Mini production at Oxford, UK
 

Shamelessly stolen from a Facebonk post by a BL enthusiasts group, but quite interesting.

A (controversial ?) milestone ....

Sometime very soon, UK production of MINI cars in Cowley by BMW will overtake total production of the classic Mini - a figure most sources put at 5,387,862.*

Some will see that as a good thing, some a bad thing. But it's a thing.
It's comparing apples (or an apple) with pears of course, but illustrates the scale of the BMW Mini operation at Cowley - sometimes not fully recognized, as most cars go for export. But yes - it's a comparison that requires a few "qualifiers" and points of analysis (below): ....

- We're talking about all cars built in MINI plant Oxford since the first rolled off the line on April 26th 2001. Though they have all been badged "MINI" - it's been a range of different models spread over several generations - not just one car. Currently the plant builds the three and five door hatch, Clubman estate and electric MINI.

- MINI plant Oxford (the name given to the factory which occupies the old Pressed Steel Fisher site in Cowley) built its three millionth car in late 2016. By the time 20 years of production was celebrated in mid 2021, production had passed five million cars - so with up to 1,000 MINIs being built per day, they will now be approaching the record set by the classic Mini (though I suspect BMW may remain coy about any "over-taking" 😉).

- We're talking purely about MINI production in Oxford. MINI cars are manufactured in other locations abroad but this comparison refers solely to UK production.

- Although the BMW MINI range appears (from just British production) to have managed in 21 years something it took the original Mini 41 years to do
- that's not quite fair. The bulk of production of the original Mini occurred in the first two decades, and production of the four millionth Mini was celebrated in 1976 (see comment). So in fact MINI plant Oxford has been building MINI badged cars in roughly the same quantities as BMC (& later British Leyland) were building the original Mini prior to 1980.
At the peak in 1971, British Leyland was also building 1000 Minis a day at Longbridge (though half as kits for overseas assembly).

- Some will say that MINI cars built today are merely assembled from imported components - so the contribution made by BMW plant Oxford to the UK manufacturing sector, and the UK economy - cannot be compared to the past. But certainly body panels for the BMW MINI are British made (in Swindon in the former British Leyland/Pressed Steel Fisher plant).
And engines for many years have been built at Hams Hall, Birmingham. That plant also exports engines to other BMW plants worldwide (Germany, USA, South Africa) which is a sort of "collateral benefit" of having MINI production in the UK.

- With BMW having built over 5 million cars at Cowley since 2001, they've been building cars in Britain in volumes comparable to the Rover Group in the previous 20 years - if a little lower. Rover built 7.85 million cars** (Longbridge & Cowley combined) during the 21 years 1980-2000 inclusive, compared to the approx. 5.3 million BMW have built at Cowley in the 21 years since.

- And perhaps more surprisingly, with production averaging around 250,000 cars annually, BMW have been building more MINI cars at Cowley than British Leyland built there, on average***, in the 1970s - when Cowley built the Marina, Maxi and Princess (plus 1100/1300 until '74), and British Leyland was the nation's biggest car manufacturer. In 1980 only 105,000 new cars left Cowley. (Cowley stopped building the Mini in 1968, production then concentrating on Longbridge).

- Some will say all comparisons are meaningless as the BMW MINI cars built in Cowley are far from mini in size, and that it's a travesty to apply the MINI brand to them. Well maybe.

My (purely personal) opinion is that - given the economic benefits production of MINI in Cowley brings (not least employment of 4,000), and given that MINI as a brand clearly helps sell the cars built there around the globe - we should get over that .... The latest VW Touareg or expensive VW Arteon are far from being the "People's Car" that the Volkswagen name once promised. But I doubt people in Germany are wishing ill on VW, thus threatening jobs and prosperity, over the misapplication of a word ...

* 5,387,862 is the figure given in "The complete catalogue of the Mini" by Chris Rees - defined as the number announced by Rover when production ended for cumulative production worldwide. Almost exactly the same figure is given by AROnline. There are many other figures (and many ways to calculate them due to overseas production, commercial versions etc.) but they are all around that point in the "5 million and a bit" range. Of that total, only around 600,000 were manufactured at Cowley.

** Figure for 1980-2000 Rover production is for "Cars" (so excluding commercial vehicles) from Longbridge & Cowley combined. It excludes Land Rover production.

*** Figures for 1970s British Leyland car production are for "Built Up" (complete cars) so exclude commercial vehicles & kits.
SMMT/Manufacturer data

21 years of employing people making a successful product has to be a good thing.

If Rover Group had miraculously continued and doubly miraculously found the money to invest in new products (rather than cheap facelifts), it would probably have looked at its history and decided that a new, bigger Mini would be a good idea.

Or a Maxi.

I loathe "MINIs"!

A MINI Countryman looks biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigger than a L/R Evoque!

"MINI" my backside!

The first few years after the BMW version came out, I had the same view. Until I got to drive one…. They are super fun.

Having had a BL Clubman Estate as my first car I'll always have a soft spot for the original Mini and having looked at the BMW version a couple of times to possibly buy one I can't warm to them in the same way. But having said that it is remarkable that BMW Mini is now passing 5million and even if there isn't the same labour intensive extensive industry Oxford and Swindon would surely be poorer places without them.

Whilst I might be in the 'it's not a proper Mini' camp and their fast and loose approach to the names they use they are not the only ones. In the 'BL' days it worked the other way round in that they would apply a different name to the same product the Austin 7 Mini, Morris Mini Minor, Riley Elf, Wolsey Hornet; and even within that they were nicking old names from the Austin 7 and the Morris Minor. And if we look at another BMC car the Morris Oxford the first car with that name was nothing like the last one. If only BMW had called their Estate version a Countryman not a Clubman I'd probably be able to find it in my heart to forgive them, and I wonder what a true Clubman styled BMW Mini would look like? :)

They should be called MAXI but then there wasn’t the same cachet about that brand.

Edited due to spacing errors.

My Dad ran 3 Maxi's in the early 70's, the twin carb jobbie was awesome - the original one pedal driver. You could go into corners tight, then power understeer corrections - brilliant.

BTW Maxi : first mass produced UK car to have 5 gears, 5 doors, cable operated gear box, front wheel drive - How long did it take Ford/Vauxhall et all to catch up??
It should have been a success, but was unloved by management so wasn't

Cheers
Bob

Isn't that a common problem with Leyland/Rover - good ideas but poor execution?

They're the butt of many jokes now but they were "influencers" in the day - Freelander 1 was for many years the best selling small 4x4 in Europe, the MGF sold extremely well also with long waiting lists for early models (even though it was really a Metro with swapped subframes).

The Rover 75 was a very well designed car and really should have sold better, but some mediocre engines and a misplaced design theme probably didn't help.

Agreed. I worked at Cowley for a couple of years in the 90s, and I still fondly remember my Rover 220 SLi lease car in British Racing Green.

I know this was a Honda Concerto joint venture but the British 16v engine was great, it handled and rode well, and it felt well made when I had it. I remember thrashing it down the country road to and from Islip on the A34 and it was great fun.

My mate has got a mini convertible. It horrible, very badly put together, but he loves it.