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Mini apologizes with chocolate rose after spamming customer's inbox

If you're a manufacturer, there are only so many ways you can say "sorry" after your automated e-mail system goes berzerk and spams everyone on your mailing list with hundreds of the same message. Mini recently found itself in that very spot, and rather than respond with a sheepish mea culpa, the company's PR team took a different tack by sending owners a very unique gift box. How unique? Inside, one owner found a set of chocolate roses, a roll of duct tape and a genuine can of Spam.
In an accompanying note, the company said it hoped the sweets would help patch things up between the company and the victims of the e-mail barrage, but in the event that wasn't enough to do the trick, the duct tape was there to help out. And the can of Spam? That tagged along just for stress release. Apparently the canned meat is squeezable. We wouldn't know. You can check out full photos of the gift box here.

Mini goes zany with latest accessories catalog

Driving a Mini is most definitely an individualistic choice - one that not everyone would get on board with. So if you're going to go with such a fashion statement, you might as well give it your own sense of style. That's where Mini's new line of accessories come in.
Available for the new third-gen Mini hardtop, the accessories offer buyers the opportunity to customize their retro hatchback as best they see fit. There are roof graphics, accessory lighting, wheel upgrades and mirror caps (like the cartoonish ones pictured at right) just like you would have found in the parts catalog for previous iterations of the Mini, but now the brand is offering four appearance kits it's calling Mini Design Lines.
The kits are color coordinated in either Vivid Green, Speedwell Blue, John Cooper Works Pro (in black, red and grey) and Essential Black and include everything from the interior trim to exterior graphics. They might not be to everyone's taste, but that kinda strikes us as the point. Scope 'em out in the extensive high-res image gallery above and the details in the press release below.

Mini considering sports car replacement for Coupe and Roadster?

The next-generation Mini lineup could see some big changes, according to a report from Australian site CarSales. Starting with the debut of the third-generation Mini Hardtop at this year's Los Angeles Auto Show, we could see a regular string of Minis on the stages of the world. But the bodystyles we see might not be what we've grown used to.
A four-door sedan could eventually arrive, while the polarizing Mini Coupe and Roadster are likely to be replaced by a dedicated sports car with unique sheetmetal and uprated engines. While the rest of the line is switching to three-cylinder, turbocharged engines, the new sports car, which will be available in both soft- and hardtop variants, will use some version of BMW's 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder. The Aussie site also claims that the interior treatment could take inspiration from the Mini Vision concept car, while showing off the know-how BMW gained when working carbon fiber into the i3. The new model(s) would likely arrive in late 2015 or early 2016.
According to CarSales, we'll see the three-door Hardtop at the 2013 LA Show, along with a five-door hatch that is different from the Clubman at the 2014 Paris show. The Clubman, meanwhile, will arrive in Geneva in 2015, while the Convertible is slated for later that same year. The current Countryman and Paceman are expected to be around for some time, before being joined by an MPV. Eventually, the larger Minis will share their architecture with the BMW X1.