Our Cars Martyn Knowles

Martyn Knowles

Editor

MINI problem

I started collecting BMW MINIs about four years ago. The early cars are becoming collectable and certain model values are rising fast. I have six parked at home and one elsewhere, which has become a mighty problem. Fortunately, three of them can park on neighbour’s driveways which helps tremendously.

Four of the MINIs are Y-registered (2001). The Y-registered cars are the most collectable because the MINI was officially on-sale from July 7, 2001 – then became 51-plate registrations about eight weeks later (when the revised registration system commenced in England, Scotland and Wales – 51 indicating September 2001).

So, while these cars do seem to last 20 years on UK roads quite well – look to see how many 51-plate MINIs you can spot when you are out next – for the collector, Y-registered models are the ones to snap-up. Not all of them are over-priced either, you can spot them in the classified adverts, offered as sub-£1000