Currently reading: How Mini's Cowley factory came into existence

The first example of a Mini Adventure, the maker's well-known ad line, took place inside its Oxford plant. We tell the story

Imagine ordering an extensive and rather elaborate new kitchen, and then discovering after it has been part-installed that you must move house and transfer your shiny new units and white goods to a room of a different design and layout. Now imagine the scale of that challenge multiplied by several hundred. And there you have the task facing the team kitting out BMW’s Mini factory in Cowley, Oxford, 19 years ago.

The new Mini developed by Rover and BMW in the late 1990s was originally intended to be built at Longbridge, Birmingham, where most original Minis were produced during its 41-year life. All that changed when then chancellor Gordon Brown refused to grant BMW a relatively modest amount of aid to assist with the modernisation of Longbridge. This was the last straw for a BMW board riven by the difficulties faced by its “English Patient”.

In March 2000, BMW announced that it was disposing of Rover, keeping Mini and selling Land Rover to Ford. The Phoenix Consortium that bought Rover for a nominal £10 was gifted the Longbridge plant, the MG F, Rover 25, 45 and 75 – the last of these assembled in the Cowley factory that, suddenly, was going to produce the new Mini. Not that the staff of Cowley knew that straight away. “There was a one-hour gap between hearing that Rover was to be sold and that Mini would be coming to Cowley,” says Andy Brook, then in pipeline logistics for the 75, now a materials planning manager.

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There are still plenty of people at Mini’s Oxford plant today who were involved in this transfer. Mick Fisher, who joined Austin as an apprentice in 1965, drolly describes it as “stripping the Rover 75 out and putting the Mini in”, which rather underestimates the Herculean task involved.

“The challenge was that all the equipment was designed for Longbridge and we now had to fit it into a much smaller building,” he says. “The glazing stations and the rolling roads were all going into a much smaller building.”

The method of attaching parts to the underside of Minis changed, too. “We had rotary slings for the Mini,” Fisher says. These turned the body through 90deg to make it easier to attach parts, whereas the 75’s underbelly was attended to from a pit beneath.

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“We wanted to prove the kit,” he says. “We built the first cars on the run. The normal shop-floor build [for a new model] is three years. We had nine months. There was only one body-in-white build phase before the start of production instead of three or four. The first Mini made was carried down the line, because the skillet lines [the body conveyors] were not driven.” Fisher adds that “there was a bouquet of roses on the bonnet” of that car in December 2000. It wasn’t quite the first R50-generation Mini, Longbridge having built a few pre-series cars, but it was a very significant one.

The factory was clearly teeming with activity. “There were a lot of BMW staff. There were four teams: the Mini project team kept their jobs,” says Jason Field, a senior IT specialist. “Cowley was paired with BMW’s Regensburg plant and there was a charter flight there to train from Monday to Friday.” The person tasked with overseeing the project is now boss of the Volkswagen Group. "Herbert Diess was a turnaround manager,” says Fisher. “He was nice to the workforce but hard to work for.” Field jokes: “Sleep and food were for wimps. They were long days.”

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The effort was worth it, though, the buzz building around the car a novelty for a Cowley staff unused to having a big hit on their hands. “After the press event, we kept a lot of early cars,” says Dom Nolan, now a manager in materials supply. “We used them at the weekend and they would be swarmed.”

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Yet some had doubts. “With the Rover 75, we believed we had built a really good car and it didn’t sell. This could be a repeat,” says Brook.

It wasn’t. “As orders started coming back, there were more shifts,” says John Cowan, ex-Rover and now on the electric Mini production integration team. “The weekend shift came on and it was seven days a week.”

Not just building cars but “keeping the kit going”, says Fisher. “It was not designed for here. It was almost thrown together. It was a real challenge. The line went up, down and around,” he says of the snake-like path it took. “The start of production was in April, as planned, but there weren’t masses built,” says Fisher. The Mini was launched to the public on 7 July 2001. “It was one launch date we couldn’t miss,” says Cowan.

Despite growing demand, Brook says: “There was still talk two years later that the plant might shut.” But as production grew, worries faded. “In 2001, it was less than 50,000 cars,” says Fisher, “but by 2005, it was over 200,000.” A year later, Fisher and his colleagues were finding ways to extend the production line within the old Rover buildings. “It was pretty innovative,” he says of solutions that made plentiful use of roof space. Ingenuity of the kind that made the original Mini famous is clearly flourishing at the factory that BMW calls ‘The Home of the Mini’, its next targets the launch of the Mini Electric and surviving Brexit.

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What's it like to drive today?

The youngest of the first R50 generation of hatchback Minis is now 13 years old, yet there are still plenty about, partly because it was a big success and partly because it’s a very well-made car. And still desirable. Examine one today and you’re struck by its perfect proportions – sadly absent from the current, long-nosed Mini hatch – the jolly interior and the fact that this first new Mini, criticised for its size at launch, now seems quite small.

And it definitely feels Mini-like: the flat cornering, quick steering and eager engine are an enjoyable surprise even today. That enthusiasts are collecting the very earliest – of which this is one – should be no surprise.

READ MORE

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Comments
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si73 15 December 2019

It is true that the new mini

It is true that the new mini seemed too big when launched and almost a caricature of the original, yet now it looks the closest to the original and pretty small.
Symanski 15 December 2019

Goodbye Mini.

Shame with Brexit most of the work will now go elsewhere.   But that's what they voted for - to be unemployed and poor.

 

Pietro Cavolonero 15 December 2019

Really?!?

Back that up with facts.  Cowley is at capacity and no room to expand, thank the local planning commitee for that one

si73 15 December 2019

Pietro Cavolonero wrote:

Pietro Cavolonero wrote:

Back that up with facts.  Cowley is at capacity and no room to expand, thank the local planning commitee for that one

Thank the government, maybe if they'd forked out support for Longbridge BMW wouldn't have quit on the factory and minis home would be in Birmingham?

Mikey C 16 December 2019

And of course BAE as under

And of course BAE as under their ownership the main Cowley site was sold off and production moved to the smaller pressings site.

typos1 16 December 2019

Symanski wrote:

Symanski wrote:

Shame with Brexit most of the work will now go elsewhere.   But that's what they voted for - to be unemployed and poor.

 

Yeah and it ll be the same with Nissan in Sunderland and Toyota in Burnaston, Turkeys for Christmas and all that, fools.

Bimfan 15 December 2019

The Mini is a great British (and a bit German) success story

A great car produced by a great workforce and it should rightly be celebrated.

The first R50's were hard riding and mechanically weak (ex chrysler mechanicals) but a great drive and a very useful, practical urban runabouts. The main improvement over the Issigonis original, was definitely the hatchback rear.

The later variants lost some of the original style, but gained in ride and refinement, plus BMW engines and technology. 

We have owned 5 versions of 3 door Cooper hatches since 2001 and the latest is definitely the best.

typos1 16 December 2019

Bimfan wrote:

Bimfan wrote:

A great car produced by a great workforce and it should rightly be celebrated.

The first R50's were hard riding and mechanically weak (ex chrysler mechanicals) but a great drive and a very useful, practical urban runabouts. The main improvement over the Issigonis original, was definitely the hatchback rear.

The later variants lost some of the original style, but gained in ride and refinement, plus BMW engines and technology. 

We have owned 5 versions of 3 door Cooper hatches since 2001 and the latest is definitely the best.

It wasnt "Chrysler mechanicals" - the engine was a joint BMW-Chrysler unit and that was it, nothing else was Chrysler.

Whilst they do drive well, none of the BMW Minis are worthy inheritors of the Mini name, theyre simpy not innovative enough (at all actually), just lazy pastiches, lazy pastiches that are growing fatter with each generation.

beechie 16 December 2019

I disagree

typos1 wrote:

Bimfan wrote:

A great car produced by a great workforce and it should rightly be celebrated.

The first R50's were hard riding and mechanically weak (ex chrysler mechanicals) but a great drive and a very useful, practical urban runabouts. The main improvement over the Issigonis original, was definitely the hatchback rear.

The later variants lost some of the original style, but gained in ride and refinement, plus BMW engines and technology. 

We have owned 5 versions of 3 door Cooper hatches since 2001 and the latest is definitely the best.

It wasnt "Chrysler mechanicals" - the engine was a joint BMW-Chrysler unit and that was it, nothing else was Chrysler.

Whilst they do drive well, none of the BMW Minis are worthy inheritors of the Mini name, theyre simpy not innovative enough (at all actually), just lazy pastiches, lazy pastiches that are growing fatter with each generation.

The old mini wasn't worth copying: it was rubbish and completely unsuited to modern motoring. It may well have been innovative but it led up a blind alley, where, sensibly, no-one else chose to follow it.

typos1 16 December 2019

beechie wrote:

beechie wrote:
typos1 wrote:

Bimfan wrote:

A great car produced by a great workforce and it should rightly be celebrated.

The first R50's were hard riding and mechanically weak (ex chrysler mechanicals) but a great drive and a very useful, practical urban runabouts. The main improvement over the Issigonis original, was definitely the hatchback rear.

The later variants lost some of the original style, but gained in ride and refinement, plus BMW engines and technology. 

We have owned 5 versions of 3 door Cooper hatches since 2001 and the latest is definitely the best.

It wasnt "Chrysler mechanicals" - the engine was a joint BMW-Chrysler unit and that was it, nothing else was Chrysler.

Whilst they do drive well, none of the BMW Minis are worthy inheritors of the Mini name, theyre simpy not innovative enough (at all actually), just lazy pastiches, lazy pastiches that are growing fatter with each generation.

The old mini wasn't worth copying: it was rubbish and completely unsuited to modern motoring. It may well have been innovative but it led up a blind alley, where, sensibly, no-one else chose to follow it.

 

What the hell are you on about ? I never said the old Mini should be copied, I said its successor should be as innovative as the original, none of the BMW Minis have been in any way innnovative, they have - ironically considering your post - simply been COPIES of the orignal's styling. As for "leading up a blind alley where sensibly no-one chose to follow" well thats complete and utter BS, you obviously dont know your motoring history.

beechie 16 December 2019

I didn't say you did say...

typos1 wrote:

beechie wrote:
typos1 wrote:

Bimfan wrote:

A great car produced by a great workforce and it should rightly be celebrated.

The first R50's were hard riding and mechanically weak (ex chrysler mechanicals) but a great drive and a very useful, practical urban runabouts. The main improvement over the Issigonis original, was definitely the hatchback rear.

The later variants lost some of the original style, but gained in ride and refinement, plus BMW engines and technology. 

We have owned 5 versions of 3 door Cooper hatches since 2001 and the latest is definitely the best.

It wasnt "Chrysler mechanicals" - the engine was a joint BMW-Chrysler unit and that was it, nothing else was Chrysler.

Whilst they do drive well, none of the BMW Minis are worthy inheritors of the Mini name, theyre simpy not innovative enough (at all actually), just lazy pastiches, lazy pastiches that are growing fatter with each generation.

The old mini wasn't worth copying: it was rubbish and completely unsuited to modern motoring. It may well have been innovative but it led up a blind alley, where, sensibly, no-one else chose to follow it.

 

What the hell are you on about ? I never said the old Mini should be copied, I said its successor should be as innovative as the original, none of the BMW Minis have been in any way innnovative, they have - ironically considering your post - simply been COPIES of the orignal's styling. As for "leading up a blind alley where sensibly no-one chose to follow" well thats complete and utter BS, you obviously dont know your motoring history.

...that the mini should be copied. I said that the mini as it was wasn't worth copying and no-one ever did. It was the Hawker Harrier of the car world: a lovely idea but completely pointless - as evidenced by the fact that the rest of the world shrugged their shoulders.