Mini convertible comes to an end (From thisisoxfordshire)

Mini convertible comes to an end

1:04pm Friday 8th August 2008 in

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Workers at BMW's Oxford plant offered up a fond farewell to the iconic Mini Convertible as the last car rolled off the production line.

Since its introduction in spring 2004, about 164,000 of the open-topped cars have been sold, but now BMW is to concentrate on the hatchback and new Clubman models, due to rising demand.

BMW bosses were tight-lipped about whether it might be replaced in future.

Oliver Zipse, the director of the Cowley factory, said: "For us this is the end of an era. It is a great joy to build a car and know exactly how much fun customers will have with it."

BMW spokesman at Cowley, Rebecca Baxter, added: "The current generation of the convertible has come to the end of its life cycle."

The convertible was built in three different versions. The bestselling edition, with more than 79,500 sold, was the Mini Cooper Convertible, followed by the Mini Cooper S Convertible, with around 56,500 sold, and the Mini One Convertible, with around 28,000.

When the Mini range was revamped in 2006 and 2007, the convertible was the only model not to be updated into a second generation.

The last convertible to be built, a Cooper S in metallic white silver, was sold to a buyer in California.

The convertible sells best in its home market of Great Britain and Ireland, followed by the US, where the electrically folding soft-top has won over a loyal group of fans.

High growth rates were also recently seen in China and Russia. In 2007, the Mini Convertible was dubbed the "value master" by the industry magazine Auto Bild, with a secondhand value of 70 per cent of the new price after three years.

BMW says that in the current ranking for 2008, the value stability of the Mini Convertible is only beaten by one "competitor" - the current Mini Cooper.

Most convertibles (77 per cent) were sold in the UK and Ireland, USA, Germany, Italy, and Japan, but Australia and Canada also rank among the top ten of the Mini Convertible bastions.

Last year, the convertible featured in the film The Heartbreak Kid, starring Malin Akerman and Ben Stiller as newlyweds who drove it on their honeymoon.

The open-top became the backdrop to lively disputes between the newlyweds.