With the launch of its new Roadster model MINI is seeking to rejuvenate the struggling segment says U.S. brand boss Jim McDowell.

The Roadster and its sibling, the new MINI Coupe, were developed in tandem, but to appeal to very different segments of the population. And perhaps more importantly, they were developed to bring in buyers who might not have otherwise bought a MINI.

Speaking with AutoGuide at the Detroit Auto Show, McDowell explained how when research into the cars started several years back a trend became immediately obvious in respect to the open-top two-seat segment. “We were amazed at how much the market had contracted over the last 10 years,” he said. “In fact, it contracted almost as fast as the average price went up.”

A BMW Z3, which started at just $31,200 back in 2000, has now transformed into the Z4, with a sicker price of $48,650. The MINI roadster, however, will start at just above the $25,000 mark. Miata aside, “There has not been such an attractively priced roadster in a long, long time,” says McDowell.

Ignoring, rather obviously, the Mazda MX-5, McDowell does comment that there’s a certain equity to the Roadster being a European model. “I wouldn’t call MINI owners snobs,” he says quite frankly, instead stating that they simply appreciate the attention to detail and quality common to European vehicles. And yet the MINI offers another quality that pricey German machines can’t match.

True the Roadster is an oddity in the segment, as a front-driver rather than a rear-wheel drive machine, though McDowell has commented in the past that he doesn’t believe it matters what wheels power that car, so long as it’s fun to drive.

Along with the attractive $25,000 starting price, a MINI, says McDowell, is the sort of thing you can still drop your kid off at school in without looking like you’re showing off. “A MINI is always socially acceptable.”

Still, McDowell says the Roadster will draw people from many brands, particularly those top-down drivers that once existed and McDowell believes they still do. “With this car we will bring back dormant roadster drivers that have disappeared,” he declares.

The Roadster is the latest model to join the expanding MINI lineup, which now includes the Coupe, Countryman, Clubman, as well as the conventional MINI Cooper and its convertible counterpart.

GALLERY: 2012 MINI Roadster

Stéphane Peterhansel has achieved his tenth Dakar victory, this time in a MINI All4 Racing. A seasoned veteran of the two-week long race, Peterhansel won his first Dakar at the age of 21.

His victory car this time around was a MINI All4 Racing built by German tuner X-Raid and was designed to look like a MINI Countryman even though it shared almost no stock parts with the production countryman. The All4 Racing weighed in at 4,100-lbs and featured a 3.0L twin-turbocharged diesel powerplant with 315-hp and 516 lb-ft of torque. The engine was mated to a six-speed sequential gearbox while the car itself packed tons of high-tech race parts including water-cooled rear brakes.

The 2012 Dakar Rally took place over 5,500-miles through Peru, Chile and Argentina. Second place went to Nani Roma, who was also in a MINI All4 Racing and third place went to Giniel De Villiers in a Toyota Hilux.

BMW is currently cooperating with NHTSA to recall 88,911 MINI Cooper models that were sold between 2007 to 2011 for fire risk. Affected models include the 2007-2011 MINI Cooper S, 2008-2011 MINI Cooper S Clubman, 2009-2011 MINI Cooper S Convertible and additional variants manufactured between November 2006 to January 2011.

Back in summer of 2010, BMW began investigating reports of engine fires and the NHTSA opened their own independent investigation in October. It’ is only recently that the NHTSA has sought further assistance from BMW on the matter.

In total, NHTSA has received at least 12 separate complaints of MINI Cooper S models catching fire. Five of the fires reported have completely destroyed the vehicles while the rest have caught fire when the engine wasn’t even running. No injuries related to the fires have been reported fortunately.

NHTSA has recently found that the circuit board on the electric auxiliary pumps that cool the turbochargers are malfunctioning, causing them to overheat. At least 81 of these water pumps are known to have failed and four additional fires have been reported worldwide.

BMW will begin notifying affected owners next month, having needed time to get its supply and repair process in place for the number of recalls they’ll need to do.

MINI is bringing a race inspired convertible into the market with the unveiling of the Roadster at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. This is the first two seater open topped vehicle in the English brand’s history and makes the MINI lineup six vehicles strong after the recent introduction of the Coupe (read our review here).

The Roadster will be offered with four engine options, although the Diesel variant will not be offered in North America. The John Cooper Works packaged Roadster will be the largest engine offering possible for the MINI with a 1.6-liter twinpower turbo putting out 208 hp and accelerating the roadster from 0-60 mph in 6.3 seconds. The MINI Cooper S Roadster will be outfiitted with the same 1.6L twinpower turbo, but without some of the race inspired upgrades of the JCW Roadster, and will crank out 181 hp and run from 0-60 mph in 6.7 seconds . The MINI Cooper Roadster is the base model and will sport the 1.6L four cylinder as well, but without the turbo unit, and will generate 121 hp and run 0-60 mph in 8.7 seconds.

The MINI Roadster borrows quite a few features from MINI’s race teams, including a rear spoiler which lifts at 50 mph, stainless steel roll bars, an Electronic Differential Lock Control, and even the choice of sport stripes for the exterior. These features come standard with JCW edition of the roadster. The MINI Roadster also stands 20mm lower than the MINI convertible which shows the cars push to be sportier and even better handling then any of MINI’s other offerings.

In terms of looks, the Roadster keeps all the same classic MINI styling like the round headlights and half moon grill, but appears a little more race inspired thanks to the lower stance, harder swept back windshield and low to the ground skirts.

All in all the MINI Roadster looks like a fun little car.

GALLERY: MINI Roadster

See AutoGuide’s complete 2012 Detroit Auto Show Coverage here

With the luxury car and mid-size car market growing rapidly, it makes sense that the BMW group has introduced its MINI brand to India.

MINI has brought four models with them for their Indian debut: the MINI Cooper, the MINI Cooper S, the MINI Cooper Convertible and the Clubman. Kay Segler, senior vice-president of MINI brand management and business coordination said, “We are not looking at volumes initially in India. We are looking to build the MINI brand. The MINI cars will feature 1.6 liter petrol engines. There is no plan of diesel engines for time being.”

MINI has looked at making this move in the past, but up until now has felt that the country and market were not ready for them. “More Indians are traveling and living abroad, they have network overseas and are more aware of trends,” Segler said. For the time being the cars will be distributed from three exclusive MINI dealers, two of them are in New Delhi and one will be in Mumbai.

All of India’s MINI’s will be assembled in the UK with no talk of an Indian assembly plant in the near future. The Indian prices for the MINI will range from Rs 24.90 lakh to Rs 31.99 lakh.

[Source: MyDigitalFC]

MINI finally confirms their entry into the 2012 World Rally Championship after missing the official entry deadline of December the 19th. MINI has had issues with coverage of the event in the past and it seems has tried to make a statement about their dilemma.

A source in the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) said, “We have an agreement that Mini will be registered as a manufacturer for this year’s championship. We understand there are existing concerns over the position of the promoter – and particularly the implications for the sport’s coverage in Germany, but we are addressing those concerns.”

MINI also announced along with its entry that they will only be running one factory car rather than the originally planned two. The driver of the MINI factory team WRC car will be Dani Sordo, with the other MINI factory team driver Kris Meeke not in the running this year. ”This is not an ideal situation. Ideally we wanted, in fact everybody involved wanted, the original plan of two cars, two drivers: Sordo and Meeke doing all 13 rounds. That wasn’t possible, so we had to find a solution which we have done. The priority here is that Mini is a manufacturer in the 2012 WRC”, said the source inside the FIA.

MINI has not confirmed yet whether they will be running their WRC car in the most expensive rounds of the championship such as Rally New Zealand, but has said that they are submitting the car to the full world championship.

[Source: Autosport]

The launch of the next generation MINI Cooper has been reportedly been pushed back, but according to reports, it will be well worth the wait. Sharing a platform with the next-generation 1 Series, the BMW will arrive first with the MINI (code named F56) being revealed in late 2013.

While similar, insiders say the two will be very different and without knowing you’d never guess they shared the same underpinnings. The MINI’s new design has been described as “modern”, and the most dramatic evolution yet, while still being true to the brand identity. It will reportedly gain a more aggressive look, a direction MINI has been heading in since the launch of the Coupe.

Powering the new cars will be a brand-new 1.5-liter turbocharged 3-cylinder engine, with roughly 120 hp in the base Cooper and 180 hp in the Cooper S. That tiny yet powerful engine will show huge gains in fuel economy with as much as 40 mpg highway for the Cooper S and 45 mpg highway for the base Cooper.

With that engine seemingly tapped-out for power, the new platform will reportedly have room for a larger 4-cylinder engine as well – likely for John Cooper Works models. In addition, a 2-cylinder could be offered, for sale in Europe and emerging markets.

Once launched, look for a new Clubman and Convertible to arrive shortly after, with the secong-gen Countryman still a few years after that.

[Source: MotoringFile]

Click here to read AutoGuide’s 2012 MINI Cooper S Review

MINI will make its way into the commercial vehicle market soon when it releases a cargo-oriented version of the Clubman.

The car, officially called the MINI Cargo, is set to debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March and will essentially be the same as the Clubman (pictured above), but with the back seats replaced by a cargo bed and blacked out rear side windows. The release represents offers by parent company BMW to remain competitive and preempt the similarly-minded Fiat 500 Giardinetta Wagon.

Small commercial vehicles are already popular in Europe, other examples include the Ford Transit Connect, a compact panel van introduced in Europe in 2002.

While not particularly useful for large cargo, having small, efficient and delivery-specific vehicles is useful for small businesses that hinge on such a service. Expect more details to come on the 13-foot wheelbase bread truck soon.

[Source: World Car Fans, Auto Motor Und Sport]

Earlier this week we reported rumors that MINI will be heading to production with their Rocketman, and now we have reason to believe that Toyota may play a role in co-developing the vehicle.

Recently, BMW announced a partnership with Toyota to help form more eco-friendly projects, and now MINI may be getting in on some of the action. One of the options for the Rocketman is for BMW to consider utilizing Toyota’s next-generation small city car platform, which would be a cost effective method to bringing the Rocketman to market in a quick and timely fashion. Of course the other major issue is whether or not BMW can develop the Rocketman to suit the MINI brand and to ensure that the model retains classic MINI attributes.

It’ll also be interesting to see what powerplant resides in the Rocketman once it gets into production mode and whether or not that would be BMW influenced as well. A peculiar thought would be an electric drivetrain, considering Toyota’s next-generation small city car platform is being built with that in mind. MINI has already been tinkering with the MINI E electric car, so that wouldn’t be far off the mark either.

Nonetheless, things are still being discussed but we’re hoping that MINI makes a formal announcement soon regarding their production Rocketman.

GALLERY: MINI Rocketman Concept

[Source: MotoringFile]

MINI‘s Head of Design, Anders Warming, was recently reported to say that a production version of the Rocketman Concept is “on my Christmas list.” Perhaps a hint of things to come, Warming continued to praise the Rocketman Concept by saying that it’s “a clear leap forwards” and is a car to “claim the true heritage of the brand.”

Warming also spoke about the new MINI Roadster at the annual United Kingdom press dinner, stating “The Rocketman and Roadster are part of an ongoing dialogue with customers that asks, ‘What can we do with Mini?’” Heading into the future, MINI will continue to strive to be the smallest car in the segment with lightweight engineering and class-leading efficient engines.

At the end of the day however, Warming reiterated that the Cooper hatchback will remain at the center of the MINI brand name but hopefully the Rocketman Concept does become reality as it’s a great looking vehicle.

GALLERY: MINI Rocketman Concept

[Source: Inside Line]