Mini Drawing New Interest Because of Fuel Prices

Maybe it was the recent introduction of the Clubman, but Mini is saying, nope, it’s high fuel prices that have driven traffic to its website to increase nearly 90%. Last month, more than 900,000 people went to miniusa.com to check out the Cooper lineup. Searches for new Mini Coopers were also up on Cars.com, nearly 40% in May compared to April 2008.

The base Mini Cooper coupe and the new Clubman both get their best mileage when equipped with a manual transmission, checking in at 28/37 mpg city/highway. That’s better than a standard Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla. The automatic-equipped Coopers register mileage of 26/34 mpg city/highway, just behind the Civic and Corolla autos.

Still, for car shoppers looking to move down to something more fuel-efficient who are able to spend a few extra grand on a stylish coupe versus a traditional economy car, the Cooper makes a lot of sense. Sales were up 52.8% for Mini in May, but most of that increase was attributed to the new Clubman model being added to the lineup. Sales of regular Cooper coupes were up 29%, however, and that model was redesigned last year.