Buying a new car is always an exciting experience. From the moment you make up your mind to purchase a new car, to you holding the keys of a brand-new vehicle – all of it is a memorable journey. It includes the process of considering several car models, narrowing down the list of cars that interest you, then test-driving a few maybe, and then finally, putting down the deposit and booking yourself a new ride. But if you are a MINI customer, there may be an additional step - solving a puzzle.

This rather unconventional step in your car buying journey has been introduced by MINI, the same company that has been in the news recently for making one of the best 2022 hot hatch, the MINI JCW 24h Nurburgring Race Edition. If that doesn’t ring a bell, maybe you might remember it as the car driven by the iconic fictional character “Mr. Bean” or perhaps as the getaway car in from the Italian Job. You get the idea, the cars made by MINI are iconic.

But why would MINI send puzzles to its customers? They are doing so to show its customers that they are thinking of them and also, at the same time, apologize for the delay in deliveries of their new cars.

The MINI Puzzle Is Not So MINI

While MINI excels in the art of making small-sized cars so good that the world takes notice, they have taken the opposite approach when it comes to making puzzles. They are sending life-sized puzzles of their cars to customers who are waiting to take delivery of their vehicles. The idea is that the space where they will park their real car – once they get them – can temporarily be filled with a life-sized puzzle of a MINI car.

These puzzles are officially called “The-We’re-Working-Hard-To-Get-You-Your-Car, Waiting-Is-The-Worst, In-The-Meantime-Happy-Puzzling, MINI Puzzle.” The puzzle has an official short name as well, it is called “Not So MINI.”

MINI is sending these life-sized puzzled to only a select few customers, however. Others will get a regular-sized puzzle to solve.