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NEW YORK (AP) — It inspired design
•Mary Quant to create the mini skirt and
ns bumbling comic Mr. Bean’s favorite
node of transport.
Now tlie Mini Cooper, reborn and on sale in
oke several mir
gainst a combina
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Wednesday, March 27, 2002
Mini Cooper hot once again
P^lhe United States since last Friday, is hot again.
Dealers say waiting lists for the tiny four-
eater are growing, even though research from
^ )arent company, BMW Group AG, shows less
han 2 percent of Americans are even aware of
0 s p f 1 sm l ! SH-'lie brand.
“Most people have no idea what a Mini is,
ilyou show them a picture,” Mini general
nanager Jack Pitney said in an interview
Cl Bethel Johns f ue sday during media previews at the New
receiver Jam ^ international Auto Show'.
The original Mini was produced from
959 to December 2000, but was only sold in
take Wednesit ^ United States from 1960 to
Mime workc. 957, Pitney said.
During those seven years, only
0,000 Minis were sold in the
1 • Bnited States. This time around,
C I/' 1 tT f 'itney said, the company expects
OJVllldJjsell its entire U.S. allotment of
0,000 vehicles during the first
have their vehicles serviced and repaired at the
same service operation at the dealerships.
Pitney said the automaker hopes to cre
ate aspiration,” which would occur when
Mini customers who shop at BMW dealer
ships look to eventually purchase or lease a
BMW vehicle.
Analyst Chris Cedergren with the auto
motive marketing firm Nextrend, said the
strategy is sound.
“Among young people, the BMW brand is
oft the charts as far as being aspirational,” he said.
Younger people also are becoming
affluent faster, allowing them to skip from
entry-level vehicles to luxury vehicles,
Cedergren said.
The Mini is available at 53 dealers in 29
states. Pitney said by the end of the year, 70
Mini dealers will be up and running.
With demand building in the United States
and already strong elsewhere, a third shift has
been added to accommodate the pressure to
produce more Minis, but Pitney said another
plant will not be built.
That demand likely is to swell when the
Mini is featured in this summer’s third install
ment of the Austin Powers series.
Unlike most product placements in movies
or television programs, BMW did not seek to
place the Mini in the movie, Pitney said.
Actor Mike Myers, who created the British
character and stars in the movies, loved the
Mini and had a representative call the compa
ny asking for six of them for the new movie
even before they went on sale in the Unites
States, Pitney said.
BMW bought the Mini brand in
|997 and built a new plant near the
riginal one in Oxford, England, to
(roduce the new version of the car.
At 11 feet, 10 inches, the new
(lini is a little more maxi than the
riginal. It’s 2 feet longer and 1
ot wider, to accommodate safety
huipment and modem instrumen-
Jtion, Pitney said, but the wheels
! still placed out to the comers,
ne as the original.
Priced between $16,850 and
119.850, the Mini is a lot less
jpensive than its brethren in the
IMW family. That’s a key ele
ment in the Genuan automaker’s
ategy to cultivate future cus-
Imiers for its core high-end prod-
pts.
Minis will be sold by BMW
ilers, but in separate showrooms
a dedicated sales staff. Both
and BMW customers will
Still MINI
after all
these years
The latest retro-vehicle to re
enter the U.S. marketplace
is the new MINI Cooper, a
modern version of the super
small British coupe. The
original MINI went on sale in
1959 and sold 5.4 million
units worldwide before being
retired in 2000.
2002 Ford Excursion
— 226.7 Inches —
Even as one of the smallest cars
sold in the United States, the
new MINI still is nearly two feet
longer than the original MINI.
2003 MINI Cooper
* 142.8 inches —
Model
Length
(Inches)
Weight
(pounds)
MINI Cooper
142.8
2,524
Ford Focus
168.1
2,598
Honda Civic
174.7
2,405
Mazda Miata
155.7
2,387
Original MINI
120.0
1,300
SOURCES: BMW: Cars.com; Associated Press
ormer sheriff s deputy kills
family, commits suicide
■KRTOMPi Merced, caiif. (ap> — a
actice for theft N sheriff’s deputy shot and
,b last January. “ his 5-year-old daughter
, M his three stepchildren
ayer and t eo w j 1 j] e ^ ex _ w jf e was
last years e u|j 0 ggj n g^ t j ien cornm j ttec j
d nuich s 317 w j t | 1 t j le u 0 dy of one of
leiTfel, w 0" leyoungsters in his anus.
• , .JJ Hogan. 49, apparently
1 1 ht " lered the house with his .40-
e ^ cn fry a ^ r handgun after his ex-
! 0 ,i 1 ,! , ite4lS 1 le „ f, ' t hh 'h 0rnin8 jo ?
a neighbor, authorities said.
The motive was unclear, said
^ced County sheriff’s Cmdr.
wkPazin.
Nobody could ever foresee
Wiething like this,” Pazin
t said. “Ante 1 '' aid, “I can ’ t p Llt j t j nto worc j S-
than what" tshorrifying.”
1, and Lester'* Hogan was found dead in
them to come ebed in the master bedroom,
ias really help ebody of 5-year-old Michelle
°£ an in his arms.
^hen Christine McFadden
t elUrn ed from her jog, she
'her 17-year-old daughter
in the hallway outside her
Fhoom, said sheriff’s
•s, and free
ishington’s it
r options.
vith the
gies
will tab'
lay at the Vars?
ig a string oh"
12 »
ar season,
ig 12
champion
S8 ‘-
McFadden went to a neigh-
, rs house in the well-to-do
'^herhood to call police, then
„ n J e< -i home with deputies and
"tTUivoJ an? , three other children
gt miX Hogan in separate bed-
litchers ? r s , a11 Shot to death.
/aPl- * 00 hs like they had been
TE, Fla. r 1
r lsmael han
starter,
lay night a
igament d
sleeping,” Cavallero said of
the children.
McFadden told authorities
her husband was not in the
house when she left. Their
divorce was finalized last year.
“My husband has a very bad
temper and when he gets angry
he explodes,” McFadden wrote
in an application for a restrain
ing order in June 1998, three
months after filing for divorce.
Hogan had called a former
co-worker at the Santa Clara
sheriff’s office Tuesday morn
ing and left a message that he
was bankrupt and depressed,
said Assistant Sheriff Henry
Strength. It was unclear whether
the message was left before or
after the victims were killed.
Hogan served as a deputy
from 1983 to 1993 before retiring
for undisclosed medical reasons,
the sheriff’s department said.
For the past six years, he
worked as a private investigator,
said Casey Simmons, a defense
lawyer for juveniles who had hired
him and considered him a friend.
Simmons said Hogan never
showed signs of violence or a
temper while working with the
children. She said Hogan
became despondent and quit
working when he and
McFadden split up for good.
They had married in 1995.
“Obviously what he was
trying to do was hurt Christine
as deeply as possible,”
Simmons said.
The three older children
were identified as Melanie
Willis, 17; Stanley Willis, 15,
and Stuart Willis, 14.
Melanie, a junior, was a
straight-A student, ranked
second in her class of 467 stu
dents and was on the ballot
Friday to become senior class
vice president. Stanley was on
the baseball team.
“They were very positive
and engaging kids,” said Golden
Valley principal Ralf Swenson.
Students at the school scrib
bled messages about their grief
on a huge banner, and coun
selors were brought in to discuss
the killings.
Students at Our Lady of
Mercy School, a nearby Roman
Catholic elementary school that
all the children had attended,
learned of the shootings after
arriving at school. Many prayed
for the slain children during a
special Mass.
Principal Brenda Feehan
showed reporters a 1998 picture
of Melanie, with braces on her
teeth and her brown hair in curls.
“They were bright and full
of hope and positive, with ter
rific senses of humor,” Feehan
said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
NEWS IN BRIEF
Judge erases lawyer
restrictions on Reid
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge
erased restrictions on defense
lawyers’ access to accused shoe
bomber Richard C. Reid, but
banned them from repeating the
conversations, saying “we are
engaged in a war on terrorism."
The Justice Department had
sought to curtail Reid’s contact
with the outside for fear he would
find a way to communicate with
other terrorists.
Chief U.S. District Judge William
G. Young said Monday that federal
prosecutors did not have the
authority to limit contact between
Reid and his defense, but agreed
that the sensitive nature of the
case required careful handling of
information.
“You get access. You keep what
you hear to yourself,” Young told
Reid’s attorneys. “We are engaged
in a war on terrorism.
(Prosecutors) try to restrict data
that if it gets loose might affect
national security.”
Reid has been in U.S. custody
since Dec. 22, when he allegedly
attempted to light explosives hid
den in his shoes during a trans-
Atlantic flight. He has pleaded inno
cent to nine charges that include
attempting to murder the 197 pas
sengers and crew members.
Monday’s emergency hearing
was on the 12-page “special admin
istrative measures” drafted Feb. 20
and approved by Attorney General
John Ashcroft. The measures pre
vent attorneys from bringing expert
witnesses to meet with Reid and
give prison officials latitude to
decide whether his attorneys meet
with him in the same room.
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FEST
A
FOR MORE
.TTvfciSiSSsr ^ l
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BIRTH CONTROL STUDY
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women. A pharmaceutical company is sponsoring
this 13- to 15-month study.
Qualified volunteers will receive medical-related
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For more information, and to find out if you qualify,
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ATTENTION
All 0n-Campus Residents
The deadline to cancel your housing contract for the fall
2002 - spring 2003 academic year and receive a 100%
deposit refund is:
April 1, 2002, by 5:00 p.m.
In the Housing Assignments Office
Room 101 YMCA Building
Letters of cancellation can be faxed to:
979-862-3122
or mailed to:
Housing Assignments Office
101 YMCA Building
College Station, TX 77843-1258
Deadlines to receive a portion of your deposit:
April 2 - 15 75%
April 16-May 1 50%
May 2 - 15 25%
After May 15 no refund
POST OAK HALL 979-764-4444