Dubbed “The American Icon” the MINI Cooper pictured above was created by the well-meaning hands of Ken and Annie Burkitt of Ontario, Canada as a representation of all things American. Covered with 1 million meticulously placed Swarovski crystals, The American Icon features the jeweled likeness of 10 different American symbols, including Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and the American flag. Currently on display at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum at Piccadilly Circus in London, anonymous tipsters have informed us that U.S. Ambassadors in London have promised a £700 reward to anyone who successfully wrestles the Burkitt’s away from their Bedazzler.

Full gallery after the jump

As if the BMW 3 Series didn’t have enough accolades and history and positive press about it already, now they’re officially the most reliable car in the UK. This according to the annual Fleet News FN50 reliability survey of all the car leasing companies in Britain.

The survey takes into account the reliability history of 881,000 vehicles. Japanese automakers have traditionally been on top, but this year, BMW took the top spot. In addition to the #1 position, BMW also has two other spots in the top ten with the 1 Series and the Mini.

The survey assessed vehicles by the number of breakdowns per 100 of each type of model on each leasing company’s fleet, that gives them a simple percentage. Easy peasy… now check out the official press release and the complete top ten list:

In addition to the super fuel efficient up! concept micro car VW debuted last year, the German automaker is also apparently planning to add another little fuel-sipper to the family, this one even smaller than the up!. Sources say the future tiny car will be based on the up!’s platform, but apparently borrowing its powertrain from Schwinn, will be equipped with a newly-developed 1.0L 50 horsepower engine. The two-seater whispering metal deathtrap is rumored to achieve 117 mpg and is intended to crush other minor competitors like the Toyota iQ and the smart ForTwo.

The 204 hp all-electric Mini Cooper is finally coming to America, although only in a limited run. Limited as in, 500 cars. Yep, just 500 lucky customers spread out in 3 states (California, New York and New Jersey) will be able to lease this beautiful piece of engineering. BMW it’s only leasing to “select private and corporate customers”. So apparently, this is just a trial run for BMW where they’re trying to get a feel for how the car will do in the US market.

“Putting some 500 cars on the road under real daily traffic conditions will make it possible to gain widely applicable hands-on experience,” BMW says. “Evaluating these findings will generate valuable know-how, which will be factored into the engineering of mass-produced vehicles.”

I can see why they’re only leasing to select customers, the lease is pretty hefty: $850/month. And it’s only a two-seater, since the whole backseat is taken up by the battery-packs.

Today, Dan Shapely of The Daily Green published a fuel-friendly rank-and-file of the 10 daintiest fuel-sippers available for the 2009 model year. Not surprisingly, the notoriously green Toyota Prius took the number 1 spot for its impressive combined fuel economy of 51 mpg. Ranked in order from greatest to least, the Toyota Prius’ spot as number 1 is no great shocker, but some of the picks were just plain surprising. Three models produced beneath the Ford Motors umbrella tied for 4th place, effectively ranking higher than hybrid heavyweights and earthy crowd favorites like the smart ForTwo and the Toyota Yaris.

Hit the jump to see which cars made the cut

Yes, that hydro you just hit might have been laced with something, but no, you’re not hallucinating. Dubbed “The MINI Aldridge Special”, The MINI Cooper pictured above is part of legendary artist Alan Aldridge new exhibit, The Man With Kaleidoscope Eyes, currently on display in London’s Design Museum.

Aldridge, who is most famous for his work as an album cover artist for the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Mr. Subtly himself, Elton John, created the MINI Aldridge Special in part to celebrate the MINI’s 50th birthday in 2009. Described as a “retrospective display” of Aldridge’s past work, the MINI Aldridge Special is a recreation of a similar MINI piece by Aldridge, featured on the cover of Sunday Times Magazine in 1965.

Gallery after the jump

2011 MINI Crossman Concept

Bigger than any vehicle BMW’s MINI division has ever offered, the new MINI Concept Crossman [pictured above courtesy of the shutterbugs at Jalopnik]debuted at the 2008 Paris Auto Show today. An AWD drive train supposedly offers a more rugged, off-road feeling, but we wouldn’t but the MINI Crossman for weekends in the mountains. What we would buy it for, however, is the nifty MINI Center Globe. Exactly like it sounds, the spherical control module located in the center stack is by far one of the MINI Crossman’s most impressive, innovative features, screw the swivel-mount doors.

Full gallery after the jump

Remember that old email about the New York man who bought land in Portugal and found a mysterious barn full of old cars on it? Well that story is bunk, although with a delicious nugget of truth in the center, as usual. Instead of being a magical mystery barn that some lucky fool found on his newly purchased land, it actually just belongs to an old man who owned a car dealership in the 70s and 80s. He decided to save the more interesting cars that he came across during his life.

The pictures came about on the internet because the owner hadn’t seen his collection for a while and asked a man to go take pictures of the barn and the cars for him, and he did. According to that guy, there are 180 cars in the barn.

Check out the actual pictures:

Just like the Chevy Cruze and the concept Chevy Orlando, Mini may be trying to capitalize on the re-emerging market of station wagon-esque rides. There are families out there that need a lot of space in their cars, and they want fuel efficiency just like the rest of us. My brother, for instance, has 6 kids and needs his SUV, but doesn’t want pay a small fortune to fill up the tank twice a day. So the market for lots of space + fuel economy is out there. That’s where this Concept Frankfurt fits.

Just like the old Mini Clubman, it features twin “barn doors” in the rear and a lengthened wheelbase. Check out the pictures:

2009 Mini JCW Front Grill

BMW has taken the already fun Mini and ratcheted up the thrill-o-meter with the 2009 Mini John Cooper Works.  Since the Mini’s rebirt in 2001, MINI fans have turned to John Cooper Works, tuner of minis for “mini” years for performance parts and full conversion kits.  Now BMW has made this process even more painless (unlike my jokes) by offering upgraded John Coooper Minis straight out of the factory in the same manner customers previously customized and ordered base and S models.