The title of the Mini Cooper causes all kinds of confusion with car enthusiasts. Is the car a small version of a Cooper or is it just a Mini and Cooper is the model or what? We address the issue and provide an answer in this article.
The Mini Cooper revival has been a stunning success this decade. Any revival, of course, presupposes an original episode. In the case of the Mini Cooper, the first was not built in 2000. It was built in 1959. BMW may own the brand now, but it was BMC [British Motor Company] that came up with the idea. The BMC was good at ideas, but not so good at running a car business. This meant the car was passed to different ownership through the years and much of its popularity waned as it was never serious updated for the times until BMW purchased it in 1994 and launched the modern Mini Cooper in 2001.
The name of the Mini Cooper gives rise to a lot of arguments. Is the car a Mini or is it a Cooper. History gives us the answer. In the late 1950s, the United Kingdom was going through a gas shortage caused when the Middle East OPEC countries cut off gas supplies given the UK's involvement in the Suez Canal mess. The English people were looking for gas friendly cars and there were no British made options. The people were buying [gasp!] German cars to fill the gap. The BMC decided to come up with their own small subcompact and you can guess what it was.
The first car launched by the BMC was not called a Mini Cooper. In fact, neither term was used. It was called an Austin Seven, but was also released as a Morris Mini-Minor under a second brand owned by BMC. In 1961, the Austin Mini was released in the UK, the first time the name Mini was used. A year later, the car was just called the Mini.
