Some of you may have missed this news buried in our interview with MINI USA’s head Jim McDowell and Marketing leader Tom Salkowski but it’s worth another mention. Bowing to pressure from MINI fans, MINI USA has devised a way to individually number each GP meant for the US market. MINI USA worked with MINI Design in Munich directly to create something that reflected the original design while working seamlessly with the new car.

Furthermore the material used is of the exact same quality of the rest of the decals on the GP so it should wear evenly. MINI USA intends to install the replacement graphics at the port once they hit the US.

So why the lack of numbers for the rest of the world? Based on what we’ve heard from sources, it’s due to certain large Asian markets and specific numbers being either lucky or unlucky. Why does it matter now when it didn’t in 2006 with the original? Two reasons. First the make-up of the sales will be more Asia focused due to the that market growing exponentially. Secondly the Euro economic crisis will likely soften sales there sending more cars elsewhere throughout the world.