Sean Nero

Ox­ford Mo­tors (Mi­ni) of­fi­cial­ly launched its show­room last Sat­ur­day evening lo­cat­ed on Rich­mond Street, Port-of-Spain. Passers-by on Rich­mond Street were clear­ly in­trigued and ex­cit­ed to view the sporty Mi­ni cars as they heard the ever pop­u­lar sounds of DJ Shaun de Lu­na (Dig­i­tal Bud­dha) stream­ing through.

The Ox­ford Mi­ni is dis­trib­uted by ANSA Au­to­mo­tive. In a state­ment, the com­pa­ny said, "This fun and en­er­getic brand, which has its roots in the world of mo­tor­sport, is al­ways com­ple­ment­ed with neon lights and mu­sic, and the show­room lit up for the first time to the pub­lic.

"Whilst guests com­pared var­i­ous mod­els such as the Mi­ni Coop­er S, Coop­er Cabrio, Club­man, Coun­try­man and the Coun­try­man All 4, the star of the show was the John Coop­er Works Coupe, which cut a dash­ing pic­ture and un­de­ni­ably cap­tured every­one's at­ten­tion.

"The Min­is are equipped with 1600 cc Tur­bo and No Tur­bo En­gines rang­ing from 121 horse­pow­er to 215 horse­pow­er. "Sport­ing a new look in terms of de­sign and brand­ing, safe­ty re­mains pri­or­i­ty. "There is an ac­tive roll bar which of­fers fur­ther pro­tec­tion for all oc­cu­pants as well as sev­en air bags. Mi­ni con­tin­ues to re­ceive out­stand­ing ac­co­lades for child safe­ty.

"Mi­ni con­nect­ed, which is an iPhone ap­pli­ca­tion, con­nects the dri­ver to the wider world and al­lows for on-line in­fo­tain­ment." The Ox­ford Mi­ni line is avail­able in sedans and sport mod­els. Ray Sumairs­ingh, sec­tor head, ANSA Au­to­mo­tive, ex­pressed op­ti­mism about the brand, as well as the Group's au­to­mo­tive di­vi­sion in fis­cal 2012.

While ad­mit­ting the com­pa­ny was re­strained by pro­duc­tion chal­lenges from some of its Asian part­ners still re­cov­er­ing from nat­ur­al dis­as­ters and the glob­al fi­nan­cial cri­sis, Sumairs­ingh saw a light at the end of the tun­nel which con­vert­ed in­to an in­creased num­ber of units sold.