- MSNBC, Thursday, August 19, 2010 10:45 AM
The British brand is going less-mini, introducing Countryman, a crossover SUV that is four inches wide, six inches taller and 16 inches longer than its classic Mini Cooper, reports Paul A.
Eisenstein.
Why? After a big run-up in 2008, declining fuel prices got American motorists thinking big again. And Mini simply hadn't done much to update the Cooper beyond the addition of a
convertible. U.S. sales last year fell from a 2008 peak of 54,000 to just 47,000.
So, Mini went looking for a way to not just keep its product fresh but acknowledge American market realities
by bulking up a bit. "We've gone from astonishingly small to small," says Jim McDowell, Mini's top American executive.
The new Countryman is expected to go on sale in January.
advertisement
advertisement
Read the whole story at MSNBC »