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Mini has become the Rover that BMW always wanted

BMW has been working for 20 years to build a successful line of British cars, and on the evidence of the second-generation Mini Clubman, it may have finally done it. That means it's time for all of us to get used to the fact that Minis aren't going to be that small anymore. Case in point is this new Mini Clubman, introduced last month and conspicuous by its size. Many of us who've pointed to BMW's stewardship of Mini as an example of retro done right bemoaned the Countryman subcompact SUV – a concept actually ahead of its time. The Coupe and Roadster, perhaps rightfully, deserved (and received) an eye roll. But now there's a so-called four-door hardtop that went on sale this year and this forthcoming, six-door Clubman that approaches the compact hatchback class in size. These vehicles actually look like practical moves at keeping buyers from defecting to larger cars made by someone else, rather than vain attempts at maximizing investment in a set of parts. And in an interesting twist, Mini is turning into one of its ancestors – minus the feeling of inevitable doom. Many of us were led to believe somewhere since Mini's relaunch about 15 years ago that the brand would be a stepping stone into the greater BMW fold. But in reality, it's done exactly the opposite, creating a parallel brand for those not willing to embrace the BMW image, but leaning heavily on British nostalgia. That was sort of the reasoning used when BMW pulled the Rover Group of England away from a fruitful partnership with Honda in 1994 and absorbed it all. In the consolidate-or-die '90s, it made sense. BMW had a small, but successful, line of sedans. Rover had no success outside of Western Europe (its last US attempt at selling cars, the Sterling, ended three years earlier). Yet its Land Rover line of SUVs was just right for the time and the 35-year-old Mini still had image-conscious clout. With every passing day, the brilliance of BMW's move to abandon Rover in 2000 seems brighter. Even ditching Land Rover made sense in the long run (and probably saved Jaguar in the process). With every passing day, the brilliance of BMW's move to abandon Rover in 2000 seems brighter. During a chat with Mini USA VP David Duncan this summer, it became clear the Mini of the past is probably gone. A small, city-sized Mini is not necessarily off the table, but larger and more profitable models are coming first.

Jamaican bobsled team pushes a Mini around town to keep Olympic dream alive

PETERBOROUGH, England — The Jamaican bobsleigh team is used to training without snow, but the coronavirus lockdown has seen its male athletes resort to pushing a car around the streets of an English city to stay in shape, with an eye on Olympic qualification. Some residents of Peterborough have offered their help to Shanwayne Stephens and Nimroy Turgott as they push a Mini down the road, before realizing it is part of a new training regime to work around the closure of gyms in England. "We had to come up with our own ways of replicating the sort of pushing we need to do. So that's why we thought: why not go out and push the car?" Stephens, 29, told Reuters. "We do get some funny looks. We've had people run over, thinking the car's broken down, trying to help us bump-start the car. When we tell them we're the Jamaica bobsleigh team, the direction is totally different, and they're very excited." The couple said they had been inspired by the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics men's bobsleigh team, immortalized in the 1993 film "Cool Runnings." But they said they aimed to qualify for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 and then outperform the 1988 team, who did not officially finish the four-man bob competition after crashing. "Those guys set a legacy, and a movie came out of it. For me personally, I want to surpass that level, and even go beyond that," Turgott, 27, said. Turgott, who normally lives in Jamaica, has been staying with Stephens since January, and the pair had always planned to do summer training in Britain, albeit in gyms rather than on roads. "If you're able to do the same sort of training without the same equipment, then you should be able to achieve more with the right equipment," he said. The pair are focused on qualifying for Beijing 2022. While the woman's team competed for the first time in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the men's team failed to qualify. "The last Olympics, we missed it by one slot. And now we are using that experience as our motivation moving forward," Turgott said.   Weird Car News MINI

BMW profit of $2.7B is down as automaker invests to keep luxury lead

Despite selling 6.6-percent more vehicles - a record by volume - and posting higher revenues in the second quarter of 2013, BMW Group's profit of 2.07 million euros ($2.75 billion) is down 8.8 percent from last year. Investments in new technology (e.g. the new i3) and personnel, in addition to a competitive market, are to blame, BMW states. But the automaker remains committed to its fiscal targets for 2013, which, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Norbert Reithofer, says will be "on a similar scale to 2012."
The BMW brand's sales performance in the first half of the year, which increased by 7.7 percent to 804,258 vehicles delivered, was good enough for it to maintain its lead in the luxury market, narrowly beating Audi, which delivered 780,510 vehicles, Automotive News reports. Mercedes-Benz delivered 694,433 vehicles to cement third place.