20 years of BMW Mini: How the iconic car has changed over the years
It’s been a little while since the German brand reinvented a British icon – so how has it changed over the years? Jack Evans takes a look Officially revealed at the 2001 Geneva Motor Show, the Mini took the motoring world by storm. Pictures: Mini/PA
Tue, 04 May, 2021 - 12:49
Jack Evans
The Mini is as British as The Beatles. But back in 2001, a very German BMW took to reinventing this legendary icon, transforming the tiny original Mini into a far more luxurious and up-to-date affair.
It was a success too, with the Mini going on to become a smash hit across the globe. Since its inception, it has changed a fair bit as well, evolving and shaping to become the car we know today.
Motoring: Marking 20 years of the BMW Mini | The Droitwich Standard droitwichstandard.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from droitwichstandard.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
2019 marked the Mini s 60th anniversary. Watch the original meet the modern successor.
To some people the “new” Mini will never be a replacement for the original, but here’s the thing: it’s not that “new” anymore. In fact the BMW Mini is celebrating its 20th birthday this month! That’s right, while the original celebrated its 60th back in 2019, the modern Mini is 20 (that’s the benchmark to be considered a classic car by a lot of insurance companies, by the way), with the BMW Group’s UK manufacturing plants in Oxford and Swindon celebrating two decades of building Minis, with production beginning for body panels in early 2001 in Swindon and the first new Mini rolling off the line in Oxford on the 26th April that same year.
Share
More than ten million Minis have been built and sold worldwide since 1959 and almost as many of the new ones have been built in the 20 years under BMW (5.13 million) as in the previous 40 years of the original (5.38 million).
Yet the timing of the original Mini s launch could not have been better, arriving as a classless and affordable small car loved by celebrities, royalty and ordinary folk alike, who took it to their hearts just in time for the Swinging Sixties.
The Oxford factory currently builds the Mini three-door and five-door Hatch, Mini Clubman and Mini Electric on the same production line