[niky]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Because it refutes the claim that auto manufacturers can't profitably build and sell niche cars. As a matter of fact, when you get right down to it, ALL cars are niche cars.

I've never claimed it's not profitable to sell niche cars per se.

The problem is... the cost-equation of the niche. If that niche is the $50 steak that people order only once a week that you make a bigger profit on than your regular steaks, it's worth it. If you have to carry cut-priced pasta that maybe one diner in fifty will eat and which makes you little profit but takes precious time for the cook to prepare when he should be cooking steaks for the other customers... your call.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Migawd, he's FINALLY managed to get the effing POINT! Cars don't sell on practicality, they sell on (perceived) coolness. That's just as true (if not more so) for the giant SUVs as for the Mini. They aren't at all practical for the vast majority of people that drive them, but they're purchased not just because some people think big is cool (or will make them cool by compensating for their inadequacies), but because the automakers have spent vast amounts of money on advertising to persuade people that they're cool.

If you'd read what I wrote, no amount of manufacturer intervention will convince people a car is cool. Did Cadillac's brilliant idea of getting rappers and drug dealers to endorse the Escalade make it the most desired SUV ever? Nope. The market did that all on its own. You can go some way to doing it, but nobody is ever going to think a cheap instant coffee from 7-11 is as cool as an expensive frap from Starbucks. Or that a $100 Android tablet is as cool as an iPad. (but then, at just $100, people are going to buy the Android, anyway) The price and exclusivity are part of that... and that matters in an inherently irrational, wasteful, large purchase like buying a new car.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

But what's practical for you may not be so for me. I've no use at all for a back seat, and seldom carry more than a couple of dogs and a backpack.

Like I said... MINI Hardtop? If I were in the market, yes, in a heartbeat. Simply because it's a cool toy. Those dogs and backpack would just as easily fit into a cheaper (and more economical) Fit... or the Spark (Lord knows when it will get there).

The original complaint was "why no high mpg cars". The answer is... "people don't buy enough of them to make it worth the while". My supporting arguments are: "The only mildly successful small car is the MINI, which sells less than a fourth of what the Fit sells (and both are on a downward sales trend), which sells less than a fourth of what the Civic sells, which sells in slightly less volume than the Accord.... but is now newer and bigger than ever."

If you're going to accept the low margins inherent in lowering the price of that small car to meet the expectations of a US car market that's used to paying much less for bigger cars than anywhere else, then it'll be difficult. If you instead say: "Screw that" and bring the car in at a premium and price it as a luxury item instead (MINI, Fiat 500 (which isn't doing well) and the upcoming Opel ADAM... which probably won't make it there), then you're not going to sell them in big volumes, but at least your dealers will be happy.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

You think the paint is a structural element?

Did I ever say that? Perhaps I was missing an adjective. I should have said "especially (oddly) in white". This is from observations by MINI owners that the white cars from the Steyr factory seem to be more prone to creaks and rattles than others. Perhaps they're built on a different line. [conspiracy] Perhaps the colored paint is a structural element, filling in the spaces around the bolts.[/conspiracy] Who knows. But that the factory can consistently make white cars that creak like a leaky tub is mind-boggling. That white test unit is the only MINI I've driven that's like that. I previously had a hardtop, a Clubman, one non-S Countryman and one 2WD Countryman Cooper S... and only the white Cooper S Countryman sounded like that.... which is what prompted me to look online for the experience of others.

Weird? Yes... yes it is!