At the end of the production of the Mini one of the directors told me
they lost about $200.00 per car that left the factory.
@ the wholesale level, prior to any warranty claims that may be made

The same director told Me that to keep making the Mini here in Australia
a huge amount of Money would have to be spent on tooling to get the Mini
to conform to the next set of ADR'S and They did not think that the Mini
would stand an addition to the price tag, Because all the changes they would
have to make would not improve the appearance or the ride of the Mini,
and the General public would not Pay extra for a car that appeared to have no changes
except the Price

Just as an aside the Moke survived the cut because they could sell it as a commercial
They also had what appeared to be an expanding overseas Market for the Moke
at that Time,

_________________
" A Hundred Years From Now It will not Matter what my Bank Acount Was,
The Sort Of House I Lived in, Or The Kind Of Car I drove ... But The World May Be A Better Place
Because I was Once Important In The Life Of A Child"

Leyland had to give the dealers something to sell after the loss of the P76 and Marina. They were trying to sell Triumphs and Rovers but they needed something cheap to still get the punters through the door. (though selling a Dolomite to a Mini buyer would be a very hard task!) They did have plans to sell the imported Marina but the exchange rate worked against it.
I think they realised that they would have to abandon the cheaper class cars and concentrate up the up market models.
Enfield was probably wasted building Minis, it was a big volume CKD assembly plant that was suited to building more complex cars than the Mini.

Maybe if they had tried to move the Mini more upmarket? Instead of 1000 a year at a loss they should have sold 100 a year for a profit?

Greetings All.

Interesting topic. made me get out my chair and have a look at a Leyland I bought a couple years back. I bought it as I wanted to make a trailer out of it. When I saw it, it was too good to butcher. In fact, I took it home, cleaned a few bits, put some petrol in it and it runs fatastic.

ID Plate
XNHAB18Y/104###
Engine 99H889AJH1002###
Squadron Blue
10/78

Behind brake master
16418
M2
22


Puts this one around the last 500.

The last one out the factory is in the Birdwood Museum.

Cheers
Alex.