MINI Canyon gunning for Range Rover

Its a sad day

Even the car is sulking, this will sell but what a shame, take one of the most iconic names in motoring, tag it onto a "must have" SUV and voilà a licence to rip off more fools who will buy anything as long as its got the "right" badge. The sort of people that will buy this are the ones who have to have an iphone4, even though its vastly inferior to the iphone 3GS, and nowhere near as good as the latest HTC

By Shaun34 on 20 July, 2010, 9:52am

Whats at the top of a canyon?

A precipice usually- leading to a drop-and a wylee coyotee style splat at the end. This is where BMW/MINI is heading as it continues to shamelessly hawk the brand and squeeze every last ounce of commercial viability from the brand-jesus, they could teach the ryanair boss a thing or two about strangling a market. I agree with shaun34, it's a barely disguised grab for the i padders and musthavers who we all know are as fickle as a teenagers musical taste. I ve owned an 03 cooper, it was fabulous, but have been saddened of late to see the degeneration of what was a great concept turned into a great car turned into a marketing departments wet dream of battering a brand into a million pieces in order to appeal to as many people as possible and diluting what was great about the concept into oblivion!
Am i just getting old? (36) or is this just tiring? Please please please BWW stop this and concentrate on the original concept- the further it shifts away, the closer it edges to the canyons precipice...

By WeeKaisDa on 20 July, 2010, 10:09am

Do you get the feeling that BMW are flogging the Mini brand to death?
What next, Mini codoms (for the small man in your life)

By toycollector on 20 July, 2010, 10:48am

Another day, another "variant"...

Ho hum... How many more to come?! How about a BMW competition to design your own variant. Mini Cashcow anyone?
And where are all of the "original" Minis now? 10 years out of production and virtually extinct from our roads. Shame...

By nhunt2 on 20 July, 2010, 11:28am

Issues

I just happened to be talking to two Mini Cooper S drivers yesterday. What I heard was rather disturbing. No mention of the performance or handling. Just a list of all the things that have gone wrong on them both. It was a shameful exercise in how not to build a not cheap car and the after sales service that comes with it. I thought that this had been resolved after I stopped selling the Real Mini in the 80's. Apparently not. Worst of all I cannot believe they are still pushing the run flat tyres on to poor suspecting customer. The original mini has the dreadful "Stayflat" Denovo that everyone could not wait to get rid of. Now this latest incarnation that I am told lasts for just 13 months and cost a staggering £300 to replace. Will we ever learn.

By PeterJK on 20 July, 2010, 12:02pm

Issues

I just happened to be talking to two Mini Cooper S drivers yesterday. What I heard was rather disturbing. No mention of the performance or handling. Just a list of all the things that have gone wrong on them both. It was a shameful exercise in how not to build a not cheap car and the after sales service that comes with it. I thought that this had been resolved after I stopped selling the Real Mini in the 80's. Apparently not. Worst of all I cannot believe they are still pushing the run flat tyres on to poor suspecting customer. The original mini has the dreadful "Stayflat" Denovo that everyone could not wait to get rid of. Now this latest incarnation that I am told lasts for just 13 months and cost a staggering £300 to replace. Will we ever learn.

By PeterJK on 20 July, 2010, 12:07pm

issues

Evoque is from Land Rover and not range rover.............
range rover and land rover cars are different even though they are from same subsidiary ie.Land Rover

By Lucky4U on 20 July, 2010, 4:28pm

edit

I am sorry.........u r right its range rover evoque..........i checked wikipedia.........i read somewhere that evoque is a step by land rover to separate it from range rover...........bla bla

By Lucky4U on 20 July, 2010, 4:31pm

BMW/Mini are a business looking to make profit as all companies aim to do. Therefore, there is a need to expand the range of vehicles on offer to ensure they sell the product and stay in business. A look back at defunct British car firms shows a lack of product development leads to going out of business. I have had BMW mini's since 2004 & its great. My runflat tyres have lasted over 30K miles (front). I would have definately had a Countryman but as its not built in the UK will wait for the Evoque. With Mini's selling so well why not invest in development of the UK production facilities.

By keithk7 on 20 July, 2010, 6:38pm

This Is Just Getting Stupid!

Shaun34, Weekaisda (sorry if that's not spelt correctly), Toycollector, Nhunt and Peterjk are all absolutely correct. with their remarks as far as I can see it. This is just battering a poor successful little car, (judging by numbers, not issues with manufacturing build quality), into something it cannot possibly be withgout changing everything MINI stands for. And to put it up against a Range Rover Evoque is just brain damage. How the hell can you do that and expect to make it work?!?! They are two entirely different vehicles, always have been always will be, you just CANNOT compare the two, they're in entirely different leagues. I think BMW need to stop drinking so much bloody coffee and sowerkraut and get back to being realistic.

This really is a very sad day. I like the MINI hatch, always have done, but these monstrous concoctions that BMW seem intent on pushing on us really are straying well away from the point, which was and is, in case anyone's forgotten, (BMW clearly have), to make a small car that was fun to drive, economical, aimed at city and rural life, NOT going off road, and all the other things that make the hatch a great car. I'm sure the original Mini and Sir Alec Issigonis are just bawling their eyes out now at the thought that BMW are pushing out this trash but still maintaining that it's a MINI.

I really feel very sad and angry about all this.

By nick7 on 21 July, 2010, 12:37am

addendum to the above

Christ, even the bloody car illustrated here is saying, "I've had enough, stop doing this to me, stop trying to make me what I'm not".

By nick7 on 21 July, 2010, 12:41am

The original Moke was, and still is, a classic, and what BMW are doing now just rubs salt into the wounds.

By nick7 on 21 July, 2010, 12:43am

Ugly is the word

It will sell because people are obsessed with brands in Britain. Even if you take turd and brand it, people will buy it

By thecardude on 21 July, 2010, 9:52am

I Have a Better Name for This Car

This car should be named the Mini Cooper Blowfish. It looks like it's bloated and the downturned grill makes it look unhappy about its fate.

BMW/Mini Cooper needs to concentrate on getting the quality of its core car back up. Also, concentrating on getting the all-electric Mini E into production would be a boon to business. Trying to compete with Land Rover (and failing) will not.

By mini04bear on 21 July, 2010, 4:12pm

Time for a Riley

Don't BMW own other names though? Couldn't they use Riley instead?

By volvofan on 22 July, 2010, 2:24pm

Just call it Junk!

Poor BMW just have no real taste for making Minis!

I remember so fondly the real ADO 15s - my company car was a spanking new 2 door MG 1300 in white with red leather and my colleagues was my envy - a really lovely new Mini Cooper 1275 S in red!

Boy - did that go round corners. We were living in Lausanne then.

By vandenplas4litre on 22 July, 2010, 3:41pm