Photos: MINI's Chicago Auto Show "Competition"

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MINI2.COM forum participants can find many other 2002 Chicago Auto Show photos in various threads, organized by category. In this thread, you'll find a couple photos of MINI's "competition" in the U.S. automobile market.

Seriously, there just isn't anything else like it in the U.S. market. While Europe and Asia get myriad "pocket rockets" and "super hatches," North America gets countless trucks and utility vehicles. (Check the other thread in this forum for some possible indirect competitors.)

Photos taken February 13, 2002.

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Here's another MINI "competitor," the new Dodge RAM full size pickup truck. What's its primary selling point? Why, "it's even bigger," of course.

The two people pictured are Daimler Chrysler's stage presenters, evidently chosen to represent the average consumer living in America's heartland. They were entertaining enough.

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MINI too big for you? Well, consider this fully equipped 2002 Nissan Xterra. Granted, the outside of this utility vehicle is much bigger than the MINI. However, some brilliant automotive engineers have consumed most of the interior volume with not one but two mighty Rockford Fosgate subwoofers, each pumping out 3000 watts of audio power.

To get rolling up to 30 miles per hour, simply turn on the audio system, preferably to some of your favorite hip hop. (That makes this vehicle Nissan's first hybrid powered.) If you can't hear the music, you must be in Europe.

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The Rockford Fosgate Nissan Xterra's specifications placard...

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Hey, MINI fans, wouldn't you really rather have a Buick? Or two? Foreground: Buick's Bengal concept car. Background (red car): Buick's LaCrosse (I think) concept car.

Buick's stage presentation was probably the best, by the way. The words in many individual sentences were split among three presenters. "I am the wind..." "...that blows through your hair..." "...with the sound of a Buick."

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"Hey Dad?" "Yes, Son." "What's THAT?"

Why it's Toyota's concept car. Or perhaps it's the taxicab from the film "Total Recall." Either way, it's damn ugly.

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And now we return to the Hummer, America's largest passenger vehicle, to conclude this pictoral tour of MINI's Chicago Auto Show "competition." Let's try a few slogans:

"My MINI is bigger than your MINI."
"So big, it takes days to clean."
"Is that the front door to your house?"
"Pot holes? Landmines? No problem."

[KarmanS]

haha... thanks for the pictorial!

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Any pictures of that Big Yellow Ford Tonka truck

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I saw Ford's Tonka Truck, but it was really tough to photograph that yellow in the Chicago Auto Show's lighting. Click here for a press picture.