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A front-wheel-drive BMW (gasp!) could reveal what they have in store for the next-gen MINI in 2014.
The premium small car market is exploding in America, with the recent introduction of the (arch rival) Audi A1 leading the way and the new Smart ForFour following shortly (no pun intended) from Mercedes Benz, among others.
The idea is to increase parts sharing and save on production costs by using the same platform on the new Beemer as they will on the next generation MINI. BMW Chairman Norter Reithofe tipped his hand at the Geneva Motor Show, saying “We will be extending the BMW and MINI brands into the small car segment with new models and variants.”
What those variants could be is anybody’s guess, but front-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive are apparently on the table. Reithofe said “For these vehicles (the new BMW and MINI) we are developing a common architecture for both front and four-wheel drive.”
It seems that if you’re doing the four-wheel-drive thing, the transmission tunnel will be in place to accommodate a rear-wheel-drive alternative. Although the next MINI isn’t expected before 2014, the new A1 fighter from BMW could debut earlier as the company races to cash in on the premium small car craze.
I think we’ll save five or ten large and wait for the MINI version, thank you.
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