馃攳
How The MINI Cooper Lost Its Cool - YouTube
Channel: CNBC
[1]
In 2002, one of the most influential cars in
[4]
automotive history made a triumphant return to
[7]
the United States.
[8]
But less than two decades later, many in the car
[11]
world are asking what many is still doing here.
[16]
The tiny English car gave the world a
[18]
revolutionary design that boosted the British car
[21]
industry and helped consumers comfortably save
[24]
fuel during a crippling fuel crisis.
[27]
It also became a global phenomenon.
[30]
It was made even more famous by Michael Caine in
[32]
the 1969 film The Italian Job, and again by a
[36]
remake of the film in 2003.
[39]
The many left the United States in the 1960s when
[42]
it couldn't keep up with changes to emissions
[44]
regulations. It's returned to America under the
[47]
stewardship of German automotive powerhouse BMW
[51]
brought fanfare and high hopes.
[53]
But over the years, the mini brand has
[55]
increasingly struggled in the U.S.
[57]
as buyers in this country turn away from small
[60]
cars and toward SUV fees in order to survive.
[64]
Many is relying ever more on larger crossover
[67]
like vehicles that are very different from the
[70]
efficient and compact cars.
[72]
Its name suggests.
[78]
The Mini first debuted on August 26, 1959.
[82]
It was the creation of Sir Alec, it's a Ghana's
[85]
chief engineer for the recently formed British
[88]
Motor Company. A new baby in a famous family and
[91]
important because it's so small.
[93]
The British Motor Corporation's many minor BMC
[96]
had been looking for a small, very small vehicle
[100]
capable of fitting for adults that could compete
[103]
with the micro cars developed largely by German
[106]
auto companies. Small cars were immensely popular
[109]
at the time, due in part to the Suez Crisis,
[113]
which had sent fuel prices skyrocketing.
[116]
But creating a tiny car that can still
[119]
comfortably fit for grown humans is pretty
[122]
difficult. Its eagerness and colleagues pulled a
[125]
few tricks that allowed them to have it both
[127]
ways. They shrunk the car's wheels and pushed
[130]
them out to the corners of the frame.
[132]
They turned the engine sideways.
[134]
The gearbox was stacked below the engine in the
[137]
oil pan. This highly efficient design gave the
[140]
tiny car a spacious interior.
[143]
To get the most space out of the four foot wide,
[146]
four foot high, 10 foot long car, the doors were
[149]
made so thin that window cranks would not fit, so
[152]
sliding windows were installed.
[154]
The wheels were a mere 10 inches in diameter.
[157]
Even the door hinges were moved outside the car
[160]
to save space.
[161]
It also gave the vehicle excellent, handling the
[164]
extreme positions of the wheels.
[165]
Gave the mini a wide stable stance and allowed it
[169]
to handle like a go cart.
[171]
The weight of the flipped engine kept the front
[173]
of the car very stable, despite its practical
[176]
advantages. The car bewildered customers at
[180]
first, but it took off.
[183]
By 1965, 1 million minis had been made.
[187]
Wasn't such a revelation to get in his car, which
[189]
cost less than five hundred pounds?
[192]
It was one of the cheapest cars in the market and
[194]
actually start driving it and realize that you
[197]
could have an economical vehicle.
[199]
That was also fun to drive.
[201]
It was in many ways like the Volkswagen Beetle in
[204]
that it was something of a classless vehicle
[207]
attracting a wide array of buyers.
[209]
You were buying a tiny sports car and you didn't
[212]
have to be a playboy to afford it.
[214]
So it was a great democratization of driving
[217]
enjoyment. This was partly helped by its
[219]
performance on the track.
[221]
The car's unique features made it a favorite
[223]
choice for race car drivers in the 1960s.
[226]
This eagerness was friends with the British race
[229]
car maker and driver John Cooper, who became
[232]
enamored with the cars handling and was convinced
[234]
it would make an excellent rally car.
[237]
Its agonies was initially reluctant, but Cooper
[240]
eventually persuaded him to produce the classic
[243]
Mini Cooper 9 9 7.
[251]
For racing drivers who've grown up with certain
[253]
types of cars, with the engine at the front and
[256]
the drive at the back. This was just absolute
[258]
revelation. Every time somebody got into a Mini
[260]
Cooper, they just couldn't believe how well it
[261]
went. Mini Coopers placed as high as third in the
[264]
famous Monte Carlo rally in 1963 and then won the
[268]
race for the first time the following year.
[270]
Minis would go on to win in 1965 and 1967, but
[275]
the 1969 film The Italian Job is often credited,
[280]
even by many itself, as a major catalyst that
[283]
boosted the car's reputation around the world.
[285]
Actor Michael Caine said that he didn't have a
[288]
license when the movie was filmed and actually
[290]
learned to drive on set.
[292]
The car was perfect for a film about a bank heist
[295]
that involved car chases down narrow Italian
[298]
streets. The Mini became something of a star in
[301]
itself and reportedly spurred a craze for the
[304]
tiny car. It also became a favorite ride for
[307]
celebrities at the time, including Steve McQueen.
[310]
All four Beatles and Mick Jagger from the Rolling
[313]
Stones. But the minis impact goes far beyond a
[317]
film inspired fad.
[318]
It's a gona says space saving power.
[320]
Train design, with its transverse engine and
[323]
front wheel drive, is today considered a
[326]
revolutionary and is credited with inspiring
[329]
generations of cars.
[330]
In 2000, a panel of 130 automotive journalists
[335]
chose the MINI as the European Car of the
[337]
Century. It came in second for the overall Car of
[341]
the Century award to the Ford Model T.
[345]
Over its lifetime, the money has been sold under
[348]
different brand names such as Maurice and Austin
[350]
and passed from owner to owner.
[352]
It ended up in the hands of BMW when the German
[355]
automaker bought Britain's Rover group in 1994.
[359]
The merger turned out to be bad for both parties,
[361]
and BMW ended up selling off most of the group's
[364]
brands, including Land Rover.
[366]
But it kept many, which remains part of BMW s
[369]
portfolio today.
[371]
Under BMW, Mini undertook its first redesign in
[375]
more than three decades.
[376]
To its horror, it realizes that nothing has been
[380]
done over decades to sort of replace this iconic
[383]
car that everyone loves.
[384]
So the old one realizes it is edging slowly
[387]
towards the point where it would be legal to sell
[390]
it anymore. You know, it can't be crash
[392]
regulations. It's polluting.
[394]
It's unsafe.
[396]
You know, it's noisy.
[397]
The company reintroduced the brand to North
[399]
America in 2002.
[401]
That year, a remake of the Italian job came out
[404]
with a distinctly different plot and a largely
[407]
American cast replacing the British one.
[409]
Critics observed that the minis were the only
[412]
link between the original film and the new one.
[415]
But BMW s new mini also aroused the ire of many
[419]
purists. The new BMW Mini was bigger than the
[423]
original, and detractors accused it of being more
[425]
of a retro looking showpiece than a true heir to
[428]
the original. By many measures, the car was a hit
[432]
anyway. BMW executives reportedly would have been
[435]
happy with selling 150000 minis around the world
[438]
in the early 2000s.
[440]
Today, they sell more than twice that.
[443]
But sales are falling that roughly 360 1000
[448]
units sold in 2018 was a 2.8
[451]
percent drop over the previous year.
[454]
Europe is the brighter spot in the story.
[456]
Sales of the BMW owned Mini have grown more or
[459]
less steadily from around 25000 cars in 2001 to
[463]
270000 thousand in 2018.
[466]
But in the U.S.,
[467]
many sold 7 percent fewer cars in 2018 than it
[471]
did in 2017.
[473]
The decline continue to trend.
[474]
The brand has suffered since 2013, when sales
[477]
peaked at around 66000 units.
[480]
Many is yet another one of those small, quirky
[483]
and highly practical cars that is in one way,
[487]
quite literally, sitting in the shadow of taller,
[490]
chunkier crossovers.
[492]
Sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, which
[496]
are far more popular with buyers.
[498]
Many has tried to combat this by broadening its
[501]
product lineup. The company that made its name
[503]
selling tiny fuel efficient cars now sells a long
[507]
five door car called the Club Men and a crossover
[510]
like model called The Countryman.
[513]
This is the icon, the one that started it all,
[517]
but not the only one.
[523]
Final one for you. So although the calls who have
[526]
that harmony look to them, they really keep on
[529]
top of regulations and customer expectations to
[532]
keep improving it. And they don't want to go back
[534]
to that old British.
[536]
They say fair of just.
[537]
No, no. Well, we did. We make them like this and
[539]
we've always made them like this.
[540]
But by beefing up its vehicles, many is moving
[543]
further and further away from the traits that
[546]
made it so famous in the first place.
[549]
The Mini Cooper, for example, grew nearly 10
[552]
inches in length from 2002 to 2016.
[556]
It grew an inch and a half in width and gained
[559]
about 400 pounds.
[561]
Many had experimented with different designs in
[563]
its early days, including vans, wagons and
[566]
pickups. And to be fair, cars tend to get bigger
[570]
over time. The mid-sized pickups of today are all
[573]
larger than their forebears.
[575]
For example, comparing the size of a specific
[577]
model from the early 2000s, such as the BMW 3
[581]
series sedan with the three series of today will
[584]
demonstrate that even a single model is likely to
[587]
fatten up over time.
[588]
Today that evolution of light just standard Mini
[591]
Cooper to what we have now.
[594]
Like many SUV is antithetical to what the brand
[597]
stands for. Mini is also one of many automakers
[601]
betting that it can find a future by going
[603]
electric. The mini countryman hybrid accounted
[606]
for 13 percent of the countrymen's total sales in
[609]
2018. The brand also debuted its first fully
[613]
electric production car, the Mini Cooper s E in
[617]
July of 2019.
[619]
Mini is lucky in that it has an exceptionally
[622]
strong brand identity, so the company has begun
[625]
to seek fortune outside the traditional
[627]
automotive business.
[629]
Some recent initiatives, which are so far small
[632]
in scope, are nonetheless remarkable and highly
[635]
unconventional for a car company.
[637]
For example, Mini has branched out into fields
[640]
such as fashion and real estate development.
[643]
The brand has partnered with Chinese development
[645]
firm Nova Property Investment Company to convert
[648]
a former paint factory in Shanghai, China, into a
[652]
mixed use communal living facility comprised of
[656]
apartments, workspaces and cultural and leisure
[659]
amenities in 2016.
[661]
Many also launched an incubator in Brooklyn, New
[663]
York, for startups across a range of industries,
[667]
including transportation.
[668]
These are bets many industry watchers say are
[671]
necessary for any automotive company to arm
[674]
itself for an uncertain future.
[676]
Many was a brand that grew out of a dire need for
[679]
small, fuel efficient cars.
[681]
But what made it such a strong cell generations
[683]
ago now makes it seem like a niche product, even
[687]
a curiosity to many consumers.
[689]
Despite the grumblings of all these many fans who
[693]
not long for this world, I would say, you know,
[695]
that the the way the the way they are running it
[697]
now is a premium. Small car brands is the right
[700]
thing to do. Many says the move toward larger
[702]
vehicles is in its favor.
[704]
The company sees this as its opportunity to gain
[706]
market share and reclaim the premium small car
[709]
market once again.
[710]
Many said its current generation is the best
[713]
product it has ever made, and that changes in
[716]
size are due in large part to minis need to meet
[718]
safety regulations.
[720]
If the brand wants to stay alive in the U.S.,
[722]
it will need to adapt.
[723]
Otherwise, like some other small car makers, it
[726]
could find itself pulling up stakes and leaving
[729]
to the disappointment of many loyal fans.
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage