Used MINI

The Mini brand is something of an institution in Britain and has proved to be both popular and iconic throughout the last half century. Here we will look at how the fame of the Mini brand was created, how the production of MINI vehicles passed from the hands of Rover to BMW and how the image has lived on.

Mini began life in 1959 under the names Austin Seven and the more well-known Morris Mini-Minor. Early success for the diminutive vehicles was assured by a pricing strategy that saw the company sell the cars at almost below cost, making them surprisingly affordable, and the fact that they etched themselves in popular culture through a string of well-publicised Mini purchases by film and music stars. Soon new and used Mini cars were at the forefront of the British automobile market.

The immensely popular 1969 film ‘The Italian Job’ that revolved around three Mini Cooper S models navigating the streets of Turin, Italy in order to conduct a heist, only served to enhance the status of the new and used Mini vehicles, particularly within Britain. This popularity continued for several decades, and in 1994, BMW saw enough merit in the car to take over the Rover Group which included the Mini.

By the end of the Millennium, despite the continued success of the new and used Mini models, the Rover Group had been suffering massive losses for years and the majority of its companies were discarded by BMW. Rover Group and BMW bosses had long since argued over the direction that new Mini designs would take and now, with the Rover Group out the way, BMW launched the new MINI, with the all capital letters styling being the only brand name difference of note.

BMW protected some elements of the original Mini, highlighting its chic and stylish novelty value, while giving the brand a facelift and dragging it into the 21st century. The new designs made the MINI more a compact car rather than a city car, with them being larger in every measurement department as well as around 450 kg heavier than their old style equivalents. However, the current batch of new and used MINI vehicles maintain much of the charm and charisma of the old models that proved so popular throughout the second half of the 20th century. The new models have proved just as popular too, with a million new MINI’s rolled out in just a month longer than it took the original model to hit that figure back in the sixties. Here’s to many more decades of mini motoring.