MINI product planners have just realized that they have too many variants in their showrooms. The MINI Roadster and Coupe have returned very poor sales globally and also in Malaysia judging by the handful sold to date.
BMW have just released a statement saying that they will replace these two models with a new model that will look like a stand-alone sports car. The new car will use the next MINI’s front-drive architecture and will be sold as a coupe and as a convertible. The design of this new model will only retain the company’s key styling cues such as the round headlights and the well-known grille, but the rest of the car will be completely different. This new MINI variant might also get the BMW downsized petrol and diesel powered 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engines slated to introduction in 2014. The new F58 and F59 sports cars will receive bigger four-cylinder powerplants. The rest of the new sports car’s layout will be mechanically similar to the upcoming MINI hatch and will run on the same chassis architecture and using similar suspension layouts, steering hardware and transmissions. The new sports cars could be launched by the end of 2015 or probably in 2016. More details to come after next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show.
