MINI Grounds The Rocketman: Report

MINI’s Rocketman city car took last year’s Geneva Motor Show by storm. The small (even by MINI’s standards) urban commuter seemed destined for production, giving MINI another weapon to counter attacks from Toyota (the iQ and Scion iQ), Audi (the A1) and even Mercedes-Benz (the A-Class). Read more…

MINI Recalling Cooper S, John Cooper Works Models For Fire Risk

BMW has announced the recall of some 89,000 Cooper S and John Cooper Works models built for the 2007 – 2011 model year. The recall includes the turbocharged Clubman, Convertible and Countryman models as well, specifically: Read more…

The Oddest Test Drive Ever: Video

You can learn a lot about a person from a little word association. For example, if you say “machine” and the subject replies “head,” chances are they’re a Deep Purple fan. If you say “wife” and get a reply of “chainsaw,” or if you say “barnyard” and get the response of “lubricant,” then you know you have trouble. Along those lines, we’re not quite sure what to make of Mathew Foster, the winner in a recent MINI contest that had entrants define the ultimate test drive in six words. Read more…

MINI Building B-Spec Racer, Too

If you want to race cars beyond the ChumpCar, LeMons and SCCA Improved Touring levels, B-Spec may be the most affordable way to turn a wheel in anger. Sanctioned by the SCCA, Grand Am, NASA, and World Challenge, B-Spec is essentially a showroom stock series that pits subcompact automobiles from Honda, Ford, Mazda, Kia (and now MINI) against one another in evenly-matched competition. Engines are left stock, but modified suspensions, brakes, wheels and tires are allowed. Read more…

2012 MINI Roadster Models Priced

We’re not fans of the MINI Coupe’s backward-baseball-cap styling, which we frankly just find goofy. The car may be a blast to drive (but we wouldn’t know, since MINIs in the press fleet are rarer than ethics in politicians), but sooner or later you have to park it. Getting out, eyes averted, while nearby pedestrians point, snicker and laugh out loud is something we just can’t get used to. Read more…

2011 Mini Cooper S Countryman ALL4 Review & Test Drive

‘MINI MANIA GROWS TWO MORE DOORS’ 

The new Mini Cooper has been a phenomenon here ever since it first débuted a couple of years ago.  Mini owner car clubs have popped up all over the country as this fabled, small, ubiquitous two door was taken over, redesigned to modern day standards, and marketed around the world by BMW.

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Mini Car, Maxi Sticker: Mini Inspired by Goodwood Priced

Last April we told you about the upcoming “Mini Inspired by Goodwood,” the illegitimate love child of a one-night-stand between a Rolls Royce and a Mini Cooper. It’s got almost everything you’d expect to find inside a Rolls-Royce, but in scaled-down proportions. Wool mats? Check. Leather-topped Walnut Burr dash? Check. Cornsilk leather interior? Yeah, it’s got that, too. It doesn’t make the seamless power of a Rolls Royce, but it does come with the 181 horsepower turbocharged engine from the Mini Cooper S. Read more…

Mini Partners With Rolls-Royce On The Goodwood

If two automakers were ever at opposite ends of the automotive spectrum, they’d be Mini and Rolls-Royce. Mini makes compact but amusing hatchbacks for the great unwashed masses, while Rolls-Royce builds luxurious motorcars for the well-heeled. You probably wouldn’t want to park a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe on the streets of Manhattan overnight, but on the other hand you wouldn’t want to roll up to Monte Carlo’s Hotel de Paris in a Mini Cooper. It’s all about expectations, I suppose. Read more…