At some point this year you might well become a little bit bored with the whole ‘Mini is 60 years old’ thing. I intend to add to that misery with a silly little book to cash in on the anniversary, as I’m sure BMW will do. With all this in mind, let’s see if it’s possible to buy the nation’s favourite small car at a half-reasonable price this year.
It certainly has been possible to buy affordable Minis in the past few years, but as you might know, the chances of rust are considerable. You will be able to get just about every part, which is a bonus, but the key is to understand that you must buy a Mini with your eyes wide open.
So let’s open them and find something. Well, £800 for a Mini Clubman estate is something of a result. Except that there was no engine, seats or trim and just half a floorpan. A project, then, and you would need to save up for the important bits. That’s the problem wading around the cheapy classifieds. More of a complete project was a 74,000-mile 1990 Checkmate at £1895. For that you’d get Cooper bonnet stripes, but there was visible rust in the pictures. It looked solid, but then they all do.
If you want an MOT then up your budget to £3500 and you will find a 1990s something or other. An unidentified 1991 998cc example with an MOT, and, rather interestingly, a Mayfair automatic, which is pretty rare these days. They are noisy, but not as bad as you might think. A ’91 Cooper was relatively nearby at £4250. Parked in a back garden, it had an MOT and also the paperwork which said it had been a Cat C write off, but all was since present, correct and properly repaired. Found a better one at £5750, but at this time of year I’d bid down to £5000.
The thing is, the later Minis are just as rusty as the old ones. Take a 1966 Morris Mk1 at £5995. It did need work but was at least complete. Add £10k for a restored example or instead try shopping abroad. A 1980 Clubman estate in yellow was £5995 and advertised as a left-hooker, but the pictures said RHD. Actually it was an ex-Brit car and it did contain plenty of patina.
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I miss the old Wood & Pickett and the Radford Minis..
Minis - classics but there
Minis - classics but there are plenty of early BMW MINIs on a bangernomics budget. They have their own issues, but go in with your eyes open. And yes they're larger and more expensive new than the original, I didn't like them until I drove one and it made sense, they're a sports hatch. Economy cars have moved to the east, a Sandero is probably closer to an original Mini in spirit.
Original Clubman / 1275GT with the Cortina/Maxi style grille used to be unloved, but offer more space to work on the engine.
For real rarity, the Riley Elf / Wolseley Hornet were Minis with proper 3 box saloon boots. In South Africa they sold actual Minis with these rears. RHD, would make an interesting import.
Another interesting import would be the Chilean fibreglass Minis, at least they would solve the rust issue.
Merc - never got over the headlight treatment of this W210 model, the previous square light W124 model looked elegant, this always had a 'surprised face'. Though at least it has a proper Merc grille (even if it is ill-fitting) and bonnet badge, unlike the current tacky looking big badge grilles.
BMW - This E39 5 series is into bangernomic territory, a fine car. My only gripe with the E39 is that it looks a bit too like the later E46 3 series, for me the definitive 5 series was the classy E34.
And the other way round as well
Perhaps the people in product planning had been drinking? Or, more charitably, they hadn't realised that the supply of Wolseley grilles came with a matching set of boots, and they hadn't noticed it when unpacking the CKD kits, and then had to use them up.
More info here https://www.aronline.co.uk/around-the-world/leyland-south-africa/mini-overseas-south-africa/