MINI2

Workers have returned to building the MINI on Monday, after fuel protests in Spain led to a parts shortage, resulting in the closure of BMW Group Plant Oxford over the weekend.

The BBC reports that the workers may still be paid for the weekend’s lost work hours, but may effectively “owe BMW time” to make up for the working time lost due to the resultant shortage in brake components which BMW have said was “beyond our control”.

Good news if you’re waiting for a fresh new MINI to be built for you, even if you’re in the UK and may not be able to afford any fuel for it, if there’s any left by the time your new MINI is delivered that is!

This summer MINI UK will open the doors to a brand new model at MINIVERSITY, the Oxford-based car manufacturer’s home at the 2008 British International Motor Show.

Between 22 July and 03 August, the UK media and British public will have the opportunity to view first hand some of the smartest things to come out of Oxford in recent years. MINI owners will have access to ‘The Union’, an area to meet others in the MINI community, while future customers can take a walk through the ‘Faculty of Engineering’ and discover the millions of ways to personalise a new MINI. The stand will also incorporate a Quadrangle-style area on which the entire MINI range will be displayed.

The most recent ‘graduate’ from MINI Plant Oxford is sure to draw crowds to the stand. The brand new MINI John Cooper Works will be shown to the public for the first time on British soil.

The fastest production MINI ever will be joined by the greenest MINI, in its Cooper D guise. The MINI Cooper D’s ultra-low CO2 figure of 104 g/km, fuel economy of 72.4mpg and rock solid residual values make it perhaps one of the most rational choices for buyers in the new car market.

British show visitors faced with the threat of CO2 emissions-related road use taxation, spiralling fuel costs and the often catastrophic losses made in selling-on nearly new cars should make a bee-line for the Institute of MINIMALISM, where technologies fitted to the Cooper D and other MINI cars are explained.

MINIMALISM technologies, which are the same as those used in BMW’s EfficientDynamics systems, include Brake Energy Regeneration, Auto Start-Stop and Switch Point Display.

Andy Hearn, General Manager for MINI UK, said:

MINI has a habit of turning heads and it will be the same story at this year’s show. MINIversity is a great concept as our stand will not only present MINI’s personality, but also educate visitors on MINI’s green credentials. MINI will show it’s entirely possible to own a car that’s clean, green and great to drive.

It’s also a great way to remind people that British manufacturing is alive and well at MINI Plant Oxford.

Auction in aid of HIV/AIDS projects at www.ebay.at from 5 to 15 June 2008.

Munich/Vienna. Videos whirred and cameras clicked on Saturday, 17 May, when Joseph Corre drove the Life Ball MINI 2008 over the red carpet outside Vienna’s City Hall in front of 40,000 spectators. Escorted by four models in “British policemen’s uniforms”, and with Sophie Ellis Bextor in the passenger seat, the arrival of the Life Ball MINI 2008 marked the start of the fantastic opening show.

The Life Ball MINI is traditionally created by the fashion designer responsible for the fashion show in the opening event - and in 2008, this was the British lingerie label Agent Provocateur. This year, the new MINI Cooper Clubman was selected as the basis for this exclusive, unique design. “The new shape is so reminiscent of the old English Mini police van that we were immediately inspired to create an Agent Provocateur styled interior that you really would want to get banged up in! A classic yet suped up exterior in Agent Provocateur signature pink and black colours complete with pink flashing light and inside…..the most seductive prison cell with hand to wall cuffs and blacked out windows and iron bars”, says Agent Provocateur founder Joseph Corre.

The unique - and escape-proof - Life Ball MINI will once again be auctioned on eBay, as happens each year. It all starts on Thursday, 5 June - and then MINI and Agent Provocateur fans throughout the world have the opportunity for ten days to buy this unique car and do something for charity too. The total proceeds from the auction will be donated, as always, to Life Ball and to projects aimed at combating HIV/AIDS. So far, the auction of the “Life Ball MINIs” - transformed by such famous fashion icons as Diesel, Missoni, Ferré and Versace - has raised a total of € 260,000.-.

Worldwide measures to combat HIV/AIDS are one of the main elements of the corporate and social policy pursued by the BMW Group. The company’s involvement in South Africa is particularly wide-ranging, covering a comprehensive workplace programme for employees and their families, plus a number of different projects in the local communities and further afield.

But the automobile manufacturer is also committed to fighting this pandemic in other affected countries, such as Thailand or China, for example. The company’s membership of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBC) underlines its long-term commitment at its individual locations.

“By supporting Vienna’s Life Ball, the MINI brand is going its own way and making its own very individual contribution to the fight against this auto-immune disease”, says Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, Head of Brand Communication MINI, commenting on the brand’s involvement here. “The Life Ball brings the pandemic back into the public’s awareness each year in a very emotional way, and the auction of each uniquely designed MINI produces a major financial contribution to projects aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS.”

Half of the proceeds will be donated to national projects in Austria. The other half will be used to benefit international projects, with allocation of funds regulated by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).