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Shopping > Autos > Mini Estate
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When the BMW subsidiary gets around to building the next-generation MINI, it will be on a much more adaptable platform able to support a wider variety of body styles than simply the hatchback and the soon-to-be-launched four-seater Convertible in the current series.
MINI UK's general manager Trevor Houghton-Berry says that preliminary work was done on a two-seater coupé-cabriolet design based the present platform, although nothing came of it.
Something like that could easily appear as one of the four or five different body styles for the next-generation MINI, due within the next three years, and there's more than a possibility of a longer-wheelbase estate version; so the old Mini Countryman idea isn't necessarily gone forever.
Although the 2004 Convertible doesn't go on sale until June 26, almost the whole of the UK first-year allocation of 6500 has already been pre-ordered, and it won't be long before there are inroads into the 8500 planned for 2005. In fact, the Oxford factory is flat-out on MINI production, working three shifts seven days per week in order to keep up with the recently increased annual production figure of 180,000, up from the originally planned 125,000.
A decision will have to be taken quite soon about whether or not (maybe even where) capacity should be boosted once again. The snag at Oxford right now is the "bottleneck" at the paint shop.
Manufacturers like it when demand runs a little ahead of supply, but Trevor Houghton-Berry knows they can't take that too far. Right now, there's a three to four-month wait for the Cooper version which takes half of all MINI sales, and five to six months for the Cooper S.
He wonders: "Would customers wait six to seven months?" That might be just too long, beyond the point where they give up and buy something else.
Now available in 73 different national markets, the MINI still sells better in the UK than anywhere else, at the rate of 40,500 per year. However, although the US is currently in second place with something like 35,000, the company expects that it will move ahead within the next two or three years.
It looks likely that the UK-market "tlc" service package won't stay at the bargain price of £100 it has been held at since its introduction. There are strong hints of an increase on the way.
With MINI having established itself as a strong individual make on its own, Houghton-Berry wants to see it having a more prominent place in the 152 BMW dealerships: "It makes sense to share backroom functions and infrastructure, so we won't see any stand-alone showrooms, but the dealers are doing so well that they don't need much encouragement to move MINI out of the corner."
In fact, at least one showroom is already laid out so that you walk past the MINIs to get to the BMWs.
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