Late To The Party? BMW May Finally Address VW's GTI Threat With Performance Mini

BMW is examining proposals for a new Mini GTI, based on the upcoming Mini Crossover model due next year.

The new front-drive machine would slot in just below established favourites such as the VW Golf GTI, offering a more compact – but equally well engineered – package.

It’s too early to say definitively how the car will be priced, but it could be around 10 per cent cheaper than a similarly specified and similarly powerful Golf GTI, according to early projections.

If it’s given the green light, the Mini GTI would be built alongside the Mini Crossover at the Steyr factory in Austria and won’t appear much before 2012.


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theoptimisticpessimist - 5/7/2009 11:25:30 AM

+3 Boost

Late to the party? Mini has had the John Cooper Works package for years.

elduderion - 5/7/2009 3:38:20 PM

+1 Boost

Yeaaaa. Did you guys NOT get the invite? :)

mini22 - 5/7/2009 6:06:25 PM

+1 Boost

My question is what are these guys at "Autocar" and "Auto Express" smokin? Hasn't the current Mini CooperS and the previous CooperS(which I own)been directly competing against the GTI since 2002? Or are they basing it on a "true" 4dr? The Clubman I guess is not quite the 4dr. So Mini is going with a cheaper model then the GTI with true 4dr's. So does that mean they are going to drop the price of the regular Cooper and Cooper S(which sell from about $18 to 25 grand-without many options)in the US?I must question the British publication facts. It does not quite compute.

elduderion - 5/7/2009 7:27:09 PM

0 Boost

It fits in 'just below' because the GTI is the better car. Don't believe that? Don't take my word for it, read any car mag in the world which has tested them side by side. Inventing the hot hatch niche as VW did with the original might have something to do with it. Much like how BMW 'M' cars keep winning comparo's.

And the GTI is preceived as an econobox in the US, only by those who haven't driven it. In the ROW, the GTI is an upmarket hot hatch, a recently new concept here in the States.

I don't consider them equals because the Mini is too small, expensive (EVERYTHING is optional) and there is no true 4-door. I'd consider one like in the illustration.

RaulT - 5/7/2009 8:26:12 PM

+2 Boost

Cooper S?

elduderion - 5/8/2009 11:49:47 AM

0 Boost

Umm, they make a 4-door GTI. Did you really drive it? So its heavy? Econocars are light POS's, not heavy. Its heavy because it has IRS and other expensive features, not found in econocars.
I suppose you think the Audi A3 is an econocar too? Did you know they are mechanically the same car? So if you equate the VW badge with econocar, then I can't argue with that logic. Its your thinking which decides that Audi can't sell small upmarket cars in the US because here people equate size with quality. Enjoy your big gulp :)

elduderion - 5/8/2009 1:16:44 PM

0 Boost

Well done, you've just defined what an econobox is in your above statement thus making the Mini too, by your definition an econobox. Only the Mini Cooper S is about $10k too expensive when you add those optional features found on the GTI. Maybe why thats one of the reasons it finishes behind the GTI in EVERY test I've read online with US and Euopean car websites.

Even based on a lowly Rabbit the GTI still > than Cooper S.

JB007 - 5/10/2009 12:19:00 PM

+1 Boost

MINI Cooper S, MINI John Cooper Works and MINI GP ??? Late to the party?? Hey, we've been to the party - got drunk and taken all the good looking women home !