[Perian]

With all of the gloom and doom over the past few weeks, it may pay to look at the situation Mini Cooper currently finds itself in.

Producing 5,600 vehicles per week with a seven day, three shift around the clock operation is still not enough for their customer base. Mini dealers basically have no ground stock.

Source: AutoNews Email

Richard Truett - Automotive News - July 22, 2008 - 1:35 pm ET

DETROIT -- Sales of the red-hot Mini Cooper will fade this summer, no matter how high fuel prices rise.

Jim McDowell, vice president of BMW's Mini division, told reporters here today that the nation's 82 dealers are out of cars and will be selling mostly preordered units for the rest of the year because demand has outstripped supply.

"For the last three months, we were selling from inventory. There's no way [July] can be as good," McDowell said. He said dealers have a one-day supply of cars and that 81 percent of the cars delivered this month have been those that consumers have configured and ordered.

In June, Mini sold 5,211 units, up 24.8 percent from the same month last year. That followed sales increases of 52.8 percent in May and 39.4 percent in April.

The Mini plant in Oxford, England, is running three shifts, seven days a week and builds about 800 cars a day for 80 markets.