“What will BMW (GB) do once initial demand for the new Mini tails off, as it has for the retro-look VW New Beetle and Chrysler PT Cruiser?”


The response from PR chief Chris Willows, over dinner during the UK press launch for the supercharged Mini Cooper S version, was short and to the point: “If it#;s just a fad, it#;s a failure.”


“We have invested a huge amount in the brand and we haven#;t put in the time and effort for nothing,” Willows added. “The Mini is neither fad nor fashion and we will be doing various things to ensure it is sustained throughout its life.”


He would not be drawn on the current model#;s projected lifespan (six to eight years is the European and BMW norm; the Japanese usually work to four-year cycles) nor would he confirm or deny that concepts shown some years ago when BMW was still developing the Mini with Rover – a pickup, for example – would see volume production.


Willows would also not confirm that there would be more Minis after this one, perhaps unlike those retro-rivals. “Could VW do a second New Beetle? Could Chrysler do a second PT Cruiser?” he said.

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So, would BMW do a Smart and roll-out additional Mini-branded lines to supplement the initial single model?


Willows would not be drawn on that either but said a drop-top version of the current car is definitely go.


“There is no official news of the cabriolet but you can be damn sure there will be one,” he asserted.


That little word ‘brand#; is a keyword that seems to make its way into any conversation with UK BMW people concerning the Mini, usually accompanied by ‘building#; and/or ‘value#;.


Still, even the most cynical observer would surely agree that the apparent obsession with brand – something that#;s getting rather less emphasis at General Motors since Bob Lutz arrived – has worked well for the Mini with over 25,000 sold in the UK since launch in March.


BMW (GB) argues that, while many potential UK buyers can fondly link the word ‘Mini#; to memories of a tiny boxy car with a wheel at each corner and then associate that warm fuzzy recollection with the likes of learning to drive, a first car, a first sexual experience or granny#;s 20-year-old ‘shopping basket#;, the car was, by the end, pretty crummy – neither very well made, fuel-efficient, easy and enjoyable to drive, comfortable nor particularly safe (it would not meet even New Zealand#;s relatively relaxed safety standards in the mid-1990s and could not be re-introduced there).


A case can be made that Old Mini lasted as long as it did due to the fact that the tooling had long been amortised, that pre-BMW Rover could not afford to develop a replacement (today’s MG Rover is sourcing its Rover 100 replacement from India’s Tata) and that loyal fans, mainly in the UK and Japan, bought just enough to keep the line running profitably.


BMW (GB) insiders say that all the work that#;s gone into brand-building is to re-associate the name Mini with a completely new car that is, at the end of a day, a baby BMW, not (as the Mini was originally designed) a budget-priced car to lure 1950s, post-austerity and Suez oil crisis families out of their motorcycle/sidecar combinations and German bubble cars, the latter a pet hate of then-BMC head Leonard Lord.


Clever advertising for the 2002 reincarnation includes full-size Minis attached to billboards, an imaginative direct mail campaign, strict insistence on high dealer identification and showroom presentation standards and a stack of innovative supporting merchandise (the speedometer-shaped wall clock, with cuckoo-substitute Mini beeping its way out of a garage on the hour, is a smash hit worldwide).


This has all helped sell those 25,000 UK Minis so far, with each £11,500 Cooper averaging about £2,000 worth of factory and dealer-fit options.


That may be another key to the car#;s success. A British buyer can get a base Mini – which comes standard with a specification Americans would call ‘nicely equipped#; – for £10,300 and add five-years of routine maintenance for just £100.


Or he can, as one Yorkshire Cooper S buyer has just done, dive into an options list as long as any mainstream BMW#;s and go from a £14,500 base to a uniquely customised example costing £22,000.


Observation at just-auto#;s local Mini dealership suggests barely any two rolling from the Cowley factory in Oxfordshire are built alike and BMW figures concur: “We#;ve done over £3 million in turnover on Mini options and accessories so far,” Mini marketing chief (and, appropriately, ex-Rover executive) Emma Lowndes said.


Success is not confined to the UK. US and Japanese dealers have gleefully reported potential buyers camping outside their stores to be first in the queue and showrooms have sometimes had to be closed temporarily due to overcrowding.


Several thousand units have already been sold in the US, the 20,000-unit 2002 allocation is well on its way to depletion, production has been increased (a £50 million investment adding 700 English jobs) and US press reviews have been extremely favourable – including a New York Times feature – while some early deliveries have been quickly re-sold on internet auction websites for as much as $US7,000 over list.


Lowndes cited a California car rental agency billing Minis out at $US125 a day compared with the $50 they charge for a Ford Taurus. She also talked of Mini owners requesting some interesting colour combinations including the One covered in black dots, a red Cooper ordered with green interior trim and the Guinness-drinking fan who ordered his in black with a cream roof to resemble his favourite pint.