It’s hard enough to get past the weirdness of the “unveiling” of the new MINI Countryman. The world’s most unusual product announcement begins first with two giant hats covering a MINI Cooper S and the all-new MINI Countryman, which is meant to be MINI’s foray into the cross-over SUV segment, or something. At first blush, it is hard to see what they are on about as the cars appear to be the same height. But MINI is clearly trying to make a statement. Maybe it’s that the Countryman is the car for the neo-luddite non-urbanites who wouldn’t touch a MINI with a ten-foot pole, or maybe MINI still feels the need to prove itself as the alternative fun brand for those with just a bit of cash.

Anyway, once the hats came off, the erm dancing begins and thus begins two minutes of the strangest product launch you have ever seen. If you doubt us, just click play.

That seen, one really has to wonder if Mini owners of old are rolling in their graves. Of course, if you think they are bad off, BMW has just announced front-wheel drive for their low-end cars, so perhaps at the next product launch we’ll see a BMW-branded car covered in a Bavarian flag with some dancers clogging to Das Deutschlandlied.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 2:57 am and is filed under Mini. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. This post was read by 90 people until now. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.