The Mini brand is celebrating its 60th year in business after the first car rolled off the assembly line in 1959. Part of the celebration includes the introduction of a special edition Cooper S called the 60 Years Edition, which is limited to just 500 examples in the UK market only. As Mini continues to celebrate its 60th year in business, the company just passed a major milestone as the 10 millionth car rolled off the assembly line at the Oxford plant.
The 10 millionth car is a Cooper S 60 Years Edition built on July 24, 2019. Mini has been searching for owners across the UK to bring a car from each of the company's 60 model years in order to celebrate alongside the 10 millionth car. The result is this wonderful photo taken at the Oxford plant.
All of the 60 Mini owners took part in a photoshoot at the Oxford plant before driving in a convoy to the International Mini Meeting in Bristol, an annual festival for Mini fans. Leading the convoy was the 621 AOK, the very first Mini ever built, while the rear was brought up by the 10 millionth car. The classic Mini was launched in 1959 and continued to be produced at Oxford until 1968 when production was moved to Longbridge until it went out of production in 2000. From 1959 to 2000, more than 5.3 million classic Minis were built.
"As we celebrate 60 years of our iconic brand and look towards an electric future, I would like to thank everyone who has made Mini such a global success, from my team here to the loyal customers and fans around the world. To see the 10 millionth Mini roll off the production line here at Oxford was a moment of great pride for the whole team, a number of whom have relatives who were here building the very first Minis in 1959. This is a wonderful chapter in the Mini story and proof of the passion that our customers have for this very special British car."
Production at Oxford has increased from around 300 cars per day in 2001 to around 1,000 in 2019. The 4,500 strong workforce is capable of producing a new Mini every 67 seconds. As with the first Mini, the 10 millionth car will be kept by BMW in the heritage fleet for special events.