I think the problem lies, as usual, with america. These lamp clusters were designed in a European environment where we have brake lights and turn indicators.

I think the problem lies, as usual, with america. These lamp clusters were designed in a European environment where we have brake lights and turn indicators. By the time the design was nearing production it was probably too late to cancel when they realised that some parts of this planet have the boneheaded idea that flashing the red stop light was a good idea. Mini therefore had three options: 1) Sell the global spec in the states, which they can't do because there will be at least one state who thinks its too foreign or "un american". 2) Don't sell in the states, which I guess they could do since this is a factory modification and not part of the standard spec, but now they have a lot of undesirable cars because you can no longer visually distinguish the up-specced car from the basic model. 3) Change the orange bulb for red and sell cars to the boneheaded (and dangerous) american standard of flashing the stop lights.