Economic Slowdown hits MINI Production!

[dalboyne]

Updated: Weekend shift closure and 850 agency staff laid off, confirmed: 850 MINI makers lose their jobs among MINI Convertible launch confusion

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Original post:

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Just spotted this news on the BBC website:

"it was announced that production of the Mini car in the UK would be cut back.

Staff at factories in Oxford and Swindon have had their two-week Christmas shutdown extended to four weeks this year"

The rest of the article is actually about how new car sales have slumped this year:

BBC NEWS | Business | UK new car sales in sharp decline

Ian

[Rakey]

Yup heard that before, nice long break but anyone that wants to order now won't stand much chance of getting a slot this side of Christmas.

Compared to Honda in Swindon that really isn't that much of a slow down, the Civic line is now on a 3 day week up until 2010 they have been told.

[Paul]

US sales are doing really well, you'd think they'd be able to just shuffle car production around to meet US demand better, and stop flooding others (like ours) when it's not really required.

[Hugo]

The R56 had only been out 9-12 months a year ago, so that would play a factor in the drop of sales in the latter part of this year.

[Tobes]

Mini sales during October were down 40% compared with a year ago - with 1,886 vehicles sold compared with 3,150 in October 2007.

Staff at factories in Oxford and Swindon have had their two-week Christmas shutdown extended to four weeks this year.

[simeds]

not my fault, i've bought my fair share

[KPKalle]

http://www.mini2.com/forum/mini-medi...roduction.html

[Tobes]

I was one of the 1886

Probably would have got a better deal this month!

[dalboyne]

I suppose a year ago they also had the new Clubman to boost sales, even if only the dealer registrations

But if they need to get on with building some more cars, why not hurry up with my R57 (and all the others waiting for this new model!)

But part of the reason for the decline might be also down to market saturation........and the arrival of competitors like Fiat 500 etc......

Ian

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

I've just had a text message from my dealer offering a £750 "deposit contribution" on a new MINI Note a "deposit contribution", not a discount at all!

What with the general slowdown in demand and the arrival of some serious new competition, along with a display of some remarkable arrogance from BMW with the development of the MINI, I'm pleasantly surprised it's taken this long to happen.

I hope, for the future of the brand and the livelihood of all the staff in Oxford, that this is not a long term trend

Tigger.

[MJS]

I'm trying my best to help them as well, had 4 in the last 18 months
One of them was replaced FOC though

[Washy]

Obviously heard I was getting something else and their forecasts took a beating...

[mikeythemini]

Just heard on the radio that the factory is shutting for 4 weeks over christmas instead of 2

[Streeters]

Heard that too. So are Bentley, Toyota have cut a shift and nissan have stopped production of 2 out of the 4 cars they make in sunderland.

[Martin L]

Tis a shame...

...but maybe they can spend the extra time making sure the cars are better built