• Business Week, Wednesday, September 2, 2009 8:34 AM

BMW's Mini isn't a "traditional" luxury brand, but the subcompact can cost more than $40,000 and thrives on its exclusive nature, David Welch writes in "The Auto Beat" blog. So it may very well face the quandary all successful luxury brands eventually do: What constitutes too much of a good thing? When it becomes ubiquitous, a brand is not, by definition, exclusive anymore.

Mini USA vice president Jim McDowell believes the Mini could grow from its current rate of about 50,000 cars a year to 80,000 or more without doing any damage to its image, and could rise to beyond 100,000 with the addition of a few niche models now on the drawing board. He draws the line at 160,000.

What might fill those niches? McDowell would personally like to see an update of the Mini Moke, which is pictured in the post. "It would be the fun but potentially gangly offspring of a Mini and a Jeep Wrangler," Welch writes. Sounds like it would have pimples, too.

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