One thing that Mini hasn’t been short of over the last 50yrs is special editions and Mini’s German owners BMW are sticking with that tradition as they release a number of new “specials” to commemorate Sir Alex Issigonis’s revolutionary little car that was originally launched in 1959.
Top of the pile is the John Cooper Works ‘Special Edition’ Hatch, which BMW describe as “a unique car” well it certainly is where its price is concerned as the guide price of this model will be in the region of £33,000 to £35,000 and any way you cut it, that’s one hell of a lot of money for a Mini.
Only 250 cars will be produced for European markets, 100 cars have been secured for the UK market (no cars will be produced for markets outside of Europe).
Each car will be finished with a unique special edition number framed on the side scuttles. For UK customers, this special edition number will be allocated at random between 001 and 250 during production of the car and there will be no opportunity to request a specific number.
Its ironic, that many rich or famous people have owned Mini’s in the past and clearly, at £35,000 they still remain the target audience for this car, mind you, you with that kind of ticket price, you could probably add the ‘insane’ to that category as well.
More down to earth special editions are going to be available also and these include the “Camden 50” and the “Mayfair 50” These special edition models will be available for the MINI Cooper, MINI Cooper D and MINI Cooper S Hatch models only.
Price wise, these are
MINI Cooper Mayfair £18,415
MINI Cooper D Mayfair £19,485
MINI Cooper S Mayfair £21,280
Model Description OTR Price
MINI Cooper Camden £18,165
MINI Cooper D Camden £19,235
MINI Cooper S Camden £21,030
There will also be a new “John Cooper Works Clubman” and that’s priced at £22,230
Everyone ‘supposedly’ loved the original Mini and being honest, BMW have done a good job with their versions of it and they do maintain very high second hand values.
Never the less, it’s all a long way from the original Austin Seven (Mini) it’s celebrating, as a new Mini, way back in 1959, it cost just £497, with the de-luxe version £40 more at £537 and it was one of the cheapest cars you could buy at the time and that certainly cant be said of any of today’s Mini’s, and perhaps the real true spirit of the Mini wasn’t what it looked like, or even its design, but it was the fact that it was a car that most people could afford to own and today’s Mini’s certainly don’t fall into that category, with the cheapest Mini costing over £12,000 and as we all know, you can buy new cars for almost half that price, so where’s the ‘spirit’ in that.
