Andrews Mot and Service Centre http://www.andrews-car-mot.co.uk Lytham MOT Service Centre Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:09:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Buying a Mini http://www.andrews-car-mot.co.uk/mot/buying-a-mini/ http://www.andrews-car-mot.co.uk/mot/buying-a-mini/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:20:40 +0000 daddyfixit http://www.andrews-car-mot.co.uk/?p=240 Continue reading →]]> Following BMW’s takeover of Rover in 1994, the mini’spassage into the 21st Century was guaranteed. The German company’s boss was a motoring Anglophile, and being the nephew of Sir Alec Issigonis – the creator of the original Mini – gave any project to build a new one the inside track. As it was, Rover (and BL before it) had several goes at replacing the iconic original, but it wasn’t until the early nineteen nineties that the project gained the impetus it needed.

The first pre-production new era mini was seen at the frankfurt motor show  in 1997, but it wasn’t until 2000 that the  production version appearedmaking its debut at the paris motor show three years after. During that time, BMW had dropped land rover, mg and rover from its portfolio of british marques, selling the former to ford, leaving the latter two to fend for themselves under the auspices of a home grown management consortium known as Pheonix.

As for mini, BMW knew its worth, and that wasn’t going anywhere. Despite the complexity of logistics, production shifted to oxford (The Germans spent a fortune refitting the factory) and a new German owned era of MINI manufacture begun.

Unsurprisingly, with the cachet of the MINI badge, allied to (what was by then ) BMW ownership, the new car proved an immediate hit when when it went on sale in July 2001.

]]> http://www.andrews-car-mot.co.uk/mot/buying-a-mini/feed/ 0