Mini Paceman Gets Go-Ahead
SUV-coupe will hit the streets as part of a new-model rush for Mini
According to industry publication Automotive News, Robertson revealed that the Paceman will form part of a veritable deluge of new models from Mini over the next few years, following on from the Mini coupe that's expected to go on sale later this year, and a roadster version that's due in 2012. Exactly when the Paceman will hit showrooms, however, Mini isn't yet saying.
"We' will take this car [the Paceman] into engineering now and over the next few months we'll firm up the exact launch date for it," said Robertson. He also suggested that there would be relatively few differences between the concept and production Pacemans (Pacemen??), saying that "you'll find the resemblance very, very strong."
The Paceman might not be the sort of car to get PHers' hearts racing (it hardly got a glittering score on the hallowed P.H. O'Meter when we first showed you the Paceman concept), but Mini apparently reckons there's a fair market out there for buyers who want a 4x4 SUV, but also like the idea of a 'sporty' coupe. There's no accounting for taste, we suppose...
 Something like this roadster concept from 2009 is also on the way... |
 ...as is a production version of this coupe effort |
I think they may be a little surprised as to just how successful the new MINI became in it's One, Cooper and Cooper S variants. Now the model range is starting to get messy.
I don't know how to fix it, but selling the Countryman under the "MINI" brand is a little bit moronic, and I suspect the BMW bods are realising this. Pretty much everyone knows cars as a brand then a model. They've buggered this up, and they need to fix it before it gets further out of control.
Am I being too OCD?
I think they may be a little surprised as to just how successful the new MINI became in it's One, Cooper and Cooper S variants. Now the model range is starting to get messy.
I don't know how to fix it, but selling the Countryman under the "MINI" brand is a little bit moronic, and I suspect the BMW bods are realising this. Pretty much everyone knows cars as a brand then a model. They've buggered this up, and they need to fix it before it gets further out of control.
Am I being too OCD?
But I would prefer clean rocker panels.
(What are these air-vents in front of the rear wheels doing???
Brake-ventilation for such a small car? Ridiculous.)
And cleaner bumpers with a chrome strip like the early models might be more elegant than the cheap looking "black plastic holes".
All the 4x4 dirtbox style Minis I find a bit odd, though.
I wonder whether all the different Mini versions start to canibalize the own customers rather than gaining new ones?
I was wrong then. There are far more facebooking, twittering, image obsessed, x factor wanabee t
ts out there than i ever thought!These so called Mini's are nothing more than a GERMAN car giant taking advantage of misty eyed fondness of a long dead BRITISH car. Nothing more than a cynical marketing ploy.
Freedom of choice is something we enjoy, so people can be free to buy these cars as much as they can be free to be t
ts! 
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