“I’M the big grand-daddy,” says Michael Ganal, grinning proudly. The 52-year-old has a new addition to his family. Like all infants, it is small, cute, noisy and expensive but it is not a bawling brat. It’s a car.
Last week Ganal, BMW’s sales and marketing boss who launched the firm’s first Mini five years ago, christened his latest offspring, Mini Mk II.
At the ceremony at the Mini factory in Oxford was another new father, chancellor Gordon Brown. The two doting dads have good reason to smile. BMW is selling more than twice the number of Minis it was thought possible — 200,000 a year — giving both BMW’s bottom line and Britain’s trade figures a welcome boost.
Now, thanks to a fresh £200m investment in BMW’s UK manufacturing plants, the new model and future versions — including a bigger Clubman, a Mini 4x4, a family car and even a pick-up — production is set to rise to 240,000 by 2008 and 300,000 by 2010.
The new investment and the British launch of the new Mini, which will be followed by a global unveiling at the Paris motor show next week, should be a cause for celebration. But it comes at an awkward time; Mini’s very success is creating problems for BMW.
The first BMW Mini was so well designed and engineered that it is hard to improve. Early reviews by the few select journalists who have seen and driven the Mk II, which will go on sale next year, are mixed.
Top Gear magazine complained that it looks so much like the old model — even though every body panel, the British-built engine and the interior are new — that it is impossible to tell the two apart.
Car magazine said the chunkier nose “blunted its chirpy charisma”. On the road, Car said: “Some of version one’s ineffable, slightly anarchic character has gone.”
Autocar concluded: “More refined, better built but maybe not quite as much fun as the old car ... it no longer has the original’s snap-happy reactions.”
Ganal is stung by the criticism. Speaking in his new office on the 22nd floor of BMW’s iconic “four-cylinder” headquarters in Munich, he acknowledges that it is rare for BMW to produce a new model that looks so much like its predecessor. But he insists that it is a sign of strength.
He draws a parallel between Mini and another motoring icon. “I’d like to show you a picture of all the Porsche 911s over the past 40 years, so you can tell me which was the most attractive. Every one was the most attractive when it was launched.”
He denies that as the car has grown up, it has lost its sense of fun. “We haven’t compromised. I’ve driven quite some miles with the car and I can tell you we went back to the engineers many times saying this or that aspect of the handling had to be improved until it was right. The go-cart feeling will be fulfilled better than ever.”
Time — and a few thousand more miles in the hands of reviewers — will tell. But Mini’s success has created another, bigger problem. It is now firmly established as a brand in its own right. It’s not just a “baby BMW” as some critics predicted it would become.
One three-door car is not enough to sustain the brand, the factory or the dealer network. Mini needs a family of models or it will suffer the same fate as other recently updated retro cars, notably the Volkswagen Beetle and Chrysler PT Cruiser.
They flew off dealers’ forecourts when introduced but buyers soon migrated to other marques when the novelty wore off, or when their circumstances changed and they needed a different type of car.
BMW’s dilemma is how to expand the range without diluting the Mini magic — its unique combination of energy, classlessness and cheekiness.
Ganal concedes it will be tough. He illustrates the challenge by using another Porsche analogy. “Porsche is adding and adding and adding models (the Cayenne 4x4, the Boxster, the Cayman) and at the end of the day the question might pop up: ‘Is it still a real sports car or just another premium marque?’ “At the moment Mini’s unique strength is that there is only one model — the classic three-door model. We know we have to change, to come up with derivatives, but to do it without watering down the unique Mini appeal.”
The precedents are not encouraging. When BMW’s arch-rival, Mercedes, decided to follow up the launch of its challenger to the Mini — the tiny, two-seater Smart city car — by introducing a Smart coupé, a roadster and a 4x4, sales declined so sharply that it sold off the new models to a British consortium and went back to basics, producing the city car.
Toyota’s bid to ape Mini’s success by creating a youthful Scion brand in the US with a coupé and a boxy small truck has been patchy at best.
Ganal insists that after spending five years creating a firm foundation, new models can be introduced without weakening the brand. “Don’t forget we’ve already done it at BMW,” he said. “Look at the X5 (the BMW 4x4). The SUV (sports utility vehicle) represented by a Jeep Grand Cherokee was known for some strengths but no-one ever said that a 4x4 could deliver the driving pleasure that marks out a BMW. Our engineers got on with the task and built a car that is so enjoyable to drive that we called it an SAV — sports activity vehicle.
“We can do the same. Our future derivatives might move a little bit away from the classic design but they will always have the classic Mini values — self-confidence, energy, cheekiness, beauty, charm, reliability and classlessness.”
As well as the current Mini One, Cooper and Cooper S in the classic shape and the convertible, what new Minis are planned? Ganal says the Clubman or Traveller — an elongated version of the current model, the concept for which has been trailed at car shows — will be unveiled next year and go on sale in 2008.
Also on the drawing board, he revealed, is a Mini 4x4. “Excitement is a Mini value and 4x4s are exciting.” There will be a family car larger than the Clubman that could accommodate four people in comfort. “We can make a car big enough for the modern family. Why shouldn’t we build Minis enabling you to have your kids with you?” he said.
A pick-up is also planned. “It can be a fancy way to offer space and handling.”
The only types of vehicles ruled out are a Mini minivan — a people-mover — and a fast two-seater “speedster”. A minivan would be too tall and bulky to deliver darty handling, while “a speedster is not the most obvious car. Mini has always had a sophisticated way to offer space and to have smart solutions in the interior. A classic two-seater would not do that”.
There are so many new models that Ganal is already making plans for a second factory — and it might be in America, not Britain. One in six Minis is now sold in America, the largest market after the UK.
“We have a simple rule: production follows demand,” Ganal said. “As BMW grows over the world, so Mini could grow over the world.” BMW already makes its X5 4x4 and its Z4 roadster in South Carolina.
Here in Britain, some 750 jobs will be created at three component suppliers to be situated within an hour’s distance of the Oxford production line. BMW’s own workforce at its three UK plants is to increase by 450 to 6,800.
It is go-faster stuff — especially given the mixed reaction to the new model — but Ganal insists the market is going Mini’s way.
“Mini represents 4% of the premium-car market. What we have learnt at BMW is that a 5% or 6% share does not spoil desirability.”
He forecasts that the premium-small-car market will grow more than 40% by 2015 — thanks to record oil prices, environmental concerns, rising earnings and more young people living alone.
With so many new models heading into uncharted territory, the Mini adventure that began five years ago is about to get rougher and tougher. But grand-daddy Ganal shows no signs of reaching for his pipe and slippers. “Mini is an unbelievably interesting exercise. I love it. I don’t rest and smoke big cigars ...” — he pauses and grins before adding — “yet”.
Small become big as carmakers move to downsize
THE MINI has had an easy ride since it was relaunched by BMW five years ago. Apart from Mercedes’s Smart car, it has had few rivals. Not any more.
Small cars will take pride of place on manufacturers’ stands at the Paris Motor Show next week. Vauxhall will announce details of its new high-performance Corsa VXR. Renault, the papa of the small car, will reveal its latest Clio — the 197 — while Peugeot will display its new 207.
Smart will launch its latest tiny two-seater, which it will start exporting to the land of the big car, America, next year. Fiat will reveal details of its fresh take on the iconic 500, while Toyota will show off the Yaris, and Nissan its minuscule Micra.
Sharp-eyed ‘petrol heads’ hope to spy concept versions of Audi’s new two-door A1 and Alfa Romeo’s three-door Racer, a rival to the Mini Cooper S.
Auto bosses are downsizing their models faster than their workforces because they believe small cars represent the future for their beleaguered industry. Even Mark Fields, boss of Ford in north America, which is best known for making hulking land yachts such as the Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator, said: ‘Small is big.’
The small car — known in the trade as the B segment — is one of the few market sectors that is growing. It now represents the second-biggest-selling segment in Europe, with sales rising by more than 8%
a year. In the key US market — the world’s largest — small-car sales are growing by 12% a year while sales of light trucks and SUVs (sports utility vehicles) are down by 7%, according to figures from the industry analyst Autodata.
Consumers flocking to Paris next week will be looking for ‘the next big thing in small cars’. The manufacturers of the US-built Tango believe they have the right product. It is an electric car that does 0-60mph in four seconds and can go as fast as 130mph. George Clooney loves his so much he drove it in a recent Vanity Fair photo-shoot.
A fast, fun, celebrity-friendly, small electric sports car? It could be the new Mini.
