“It’s a big job to build a MINI”
National Geographic February 2005 has a nice spread featuring the MINI and the international source of its many parts:
… nearly 2,500 parts … Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, U.K., Italy …
Also interesting is the 17 million projected car sales in USA this year; at 36,000 per year the MINI is a very small percentage!
Recently posted on MINI2:
… I found that shifts using the paddles happened far more quickly than shifts using the manual transmission. Because they happen so instantaeously, they synchronize perfectly with the “click” of the paddles, giving the whole action a nice mechanical feeling …
… I found the paddles very intuitive and easy to use – I was surprised, because my intial thought before driving the car was that they should have made one paddle for shifting up and the other for down. But it felt spot on …
… there was almost none of the spongeyness of feel or rubber banding that there is in many torque converter transmissions …
… I found the throttle a slight bit more responsive on the manual … after being broken in, and once the computer adjusts to your driving style, this wouldn’t be an issue …
… In general, the car felt every bit as sporting (at least in the mode I drove it in) as its manual counterpart …
Sounds like fun 🙂
(update: another review by Aleks on MotoringFile)
Today the MINI USA owners lounge correctly showed my new MINIs color (previously it was still showing the “spec” color – dark silver!)
Most MINI owners know already but for those that don’t – one of the great things about ordering a MINI is tracking its build. As soon as you have a production number, you can log in to the owners lounge and check its spec and build status.
(for more order tracking info, see this MINI2 FAQ)
M&I / GBMINI 