The became Rover minis in 1989.



I believe it's in a museum in South Australia.

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

Have you ever heard of and ARG Mini? And they were Austin/Rover Group Minis for a few years before they dropped the Austiun name and became Rover!

The company name was Rover. The car was called Mini not Rover Mini.

They did not stick a Rover badge on a Mini till right near the end.

Geez, you're more grumpy than usual tonight.

Aye, I have heard of ARG. Just wanted to share with you that in the UK up until 1988 they were Austin Minis, and from 1989 onwards they were sold as Rover Minis.

Never mind, I'm sure you'll tell me I'm wrong anyway. Sometimes I feel like buying a rotary or subaru flat four just to spite you.

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

You are wrong. Show me a Mini after 1969 with an Austin badge.

Mazda is a great company. They should be proud of their efforts with the rotary. Every other manufacturer says that they wont work but Mazda keeps chipping away and every ten years says that they will be able to finally beat the inherent problems as soon as they fit a Turbo, fit a Supercharger, run unleaded, run hydrogen, etc.
It takes balls to continue despite all the problems.

As for the flat four, they are just continuing the design that they stole from the germans (Goliath) who stole it from the poms (Jowett) It is amazing how advanced that pre war engine really is.

Is that better?

the only way to get an objective answer to the original question was to ask it somewhere else ! .....anywhere else other than here.

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who the hell told you that load of codswallop

Still remember the god-awful jingle...

New Datsun 120Y "the perfect put together"....

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"Show me the Mini!"

Perhaps you should take a look at Issue 16 of The Mini Experience.

It was our front cover car and major feature inside, going into detail on the development and reasoning behind the 1275LS.

Issue 16 also went into significant detail on the demise of Leyland Australia, as well as building the Mini and Moke at the Enfield plant and why production was finally stopped in October 1978 for Mini and November 1981 for Moke.

Issue 17 looked further into the changes at Leyland, the Moorebank facility and the management buyout and name change to JRA in 1983.

Cheers,
Watto.[/quote]

Watto, the management buyout was separate to the name change. The management buyout was in late 1986.

OK, I'll believe you. I was going by what I was told by a former Manager of Engineering Services - but then his memory has proved selective in other areas as well.

Cheers,
Watto.

I was told by a Beetle nut that Subaru are still paying a royalty to VW

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

The late 1986 date was in a 1987 book! It was a very recent happening when the book came out.

There were lots of flat fours before the beetle.
One company successfully sued VW for royalties.

Tucker - In theUK there were a number of attempts to replace the mini by BL (British Leyland) but most nver got past the planning/prototype stage - aronline.co.uk is a great source of info - the owner has made efforts to track down a lot of former engineers and workers from BMC/BL/AR/Rover Group to tell the story of many cars.

http://austin-rover.co.uk/

The mini was eventually supposed to be phased out after they brought out the Metro (originally called the miniMETRO to link the pair in the publc's eyes) but even then the mini kept selling and they eventually realised that people were buying it as statement or for emotional reasons for the icon it had become rather than as just a normal rational car purchase, so it stayed in production as long as it made a profit. Late on the interest from Japan was also crucial in keeping sales high enough to keep going. The miniMETRO became the Austin Metro, then Rover Metro, then Rover 100-series and ended up dying 2 years before the mini.

Open up the 'The Cars' menu at the side and you'll see a list of stories about attempts to replace the mini and how after the clubby was introduced to replace the roundnose, roundy production just kept going as they remained so popular... be careful though, there's hours of reading in there....


I think this discussion's been had before - is a car only a particular brand 'cos it has a badge saying so?? or if the paperwork says so?? Or neither, ?? or both????

I had a 1986 mini mayfair and the V5 registration document called it an Austin Mini, therefore legally it was an Austin (as Speedy said - up to 1989 they were Austins) On the front grille there was n Astiin ROver badge but without the lettering, just the blue and green stripes does that make it an Austin Rover? As Morris said, all minis in the UK for many years where simply identified as 'Mini' with no brand identifier badged. Export models were different though, I know that the Jap versions of my car (1990 Rover Mini Cooper RSP) were badged 'Rover' in Japan but mine isn't. Again, legally it's a Rover though...