For me, this is rapidly degenerating into an "I'll believe it when I see it with my own two eyes" thing, both the question of whether or not it will be sold in the U.S. and the price as well. There's been so much idle speculation, mixed with "I know a guy on the inside" commentary, that it has become comical. I don't mean to insult anyone here who has a source, for all I know they may be 100% correct, but we've seen so much from so many sources that they just don't carry much weight for me these days. I hope you can understand my skepticism. Myself, I think they will sell it here. I can't base that on anything more than a combination of gut instinct and hope, but that's all I've got to work with, and I trust it more than anything else at the moment.
Someone at MINIUSA says they won't sell it here. My dealer (see note below) says they will. I've seen posts on here and on Roadfly from people whose dealers told them the whole
JCW thing was dead in the water, just a few weeks before the official press releases went out. Who knows. Somebody tipped off Autoweek, they don't sit around daydreaming these stories up. If my experiences over the 16 months since I put down my deposit and entered this alternative universe known as MINIworld have taught me nothing else, they have taught me to have a healthy distrust of both MINIUSA and MINI dealers when it comes to these things. Example: My car was built during the xenon shortage last June, and MINIUSA swore to me that due to the shortage, the sports package had been deleted from the car and I wouldn't get xenons. My dealer swore that I would, and I did. MINIUSA also told a lot of people last year that their cars were shipped by rail to Germany before being shipped to the U.S. by boat. On the other side of the coin, a lot dealers fed a lot of totally innaccurate and speculative info to customers at the same time, filling in guesses to supplement the lack of info MINIUSA were feeding them about part shortages, option pack changes, how many cars per month they should expect, etc.
John Cooper Works, when I e-mailed them directly about my frustrations with the lack of accurate info, implied (but didn't confirm) that it would be sold here. I find the notion that it may be sold in Canada but not the US rather bizarre, there's no rational/regulatory reason for that. The MINIUSA denial is technically accurate, as they
JCW kit has not been announced in the U.S. yet, and it is often standard procedure to deny until announced. Who knows. It should be pointed out that the Autoweek story said "Customers will be able to buy the upgrade immediately after the U.S. announcement in New York in April." One could assume that the car will make it's U.S. debut at the New York Auto Show in April (MINI have booth #705 on level three), and until then it will remain unannounced and unofficial...
-Ricardo
P.S. Has anyone else had fun watching the worker bees putting the show together on the Geneva Auto Show's live web cams over the past couple weeks? Hall 4&5 look just about ready, but Hall 6 still needs work. And at 6:55am local time on a Sunday morning, all kinds of people are working away in there...
(note from my dealer, Keeler MINI, follows):
Hi Ricardo! It's been good hearing from you. I know it will be out in April and it does include everything you state including badges that will be placed on the exterior of the MINI. It will warranted by BMW/MINI, but I don't know the terms. You and many others have inquired about this package. As soon as I get the word, I will fill you in. Stay tuned.