Why Is MINI Photographing an Updated Rocketman Concept?

[Stewart]

I’m always worried that they will design the new Hatch around one of these models just to fit it in. I keep an eye on the news hoping that they do not sacrifice what the Hatch now offers in size and usability and more importantly looks to become a member of the pack and step ever further away from the Classic.

We could be looking at the design team trying to bring in a common styling that will go through the range and before we know it the MINI hatch has become a car designed and styled not purely on driving pleasure and distinctive looks but something at that resembles it but is not quite the same and fits in a pigeon hole rather than stand out and be hatch we all love.

Granted with me it is a wee bit of a shock and awe reaction when I first see new models. I understood the Countryman as it did bring in the Mummy brigade with four doors that you can chuck the kids in. My friend has an S All4 and I’ve grown to like it, same with the Coupe first reaction was – what have they done with the roof! Then you get used to the look and appreciate that its got a bigger boot, ok only two seats but is a stiffer car and as far as I’m aware it just as great a drivers car as the MINI as always been.

I don’t mind new models just wary of what direction its taking the Hatch and what concessions will be made for it to fit in. But in a ever saturated MINI world at least it keeps the range fresh if your still wanting MINI but something that stands out from the crowd.

I’d be very surprised if the Rocketman or what ever it could be called is a cheap car, this is MINI we are talking about. I see it offering more City driving/parking and silly MPG with the price tag of that of a standard Cooper to that of a sub 10K MINI. I guess we will have to see.

[ELFMAN]

I agree with Stewart's sentiments.

I guess I'm just a MINI Romantic when it comes down to it (NOT a New Romantic - the makeup brought me out in a rash). There was a time when you'd say "I drive a MINI", and folk would say "Cool!", now it's "I drive a MINI", and the reaction is (if there is any reaction), "Which MINI... oh yeah, whatever." Many of us in NMS will have experienced those heady days of yore (I think he was the donkey in the Winnie the Pooh stories), and miss them.

Running MINI as a profitable enterprise, with Range Diversification and Target Market considerations is not lost on me - you'd have to be a total idiot not to see why they've made some of the moves they've made, but it doesn't mean that it comes without a cost - in more ways than one! The MINI Hatch was and is one of the best driver's cars you could buy at ANY price, to think of it becoming bigger and less 'capable' of doing all the things we value so highly, to be 'replaced' by a smaller version which will attempt to recapture those values just sticks in my throat a bit. Granted, it's not a 'logical' reaction, but since when has buying a MINI been a purely logical decision? If it was, we'd all be driving Clios...

If the Rocketman started at £8K, I'd maybe see the point, but I doubt that would fit in with BMW's 'Premium Product Pricing' ideas - they wouldn't want to make it look too cheap, as the perceived value would diminish the 'exclusive' appeal of the range. Ian said the Rocketman will probably eventually replace the R56 as the 'small MINI'. Maybe so, but whether it'll have the 'cohones' to get the petrol flowing in our veins remains to be seen. I fear we may lose the cherished values of the R50/53/56 and have in their place TWO new MINIs, neither of which do anything as well as the 'originals'.

[ELFMAN]

I have to say that I kind of disagree with almost all the negative comments about MINI in this thread. I can't understand how it affects current MINI owners and why you would be so upset when MINI launch a new derivative of the MINI brand. That said, the Countryman Coupe, to me, is the most utterly pointless car they've ever tested. Why not just buy a hatch? And there's nothing wrong with the Countryman 5 door in handling or looks so, what's the point? A.

Andy, I think most of the negative comments have been triggered by the proposed introduction of the Rocketman concept, not about MINI 'per se'.

If the Countryman Coupe is 'pointless', we can surely raise the same argument regarding the Rocketman Vs R56? "Why not just buy a Hatch?"

As far as the Rocketman affecting current MINI owners, the fact that whenever a 'new' model is released (in this case one which isn't that far removed from an existing model), it leads to a loss in value of the older model. It obviously happened to R50/53 values when the R56 was introduced. I think this is especially true of MINI, where the 'fashionable/first folks on the block to have one' element still plays such an important part in the purchasing decision.

I'm not upset at MINI's introduction of new models - I like the Coupe and the Roadster, and have eventually got my head (if not my arms) round the Countryman, but I think the Rocketman is simply a money-making reinvention of the Hatch, and therefore quite unnecessary.

[ELFMAN]

[LadyR]

I just think that, well, land rover make land rovers, why dilute the brand by making every deviation of the car possible. There's an argument for variety but it just seems a sell out to me. Hmh.