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American Morning
Preview of the Mini Cooper
Aired March 28, 2002 - 08:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And now it's time to go a little car crazy. the International Auto Show opens this week in New York.
And Anderson Cooper, when no one was looking, snuck out of the studio and made it over to the Javitz Convention Center. He joins us now with a preview of some of the latest hot wheels.
Good morning.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Thanks for coming to me.
I'm at the International Auto Show here in New York. It's open until about April 7th. There are about a thousand cars here on display. There is all sorts of cars. I know Jack was talking about a Lamborghini.
But I got to tell you, pound for pound, I have the coolest car right here. It's tiny, it's shiny, and it's damn sexy, as any member of the Cooper family is. Look at this, this is the Mini Cooper. It's a new car BMW Group, just coming out. We're going to talk to the CEO and chairman of BMW North America Tom Purvis.
Tom, thanks for being with us.
TOM PURVIS, CEO & CHAIRMAN, BMW NORTH AMERICA: Hi.
COOPER: Tom, tell us, what is this?
PURVIS: It's our entry into the premium small car segment, very exciting little car, 12-foot long, 115 horsepower. You can see with a bulldog look at the front, the wheels in the corner, this car handles brilliantly.
COOPER: I mean, it is a very small car, but it looks very solid. It looks very big.
PURVIS: Well, the body of this car is twice as strong as anything of its size, and we put a lot of effort in it.
Just step into the car, Anderson.
We put a lot of effort into making sure this car is actually very safe as well. Look here, in the architectural features and the styling, you can see the crash bar in the door handle here. This car is equipped with nothing less than six air bags in 12 feet of car. That's an airbag for every two feet, passenger side, driver's side, side of the seats here, and an airbag that runs right along the rail here to protect the head in case of an accident.
COOPER: Americans love big cars, they love SUVs. Do you think they're going to go for something this small?
PURVIS: Terrific. I mean, no question about that. It's so mobile. We've had the car on sale now since Friday of last week. There's tremendous enthusiasm for it, the way the car handles, the way the car feels, it really has a premium quality about it.
COOPER: It's just went on sale now. It's actually a pretty cheap car, I think less than $18,000.
PURVIS: That's absolutely right. Under $17,000 for the Mini Cooper for the 163 horsepower Mini Cooper S, under $20,000.
COOPER: The Mini Cooper isn't known in America, but it's actually very well known in Europe, and it's probably been around since 1959.
PURVIS: Oh yes. The Mini was voted European car of the century. It has been around since 1958 in Europe. It won the Monte Carlo Rally, extremely famous racing and rally car, as well as a great car for all the family.
COOPER: I just want to show the top of this car, too, if you can get a shot of this. You can get all sorts of different colors, all sorts of different flags, right?
PURVIS: Yes, you can personalize your car, yes, absolutely.
Here we have a U.S. flag, $200, it takes us about two hours to put it on the roof.
COOPER: And you can get all sorts of different flags and colors?
PURVIS: Yes, you can, and colors, and interior combinations.
COOPER: Yes, know you also have this car, this is kind of a souped-up model that will be out coming out a few months later.
PURVIS: Well, that's right, this is a supercharged. This is 163 horsepower, terrific car, I mean, wonderful performance with all the safety and technology that's in the Cooper.
COOPER: Thank you very much.
PURVIS: That's the Mini Cooper. We're going to have a lot more cars coming up in the next hour, and I think we're going to take a look at the Lamborghini for Jack.
ZAHN: Oh, good, but we've gotten impression you're kind of partial to this little Cooper. PURVIS: I actually really like it. I think it's a hot little car.
ZAHN: All right, have fun.
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