While the small car market in North America has reached record-high creditability, the high-quality European vehicles like the MINI Cooper arguably played a role on the slow road to B-segment acceptance. Using a famed and noble heritage which personified Britain for over 40 years prior, BMW engineering played a part in assuring the MINI Cooper was built to tight quality standards canceling out the American belief that small cars could not be reliable cars. Besides the build, the MINI Cooper’s appearance, performance and prominent featuring in a Hollywood blockbuster (The Italian Job remake) carried the MINI forward with great momentum entering into the 10th year.
With the best perhaps yet to come, a peek to the 2011 MINI lineup for Europe shows some items which will almost certainly find themselves on the Cooper hatchbacks, Convertibles and Clubman destined for the American roads.
The exterior design retains its present glory. Though for 2011, the front end of all MINI cars have been modified to comply with pedestrian protection requirements (In European countries, part of vehicle safety regulations rate the survivability of a pedestrian if struck by the automobile). While the front end structure has been altered with lighting sources changed within the headlamp housing and the option of black reflectors, the ultimate MINI design remains fundamentally unchanged.
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