With very early Minis now attracting serious money, especially ones with the desirable Cooper badge on the bonnet, it’s worth checking out variants built in the 1990s if you fancy one offering better value for money. Minis from this decade can often be picked up for a fraction of what it would cost to buy a prime example built in the ’60s – with a host of specialists able to provide a full range of spares and services to help if things go wrong.
The rejuvenation of the Mini in the 1990s has its roots in the previous decade, when John Cooper approached Austin Rover bosses with a plan to revive the Mini Cooper brand. Sadly, the company turned this interesting proposal down; but undeterred by the rejection, John Cooper started to offer aftermarket tuning kits for Minis and a legend was reborn.
Austin Rover was reformed as the slimmer, more premium-orientated Rover Group by 1986, and it was odds-on that the Mini would be dropped from the line-up thanks to healthy sales of the Metro. Over the years, the overall look of the Mini’s exterior had remained relatively unchanged; and although Mini was now marketed as a standalone brand, it was being kept alive with what seemed like a never-ending number of special editions and clever advertising slogans.
