Mini phasing out Coupe, Roadster next year - Autoblog (blog)
Hire somebody who has a clue how to style a car, improve the reliability and you might save the brand. I've only driven a couple of the newer versions of Mini and most fortunately an original Mini in England quite a few years back. The new ones are also great drivers, but of course much larger than the original Issigonis design. Well put together without doubt, I think BMW has done a stellar job with Mini. The Roadster and Coupe are great looking 2 seat cars, especially the Roadster, but seriously too expensive to become popular. BMW prices high unfortunately and therefore severely limits sales numbers. Small cars don't seem to fair that well here in the US anyway, even though more reasonably sized cars have been on the increase in the last few years. In any case, most drivers I know don't seem understand a small car's appeal. At a price of over $30,000 for a fairly diminutive vehicle compared to the norm on our roads, there was just no chance huge sales numbers would be in the offing for this car in this country. Price kept me away, and I'm a definite fan of small, light two seat cars. Source: www.autoblog.com
