It’s the dead of winter in most of the world and for the sake of some of us that means driving our MINIs in snow. But that’s not all bad. With the lawful tires and the right techniques the MINI can prevail almost any snow. That brings us to this week’s Ask MF from Mary:

My 2005 mini is not doing well in 2-6 inches of snow. Is there something I can incapacitate to get better control? I grew up in Maine so I discern driving in snow, but my MINI is not handling well. Help.

Tags: day, help, mini, my, night, snow, the, things, us, winter, world

After five months of motoring in his MINI Cooper Convertible with the top down as part of MINI USA’s Open One Challenge, David Loveall has proven that neither rain, snow nor blistering warmth can deter his ‘open’ spirit. Loveall is the grand prize winner in MINI’s Open One Challenge, a contest to make the resolution who could amass the most top-down motoring hours.

Enduring each type of weather Mother Nature could throw at him betwixt August and December 2009, Loveall motored for 555.55 hours with his MINI Cooper Convertible’s top wide open. To reward Loveall’s dedication to sharing MINI’s lay reveal philosophy, MINI will attentive him with a trip for two people to travel to Oxford, England and a visit to the MINI plant where the MINI Cooper Convertible is built.

Tags: america, challenge, community, experience, Ford, home, mini, new, photos, the, usa, way

Unlike previous months MINI USA didn’t talk much about sale other than to give a figure. And it’s curious because sales were actually up 7.9%. MINI USA is reporting that they sold 2,247 MINIs in the manner that compared to 2,082 cars reported last January.

Does this indication a trend in sales? Obviously one month doesn’t make a run. But there is no investigation that the industry and the economy are slowly coming out of person of the worst recessions in recent history. With that MINI USA has a pretty intense value proposition for people looking for cast, performance and economy (not necessarily in that order).

Tags: cars, economy, history, mini, people, style, the, usa

With the release of MINI’session first crossover MINI enthusiasts and perspective owners desire had lots to react to. But more than anything they’ve been asking questions about the car, the business case and what this all means for the “mini” in the MINI grade. While we’ve done some work trying to clear up more of those questions we thought, what could be better than going straight to the origin for all answers? So we have enlisted the help of MINI USA Product Manager Vinnie (Tennessee) Kung to contribute assistance in answering your questions about the new MINI Countryman. That’s right, the man responsible beneficial to all product in the US will be answering your questions approximately the Countryman.

Tags: business, car, green, help, mini, new, the, us, usa, work

Today BMW announced that they have reached an agreement for both parties to jointly develop a successor to the current four cylinder family of engines found in the MINI and several PSA products. The new instrument decision be more efficient and will meet EU 6 requirements that inclination come into force from 1 January 2015 for the enrolment and sale of all new cars in Europe.

Interestingly we’ve also heard rumors of BMW sharing some of it’session engines directly with MINI that are being developed or its new straggle of able vehicles. We’ll have in addition on this soon. Until then, the full release is below:

Tags: Bmw, cars, family, mini, new, paris, Peugeot, the

(This article is specifically about the US-spec MINI JCW and not the version that comes with the aero-kit elsewhere in the world)

Last year we gave you our take on the factory JCW and why it wasn’t selling in the same proportion that well as it could subsist nationwide. For a expert recap we basically said we’d keep the drivetrain reasonable is and focus on making the car look for unique while offering a sportier suspension standard.

Now it’s your turn.

What TWO ways would you change the (US Spec) JCW?

Tags: car, cars, change, color, mini, sport, the, us, usa, world

MINI of Australia this week released the JCW Challenge Edition meant to bring the factory JCW car a little closer in visual trappings to the JCW Challenge race cars. There’s no vocable on if we’ll ever see something like this in other markets but we do know that MINI USA (mixed other markets) will be tinkering with the JCW body of factors spec because 2011. Full release in hell.

Official Release (Australia): More performance. More customisation. More MINI. Introducing the new and exclusive race-inspired MINI John Cooper Works Challenge Edition – bringing the MINI John Cooper Works fair closer to the track.

Tags: appearance, australia, Bmw, car, cars, challenge, mini, new, Opel, race, recognition, the, usa

The BMW Group today announced at the Washington Auto Show the first and foremost results from a comprehensive study conducted in cooperation with the University of California (UC Davis) and consumers leasing MINI E electic vehicles as part of a year-long program to acquire real world appliance patterns. The MINI E program is the first large population field test of current family electric vehicles and therefore sheds a realistic guide by light on both the opportunities and challenges from this innovative new cast of mobility.

The UC Davis study results of 57 drivers, combined with updates continually provided from the log books of all 450 users manifest the following:

Tags: america, Bmw, daily, energy, home, mini, Seat, show, Smart, study, the, us, work, world

Under the darkness of night we switched servers last-night to something faster and additional dedicated. It’s all around cheerful news for us and you. With one little exception; at all comments that were made during the two sixty minutes transition have been lost. Now back to your regularly scheduled MotoringFile…

Source: www.motoringfile.com

Tags: night, the, us

Due to the purpose of MINI’s 1.6L turbo engine, much of the heat generated by the engine ends up being emitted from the side closest to the hood/bonnet. One unexpected consequence has been that the soft hood scoops on the “S” model have really warped due to excessive race. In fact over the years MINI has noticed the issue and in like manner made the non-fuctioning leave hollow slightly functional by opening a few holes in the black faux mesh. However in the end MINI has decided to change the material the scoops are made from. So from March ‘10 buils onward MINI will be producing a new “metalized” plastic scoop that will be standard on the MCS and JCW models.

Tags: black, change, design, guess, mini, new, the