When the Mini franchise comes to about a dozen markets across Canada next March, it will start with the Cooper model and grow from there.
Executives at BMW, who own and operate the Mini name and dealer network, are determined not to let their trendy subcompact follow the example of the VW Beetle — open big and then fade for lack of new models.
BMW has every intention of turning the brand it got during its otherwise calamitous ownership of the British Rover Group into a separate and vital range of models. So in time we can expect station wagon models and maybe a pickup and who knows what else.
BMW is also determined to make Mini appeal to a modern audience, not just to all those middle-aged men who bought Mini in the 60s and 70s because it was cheap and cheerful and always ready, willing and able to throw itself into any and all corners.
To appeal to the children of those Boomers, BMW Canada and the other operators of the franchise hope to make Mini as fashionable as the Mary Quant-designed skirts that also came out of Carnaby Street in London at the same time with the same name as the car.
The intent is put the 2002 Mini into the same cultural context as Beetle, PT Cruiser, Miata and other vehicles that people have to have and then grow it from there.
The first Mini model to come from the factory near Oxford, England, will be the Cooper, which will get one engine and three transmission choices. That will be closely followed by the Cooper S, which will have the extra power and various equipment required to make it sportier. We will not get the Mini One model that's being marketed across Europe as an entry-level model.