BMW Mini has launched the new Convertible Sidewalk Edition. It’s got a limited edition exterior paint finish, Harmon Kardon sound system, heads-up display and auto transmission. It’s powered by the Copper S engine which means 192bhp. It’s got limited edition “stuff” designed to get you – the consumer – to dig deep and flash the cash. A-B tested marketing is specifically designed to make you want the BMW Mini Convertible Sidewalk Edition. The PR will create a story about how much you need this car. Then they all walk away once you make the purchase and hope you don’t understand that a 3-year warranty is nothing more than a false flag operation.
But all of the above is the typical sales/marketing/PR bluster that is associated with creating a message and ultimately converting that message into cold hard sales targets. At the end of the day, I can not honestly look our three daily readers in the eye and recommend buying this BMW Mini Sidewalk Edition.
The first problem is that this Mini – BMW Mini – is a convertible. We here at DCB do not like convertibles, the wind in your hair experience is overrated. And when the sun is blasting down upon you spreading its convertible Vitamin D goodness, your head and neck often get scorched. So you end up wearing a hat to protect yourself.
Driving a convertible is more akin to a fly-in-your-mouth-experience. But these are just first world problems. The real issue we have with convertibles, in general, is that they almost always lose structural integrity. Don’t believe the lies when told the convertible body is 30-percent stiffer than before. It never is, it’s always the same wobbly-flex.
And there is another issue, this BMW Mini Convertible Sidewalk Edition costs £34,000 here in the UK. That’s far too expensive, I mean you can buy a new Range Rover Evoque for that much. And as much as we shit on Land Rover for having the worst PR department of the decade, even we have to admit the new Evoque is a mighty tempting if unreliable proposition.
We would much rather buy a notoriously unreliable car brand over this convertible BMW Mini. The BMW Mini Convertible Sidewalk Edition is overpriced, convertibles have no place in society and often under deliver. And at £34k this little Mini is the worst car of the week.