My father drove a Mini until the last available model he was able to buy was scrapped in 1996. The first model I remember was a Mark II and produced by Austin (BMC). In Qatar he owned an Austin Mini Countryman Mk II (launched in 1967).

The naming convention of the Mini is confusing at best. The Mini was launched in 1959 by British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC) which was formed by merging Morris Motors and the Austin Motor Company. Both companies retained their corporate identity and the Mini was both marketed as the Morris Mini Minor and the Austin Seven, the latter was rebranded in 1961 as the Austin Mini. In 1968 British Leyland was formed by merging BMC (called British Motor Holdings from 1966) and Leyland Motors. The Mini Mark III was therefor a British Leyland Mini.

Austin Mini de Luxe
While many Shell employees drove their car home from Doha, Qatar back to The Netherlands or the UK (roughly 6.500 kilometers) my father took an airplane to Schiphol because he thought the long road trip was too dangerous for a young child. He sold the Mini Countryman.
In May 1970 he bought an Austin Mini 850 de Luxe in The Hague. Year of build 1970. The original invoice has the British Leyland logo but the car is clearly named “Austin Mini 850”. In 1970 they were apparently still selling the Mini under the Austin brand name. The colour was Sabbia Grey with black interior and cost 5.504 Dutch guilders after 12% tax and including a roof rack. This is € 12.514 adjusted for inflation.

He never had a love for cars and to him it was just a cheap and practical car. In hindsight it was a damn cool car.

His third Mini was probably a Mark IV (produced between 1976 - 1983) in olive green and his fourth and last Mini was probably a Mark V in red. He drove his cars until the mechanic deemed the car too expensive to repair. Those Mini’s didn’t last very long.

The Mini Cooper was a sportive version and the result of John Cooper, designer and builder of Formula One cars, collaborating with Mini-designer Alec Issigonis. Famously the Mini won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967. The race was held between several European cities and Monaco.

After some digging in my fathers files I learned he bought his third Mini in 1976, which means the sabbia grey Mini only lasted 6 years! The olive green Mini was sold in 1985. On the invoice of the fourth Mini it is stated the old model he handed in was “defective” after only 9 years and was scrapped. His fourth Mini was a Mini 1000 model 1985 in “red” for the total sum of 11.850 guilders, which is € 10.589 corrected for inflation.

The red mini lasted only 11 years and was scrapped in 1996. In 1996 the Mini wasn’t available on the Dutch market. He bought a Daihatsu Cuore Life Style in white. In 2010 he bought this final car, another Daihatsu Cuore.