2009 MINI Convertible Update
Remember that rendering we showed you a few weeks back (the one on the right of this post). Yeah, you can forget about that. While it may give you a general feel for the car, it’s not the real thing. We’ve been informed by the most trusted source we have that the real R57 will actually look a bit different. When pressed, they simply said, “think sporty”.
Does that mean the R57 will have it’s own front and rear clips to further distinguish it? Or will it debut the forthcoming facelift due out for the R56 around the same time?
r56 facelift? what r56 facelift? i like the sound of that already…
>r56 facelift? what r56 facelift? i like the sound of that already…
You’d be waiting at least three years.
Previous generation:
Launch: March 2002
MINI Cabrio R52 Launch: July 2004
R50/53 Midlife facelift: July 2004
R50/53 Production end: November 2006
R56 Launch: November 2006 (Europe) February 2007 (US/Canada)
R55 Clubman: February 2008 (Expected)
R52 Cabrio production ends: Nov ’08 – May ’09?
R56 midlife facelift: June/July 2009?
R57 Cabrio launch: June/July 2009?
If MINI follows the previous product development path, we may see a midlife facelift in a hair over 2 years..?
The R53 project was not a normal time-frame for BMW. A better example would be to look a the E46 life-cycle. Released in 1999 – refreshed in late 2003.
2-seater.
i just hope we can see out of the thing.
retractable hard top option?
Also it may differ like the BMW E90 sedan from the E92 Coupe. I know both the R56 and R57 are coupes, but I guess we will have to wait and see. Should be interesting.
By the way, Gabe since we are talking a little bit about the face lift. Do you think that the facelift would include a little more power also? Or just updated face and rear?
cooper s before cooper? Retractable hard top sounds wonderful if they can put one on, two seats fantastic, and if they update the interior with better quality materials I may even get me down for one 🙂
I think a retractable hardtop would probably dictate a two seater. Although Mazda really did a good job with the Miata in that regard.
Facelifts usually include more power. For the 2005 “facelift”, MINI bumped the stock S power from 163HP to 168HP, revised the gearing ratios (Made 1st and 3rd gear shorter), added a new JCW Eaton Supercharger with coated splines, revised ECU programming and the famous exhaust “Burbles”.
The Cooper model never received a bump in engine HP, but the only significant change was dumping the fairly unreliable Midland Gears sourced 5 speed gearbox with an all new Getrag 5-speed manual, again with revised gearing.
So midlife facelifts do include some sort of power gains aside from cosmetic revisions made to the interior and exterior of the car.
Thank you for the information OttoMannS, I appreciate it.
…hmmmm. Since the key word here is,”sporty”,methinks that not only will this rag top be faster than the latest;but,also has better sight lines to see,from inside the car,while driving,and with the top up…
…btw…the,”2-seater”,is not a bad ideal either.
<blockquote>Launch: March 2002</blockquote><blockquote>
I expect this is the (US?) launch of the R53 Cooper S? Don’t forget the R50 One and Cooper had been launched in Europe a little earlier, in 2001 or even late 2000 (not exactly sure). This puts the late ’04 facelift of the R50/R53 on a similar timescale as the planned facelift for the R56.</blockquote>
(Sorry, syntax mistake for the quote)
<blockquote>Launch: March 2002</blockquote>
I expect this is the (US?) launch of the R53 Cooper S? Don’t forget the R50 One and Cooper had been launched in Europe a little earlier, in 2001 or even late 2000 (not exactly sure). This puts the late ’04 facelift of the R50/R53 on a similar timescale as the planned facelift for the R56.
Eelke, March 2002 was the official launch of the R50 (Cooper) hardtop MINI in the US. The MINI ONE and Cooper hardtops had been released in the UK and Europe in July 2001.
Unlike the R56 generation, the R53 Cooper S hardtop was not available for a full year until June/July 2002 The R53 S was released worldwide at the same time. There was a lot of excitment building up right up to the time the R53 S was released.
In the R56, the Cooper S was available at the same time as the Cooper upon launch. In fact, the S was more abundantly available upon introduction. Quite a contrast from the days of very low availability and fierce demand for the original R53 Cooper S.
Again I want to urge you to not make comparison’s to the R53/R50 timeline when talking about when to expect a revisions to the R56. The R53/R50 had an accelerated timeline for several reasons that made it an atypical BMW product lifecycle.
In theory a two-seater sounds good, but I think it’d be a bad idea. As someone who shopped around for a sporty convertible with a backseat, I can say there is not much out there . . . but there is a ton of competition from two-seaters.
A 2 seater with some kind of hard tonneau cover fitted between the rear and the front seat with the roll bars mounted just behind the driver could look nice and certainly more sporty than the current model. Plently of space if they are willing to go without the rear seat. Are they planning a clubman convertible too?
Gabe- I can confirm that the new Cabrio will be launched in April 2008. Dont ask me how I know but I have a very well connected source within Mini management at Oxford.
Trust me on this one.
We’re still hearing 2009 from MINI USA… obviously, the Euro launch will happen sooner.
Hello, I am from Germany so please excuse my weak English skills.
In fact the the MINI started in Europe in summer 2001 (One/Cooper only, I think the MINI One even is not availible in the US, the supercharged S came in 2002). The facelift came in 2004 with the convertible. Which means, that the convertible has been in Market for only three years now, which has forced BMW / MINI to leave it in the market for financial reasons.
In 2009 the cab will come with the regular one as a facelift again. That is for sure what I have heard from BMW internals.
For the E46 cycle which was mentioned earlier:
Please don’t forget that you were talking about the coupe and not about the sedan. The sedans facelift was already in 2001.