host of options. At $16,850 for the basic Cooper, it competes with other trendsetters like the New Beetle and Chrysler's PT Cruiser. A 163-hp Cooper S will retail for around $20,000, and there's talk of a future ragtop.
Still, the car's size is a concern. Marketers are under no illusions about where the Mini will play well. Dealers are mainly in coastal urban areas, leaving wide stretches of the Midwest with no Minis at all. Initial demand is expected to far outpace supply: The Manhattan dealership already has 185 orders from customers who haven't even seen the car--and each of 70 dealerships has only 300 to sell in the first 12 months.
This story appears in the April 1, 2002 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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