[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by GTO

A Thar is a Jeep, and so is the Jeep Wrangler. Drive them back to back and you'll know why they are a world apart .

We're crazy about Coopers for the driving experience, handling & quality. But yes, you are absolutely correct. When I drove the Cooper S around Mumbai, whoever asked about the car thought that it's a modified Swift

The Mini is overpriced in India. In the USA however, it starts at merely $21,000 (~12 lakhs).

The Thar can never be as advanced as the Wrangler. They just cannot match the investments either by ability or inclination, in terms of what it takes to make a Wrangler type That. This, coupled with archaic Indian regulations, continue to enable M&M to give us only cosmetically upgraded jeep type vehicles.

The Mini is ridiculously overpriced here in India - so much so that a car which is a College going kid or young Exec's vehicle outside India, becomes a style statement for the zillionaires here in India. Only Top Management High Wage earners and Top Professional High Wage earners or Highly Paid Sportsmen or Rich Businessmen, Celebs, People with bags of inherited wealth and spare cash and the offspring of such people can and will pay such a frightful amount of money for the Mini in India and even then, as one of the several cars in the stable. Irrespective of how much of an enthusiast one is, or how much one may love the Mini Marque, this is strictly NOT for the common man.

I love the Mini Cooper S - 3 Door. I cannot, or probably will not stretch to afford one as long as I live in India and earn an Indian Wage. Thats for sure.

The only way I might be able to buy such a car is through the second hand market and I would not wish to pay usurious rates of interest on the loan that I would inevitably have to take, to buy such a car, even in the second hand market.

Seems quite out of reach for now, much as I love it.

[BullBoy07]

I see a quite a few New Generation Mini Cooper here in Canada. I would say it looks good in person and the proportions are not as ugly as seen in the pictures. But I just wonder what is BMW India offering for a Price of 31.85 lakh ? Just the outer structure of a Mini cooper with everything necessary like even a hand-rest as an extra option at a huge price ? Leave alone the Diesel engine and performance at the price range.

For that instance the Mercedes CLA with all the goodies is priced well.

Just hope BMW changes it's strategies for good in the future.

[ac 427]

Originally Posted by GTO

Firstly, its sacrilege that the Mini has been launched only in diesel . No petrol!

When the petrol does come, it's going to be the super expensive Cooper S. Well, at least that car drives a Mini should.

40 lakhs on-the-road for the diesel gets you merely 114 BHP & 270 Nm torque (figures comparable to 10 lakh sedans). Ridiculously overpriced.

Then, a manual transmission isn't even available as an option!

They have seriously & completely botched up the strategy for this car. I'm only left wondering who actually pays the showroom operating costs.

Sorry, this one gets a massive thumbs down until they fix things.

And its not that they are willing to learn. MINI has been a failure since as many years they have been in India. A 3 door Diesel? what were they thinking.

Also, why can't BMW assemble these cars here and get prices down considerably. Why does a MINI Diesel have to be 40 lac upwards. The A class or the Audi 3 series seem like a much much better buy than these.



cheers,
ac

[Rehaan]

Here's a link to Team-BHP's drive report of the 2015 Mini Cooper S that was recently launched:

LINK