A mobile phone preparation kit and, respectively, an integrated handsoff
communication unit both equipped with a Bluetooth interface and a USB connection for audio units serve as an option to ensure optimum and reliable communication while travelling. Both allow the integration of numerous up-to-date mobile phones including the Apple iPhone. A particularly striking feature also on the MINI Clubman is the choice of roof paintwork ranging from the Union Jack all the way to the heliport look. And to match this special effect, the exterior mirror caps, door handles, direction indicator trim covers and wheel valve caps are all available in different trim variants.
The customer wishing to fit his MINI Clubman with a navigation system at a later point in time will also find the right solution within the MINI range of accessories. Indeed, a particular forte of this portable navigation unit is the symbol in the 3D display showing your current position in the guise of a MINI Clubman with individual variations of the roof pattern.
Production: Flexible, Efficient, and Conscious of Quality. More than a million MINIs in just six years this is the current production record set up by the world's one and only small premium car built in Great Britain. And now the next chapter in this story of success is just around the corner, with the MINI Clubman being integrated in technical and logistics terms into the ongoing MINI production process at the plants in Oxford (Bodyshop, Paintshop, Assembly), Swindon (Press Plant) and Hams Hall (Engine Plant), putting everything in place for series production of the third MINI model variant.
All production and logistics processes are flexible and fully tailored to such a high standard of diversity in the model variants built. And given the numerous options of equipment as well as the almost unlimited range of variation, it is extremely unlikely that two completely identical MINIs will leave Plant Oxford within one production year.
6,800 associates building up to 800 MINIs a day. Upon the launch of the new MINI in September 2006, the British plants in Hams Hall and Swindon were fully integrated into the MINI Production Triangle, where today MINI engine and body pressings are made for Plant Oxford. In all, the MINI Production Triangle in Great Britain employs some 6,800 associates within the MINI production process. The outstanding success of the MINI is borne out most clearly by the development of Plant Oxford: While in 2001 some 2,400 associates built a maximum of 200 cars a day in one shift, more than 4,700 associates now work here in three shifts, on seven days and up to 134 hours per week, building up to 800 MINIs day-by-day.
The plant's maximum production capacity, reflecting great demand in the market, has been increased in the same period step-by-step from approximately 100,000 to the new record level of up to 240,000 units a year. In all, the BMW Group has invested more than GBP 380 million (Euro 550 million) in production of the MINI at Plant Oxford since the year 2000.
Plant Oxford: Bodyshop, Paintshop, Assembly. The origins of the plant in Oxford, about 100 kilometres north-west of London, go back to the beginning of the last century: It was here that in 1913 William Morris started to build cars he had developed himself.
Today, the approximately 350 body components are fitted together completely automatically by means of high-precision welding and handling robots, more than 500 of these computerised robots working throughout the Bodyshop, and about 80 being added specifically for the production of the MINI Clubman.
The MINI Clubman goes through the Paintshop process together with the various other versions of the MINI in any random order, thus benefiting from all the advantages of the innovative Integrated Paint Process (IPP) introduced for the first time worldwide at Plant Oxford in 2006. Compared with conventional processes in applying the paint, IPP technology leaves out the individual stage of applying and burning in the filler coat, with the filler function instead being integrated on to one of two newly developed layers of basecoat. In so-called wet-in-wet application of the two layers, the first layer takes on all functions and properties of the filler primer, while the second layer of basecoat provides the necessary optical qualities such as colour, effect and depth. As in the past, the basecoat is finally covered by clear paint, the IPP process meeting the same demanding requirements as a conventional paint application process in terms of its looks and the functional protection provided by the paint. A further point is that IPP technology makes a positive contribution to the plant's environmental objectives by omitting the filler normally containing solvent and significantly reducing the consumption of materials and energy in the Paintshop.