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Avenue of the Giants Weekend Run - Sat. March 23, 2024

Saturday will be a very full day of cruising from Novato up through the Avenue of the Giants and ending at Eel River Brewing in Fortuna. Sun...

MINI Panders To The Mid-East Motoring Masses With Auto JCW

Many recent articles bemoan the fact that rowing your own gears is becoming a lost art as less than 20% of drivers can drive a manual transmission vehicle.  MINI has not offered, until now, John Cooper Works models with automatic transmissions.  This AMEinfo.com article advises MINI will now offer a six speed automatic transmission and implies it is because of the preference of Middle Eastern buyers:
Commenting on the new automatic transmission MINI John Cooper Works models, Sarah Klippert, MINI Manager in the Middle East, said: "Currently the MINI John Cooper Works models are only available with a manual gearbox - and with Middle East customers having a preference to drive cars with automatic gearboxes, we are confident that the introduction of this new automatic gearbox will attract a whole new target audience to our MINI John Cooper Works sub-brand."