129 replies to this topic

[mininuts]

Stockport Motor House in Stockport

Kennings in Buxton

Hordens Motors in Chapel-en-le-Frith

[leroy26]

and now bmw own mini! full circle in a way cooperman!!

[leroy26]

wow thats round my way!

Stockport Motor House in Stockport

Kennings in Buxton

Hordens Motors in Chapel-en-le-Frith

[station31]

I actually miss Austin Rover / Rover, I know it was poor managed and went through owners but its a shame the way it went in 2005

[sonikk4]

Marshalls in Cambridge and in Peterborough.

[Cooperman]

and now bmw own mini! full circle in a way cooperman!!

It has to be said that the original Mini was an absolute genius of design let down by poor manufacturing/reliability engineering and lack of quality control.
In the early days one bought a Mini and used the warranty period to get the reliability sorted. If you bought a new car these days with the quality of the Mini in the early 60's you would take it back as 'unfit for purpose'. They used loads of oil with the original 'S' giving about 100 miles per pint. The gearbox syncros would last 6 months if you were lucky, dampers would leak fluid and go soft, fuel pumps used to fail regularly, water would leak in, exhaust pipes would snap because the top steady bushes had failed, etc, etc.

[bartman]

i worked at carlyon bay rover in cornwall all demolished now and turned into houses

[mab01uk]

and now bmw own mini! full circle in a way cooperman!!

and ironically BMW produced the original BMW Isetta one of those 'foreign Bubble Cars' that BMC wanted the Mini to drive off the roads of Britain!
Not to mention the very first BMW car, the BMW Dixi, was an Austin 7 built under licence........
Out-take of Jeremy Clarkson driving a BMW Isetta:
http://www.topgear.c...-15-bubble-wrap

Edited by mab01uk, 05 September 2012 - 06:35 PM.

[Cooperman]

I actually miss Austin Rover / Rover, I know it was poor managed and went through owners but its a shame the way it went in 2005

They really did have it coming. Years of p**s poor management, stupid unions, lack of forward planning, no proper investment in new sellable products and wasting money on junk. The way they dealt with their suppliers was disgusting (I know, I was a supplier before declining to supply them any further in 1987) and suppliers waited 180 days to be paid after correctly invoicing. One of the procurement guys at Longbridge told me that I should work at base cost-price for the priviledge of working for Austin-Rover. I told him I was not a f****** registered charity and no longer wished to do business with them. He seemed surprised. My clients at Ford and GM thought that was hilarious when I told them. I think it went round the industry as I got a lot more work from Ford after that.
The reasons for their failure would be funny if they had not wasted literally millions of pounds of taxpayers money.
I could go on, but why bother. They went, as they deserved to.

[Youngowner93]

TC Harrison in Hull is where my car originally came from :)

[old original]

i worked at carlyon bay rover in cornwall all demolished now and turned into houses

Did you flog Bungle his mini then?

[Scallywag630]

and now bmw own mini! full circle in a way cooperman!!

and ironically BMW produced the original BMW Isetta one of those 'foreign Bubble Cars' that BMC wanted the Mini to drive off the roads of Britain!
Not to mention the very first BMW car, the BMW Dixi, was an Austin 7 built under licence........
Out-take of Jeremy Clarkson driving a BMW Isetta:
http://www.topgear.c...-15-bubble-wrap

Foreign Bubble Cars...maybe...a lot of right hand drive Isettas were built in Brighton. Back in the dawn of time I had three Isettas...560YMY, 741ALL and 746SPB.

Don't know what Clarkson was on about...all mine had reverse gear.

Back to topic.....F,W.Mays & Co in Dorking were Austin/Rover dealers.

[bartman]

i worked at carlyon bay rover in cornwall all demolished now and turned into houses

Did you flog Bungle his mini then?

i doubt it haha i worked there as part of my college course in 1997. was a cool place to work nice people and lots of mini's

[mingy]

Oliver Rix Garages were a local BL dealer and originally supplied a 1986 metro 1100 i bought last year from an old lady,she just went to church and back in it every sunday, i later found out the church was only 500 yards from her house!!.
The mileage on it in 2011 was 7356miles with full service history, i bought it for £475.00. i still have the original dealers keyring and two AA box keys.

[Cooperman]

I once had an Isetta bubble car run into the back of my 850 Mini. He had to ask me to push him backwards so that he could get out as he had no reverse gear and his front, i.e. his door, was hard up against my rear bumper. It dented his door and put a small dent in my bumper. I couldn't stop laughing at him and his silly little car!