Approaching $40,000.

Has the MINI bubble burst? The company, its dealers and workers are in trouble. A potentially lethal cocktail
of high retail prices, plummeting sales, idle production lines and stiff competition from rivals such as
Fiat can be blamed.

Some MINI owners are understandably worried, now that the brand has self-harmed and question marks have
begun to hover over future resale values.

If recent reports from the factory are to be believed, there could be quality issues with some models that have
been built within the past few days. Several MINIs that were on, or had just left, the production line were allegedly
sabotaged or vandalised by angry workers who were effectively given one hour to vacate their positions
and join the unemployment line.

I’d always hoped and believed such stupidly brutal behaviour (by management and workers) disappeared
the day British Leyland died, so I’m disappointed by this latest industrial debacle on English soil.

But let’s not forget that the troubled MINI plant is a former BL site. Now that it owns the MINI brand, BMW can
play silly buggers by pretending the factory is in prestigious Oxford, not notorious Cowley.
But the Germans can’t alter historical/geographical facts. MINIs are made in Cowley, by Cowley workers, some
of whom might be ex-BL personnel.
Did BMW really believe it could suddenly fire almost 1,000 staff and not receive an ugly backlash?

Why didn’t BMW/MINI suggest, for example, that all employees (from the CEO to the cleaner)
could keep their jobs in return for working a four-day week and accepting a wage reduction of, say, 20 per cent?
Everyone would remain in work, continue to provide shelter and food for their families and - important, this -
retain their pride, dignity and hope.

Credit where it’s due. The MINI has been the major British success story of the last decade. The car is effectively a
baby BMW. It looks good. It’s fun. It holds its value well (or has, until now). And if you opt for the right version it’s
one of the greenest cars of all.

Trouble is, MINIs have been pricing themselves out of the market. The cheapest one is merely a supermini and
such cars can be bought for as little 2/3 - as the Fiat 500 proves. Even more worryingly, range-topping MINIs
cost nearer $40,000, which is daft. And discounts on MINIs are low, or else non-existent.

It gets worse. Although residual values for MINIs are traditionally good (which makes them sound investments for
motorists buying them new), they’re nowhere near as high as they used to be. Late last year a MINI purchased new
would retain 63 per cent of its original value after three years. Today, that figure is only 54 per cent. In other words,
new MINIs bought now will depreciate at a faster rate than new MINIs bought in recent months and years.

It’s time for BMW to bite the bullet and accept that too many MINIs are too highly specified, overpriced and
expensive to insure. Those wrongs can be put right immediately by putting a stripped-out, Group One MINI in the
showrooms and, preferably, nearer the price that Fiat charges for its 500.

Thus priced, an honest, less is more MINI is the kind of family runabout I’d stand in line to buy, even in the
current economic climate. And I suspect I wouldn’t be alone.