Following the recent move to locally assemble the Mini Countryman in Malaysia, the BMW-owned brand has started CKD operations in Thailand, with first units hitting showrooms this month. Like here, the first Mini chosen to be locally assembled in the Land of Smiles is the five-door Countryman variant, Bangkok Post reports. Knocked down packs will come from Graz, Austria.
The model choice was an easy one to make – last year, the company sold 500 Minis in Thailand, half of which was the Countryman. Three variants will roll out of BMW’s flexible assembly facility in Rayong, the 122 hp/160 Nm petrol Cooper, the 112 hp/270 Nm diesel Cooper D and the more powerful 143 hp/305 Nm Cooper SD. All will come with six-speed autos, but only the Cooper SD will get ALL4 all-wheel drive.
Official pricing is not out yet, but the daily speculates that the Thai-assembled Countryman range will start from below two million baht (RM207k). As a CBU import, the Countryman is priced between 2.5 and 3.2 million baht (RM258k to RM331k) in Thailand.
The CKD Countryman was launched in Malaysia in June. We get the Cooper and Cooper S ALL4, priced at RM218,888 and RM258,888 respectively. When it was launched here in March 2011, the Cooper was priced at RM248,888 and the Cooper S RM285,888. Full story here.
The post MINI to start assembling in Thailand, Countryman first appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.
via Paul Tan's Automotive News http://paultan.org/2013/08/02/mini-countryman-thailand/
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