Limited MINI Clubman availabilty in the U.S. for 2008
Add another model to the Limited Initial Availability pile: the MINI Clubman. It's being reported that BMW only plans to provide US dealers with four -- that's right, four -- MINI Clubman's "for the first few months of US production."
The Dodge Charger is going into limited production its first year in order to keep the car exclusive. The Malibu Hybrid is only being sent to certain dealers in order to make the best attack on its competitors. The MINI Clubman will make its way here in so few numbers not just for exclusivity's sake, but because BMW apparently makes more money on a MINI sold in Europe than one sold here, and Italy has been identified as the largest market for the little big MINI. For those of you interested in the 3.5-door, do you hear that? Yeah -- it's the sound of a long wait...
[Source: Motoring File]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim UF 5:37PM (12/11/2007)
the weaker the dollar gets against the euro, the less european cars we'll see here. Unless they are built here.
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Luis 5:40PM (12/11/2007)
And that's a shame...seems we always get the short end when it comes to Euro cars...
Y2Breeze 6:02PM (12/11/2007)
'The Dodge Charger is going into limited production its first year in order to keep the car exclusive'
Uh, so I've seen a lot of preproduction models, heh?
Charger != Challenger...
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fuzzy 6:09PM (12/11/2007)
Car manufacturers are starting to go the route of consumer electronics and couture designers:
Make it in limited amounts and people will think it's exclusive and therefore "better." Turn around and sell it at a huge markup.
Thing is, unless you're a big Chinese company, counterfeiting cars is hard work. Whereas counterfeiting Louis Vuitton or BAPE or the Wii or iPhones is less so.
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Ron Peters 6:33PM (12/11/2007)
I have a 1970 Challenger and I've always found it interesting that this confusion in the Charger/Challenger name is VERY common even among people who should know. Not sure why as the cars don't really look alike. I guess they just sound too much alike.
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rgseidl 6:54PM (12/11/2007)
Mini's factory in Oxford, England is running at full tilt to satisfy global demand. Small wonder they are maximizing profits by selling the limited number of new model units available in hard-currency countries first.
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AMcA 7:42PM (12/11/2007)
It's not a 3.5 door. It's a 4.5 door. There are two doors on the back end.
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Felix 8:20PM (12/11/2007)
no. There's only a door on one side. It's the right side as well, and the british press have been complaining about this fact.
RGS 8:59PM (12/11/2007)
AMcA's referring to the the two side-hinged doors at the very back (as opposed to the single top-hinged hatch that the Cooper has). So there are two doors in the front, two doors in the back, and a half door in the middle for 4.5.
Tim UF 9:41PM (12/11/2007)
look: http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2006/09/mini_clubman_ae.jpg
Eric Biran 9:34PM (12/11/2007)
The article says "Expect US dealers to get as little as four Clubman (sic) a month..." It isn't clear if that is an absurd total for all of the the US, or 4 per dealer/month (which makes more sense and is not so bad at just under one Clubman sold per week at every dealer). It also says, "...[expect] that number to grow gradually over the year." So not all is lost if you want a Clubman.
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Rocketboy 10:08AM (12/12/2007)
ADVERT ALERT
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Rocketboy 3:39PM (1/09/2008)
Nevermind.. took 'em long enuff to kill the spammer...