Student-only Mini Oxford Edition now extended to current, former US military

p90320982-highres-the-mini-oxford-edit — It's a nice move on Mini's part, but above all, it's an excellent marketing ploy to reel 'em back in later, after a few promotions.
Mini

Mini's Oxford Edition is a clever play, offering a low starting price just for college students while cramming it full of standard equipment that would cost any other buyer thousands of dollars. But a deal that good can't be limited to one specific subset of civilization, so Mini's loosened the reins a bit.

Less than a year after its debut, Mini has expanded the Oxford Edition's availability, now offering it to former and active members of the US military. Prior to this, it was only accessible for part- and full-time students of two- or four-year accredited schools, in addition to recent graduates and postgrad students.

Mini sells two versions of the Oxford Edition. The two-door variant starts at $19,750 and throwing two more doors into the mix brings the price up to $20,750, neither of which include $850 for destination. Despite the low price, there's a load of standard equipment in here, including a 6.5-inch infotainment screen, parking sensors, a panoramic roof, heated seats and 17-inch alloy wheels. Both manual and automatic transmissions are available, and the car comes in six different colors.

Mini estimates that the standard equipment on the Oxford Edition would cost around $6,900 on other models, making it one hell of a screaming deal. Appealing to college grads and veterans is a solid way to establish a customer base that, in the future, may remember the experience and come back with more money to spend.

There are some limitations, though. Active-duty citizens are included in the offer, as are recently retired and honorably discharged members, so long as the retirement or discharge took place within the last 12 months. For those with dishonorable discharges, well, them's the breaks.