It was manufactured at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham, England located next to BMC's headquarters and at the former Morris Motors plant at Cowley near Oxford, in the Victoria Park/Zetland British Motor Corporation (Australia) factory in Sydney, Australia, and later also in Spain (Authi), Belgium, Italy (Innocenti), Chile, Malta, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia (IMV).

BMW acquired the Rover Group (formerly British Leyland) in 1994, and sold the greater part of it in 2000, but retained the rights to build cars using the Mini name.

With Lord's dictum to produce a bubble car competitor and his revised design requirements being laid down in October 1956, work on XC9001 stopped and XC9003 became the priority.

The ADO15 used a conventional BMC A-Series four-cylinder, water-cooled engine,[32] but departed from tradition by mounting it transversely, with the engine-oil lubricated, four-speed transmission in the sump, and by employing front-wheel drive.

Almost all small front-wheel drive cars developed since have used a similar configuration, except with the transmission separately enclosed rather than using the engine oil and mounted directly onto the end of the crankshaft, but with unequal length driveshafts.

The radiator was mounted at the left side of the car so that the engine-mounted fan could be retained, but with reversed pitch so that it blew air into the natural low pressure area under the front wing.

Early prototypes used the existing 948-cc A-Series unit, but this provided the ADO15 with performance far greater than its price and purpose required – a top speed of about 80 mph (129 km/h).

This reduced power from 37 to 33 bhp and caused a significant drop in torque, so provided more realistic performance, especially when the ADO15 body was widened by 2 inches (5.08 cm) over the XC9003 prototype, which blunted the car's top speed while improving its stability and roadholding.

They had assessed the mechanically interconnected Citroën 2CV suspension at that time (according to an interview by Moulton with Car Magazine in the late 1990s),[citation needed] which inspired the design of the hydrolastic suspension system for the Mini and Morris/Austin 1100, to try to keep the benefits of the 2CV system (ride comfort, body levelling, keeping the roadwheel under good control and the tyres in contact with the road), but with added roll stiffness that the 2CV lacked.

Issigonis later said that he had sized the bins to carry the ingredients of his favourite drink, a dry martini[27] in the correct proportions (one bottle of vermouth and 2 of Gordon's Gin).

As originally built, all the structural body panels were welded to the top of the single floor pressing, but this caused major problems with water entering the cabin and was quickly changed in the first months of production.

Early prototypes were fully unitary in construction, but the cars broke apart under the high loads from the large lever ratios used with the rubber cone suspension.

[47] The Mark II Mini was launched at the 1967 British Motor Show,[49] and featured a redesigned grille, a larger rear window and numerous cosmetic changes.

Since the late 1960s, plans had been in place for a newer and more practical supermini to replace it, though the Mini was still the only car of this size built by British Leyland for the home market.

The Mark IV was introduced in 1976, though by this stage British Leyland was working on a new small car which was widely expected to replace the Mini before much longer.

It had a front rubber-mounted subframe with single tower bolts and the rear frame had some larger bushings introduced, all intended to improve the car's mechanical refinement and to reduce noise levels.

The new base model was the Mini City, with black-painted bumpers, an untrimmed lower facia rail, part-fabric seats and wing mirror and sun visor only on the driver's side, plus unique 'City' body graphics and boot badge.

Due to their common powertrain package, the Mini received many mechanical upgrades in the early 1980s which were shared with the Metro, such as the A-Plus engine, 12-inch wheels with front disc brakes, improved soundproofing and quieter, stronger transmissions.

Low purchase and running costs also made the Mini continually popular as a first car for younger drivers, and Austin-Rover introduced a steady stream of limited editions with bright paint colours, body graphics, and trim to appeal to this market.

Released in 1961 as more luxurious versions of the Mini, both the Wolseley Hornet and the Riley Elf had longer, slightly finned rear wings and larger boots that gave the cars a more conventional three-box design.

Built on the longer Traveller chassis but without side windows, it proved popular in the 1960s UK as a cheaper alternative to the car: it was classed as a commercial vehicle and as such carried no sales tax.

[66] A pick-up truck (technically a coupé utility by definition[citation needed]), 11 ft (3.4 m) in total length was built on the longer Mini Van platform, with an open-top rear cargo area and a tailgate.

[44] Built in the Australian British Motor Corporation factory at Zetland, New South Wales, using 80% local content, the Morris Mini K was advertised as the "great leap forward".

In 1994, under Bernd Pischetsrieder, a first cousin once removed of Issigonis, BMW took control of the Rover Group, which included the Mini, fitting an airbag to comply with European legislation.

The last Mini (a red Cooper Sport) was built on 4 October 2000 and presented to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust in December of that year.

Mini Hatch, the new model made by BMW, is technically unrelated to the old car but retains the classic transverse four-cylinder, front-wheel-drive configuration and "bulldog" stance of the original.

A number of prototypes produced for vehicles based on the Mini but which never saw production are held and sometimes displayed at the British Heritage Motor Centre museum at Gaydon, Warwickshire.

[92] However, the project was cancelled by management within Rover, who decided that the cost of engineering the changes, and achieving compliance with modern crash testing standards, was too great for the production volumes that could be expected of an updated Mini.

Leyland Minis also were subject to stricter government regulation with high bumpers, large turn indicators, warning buzzers and lights for seat belts and also a fitting of air pollution pumps which required a specially designed radiator.

On 13 January 2009, the Royal Mail released a limited edition of stamps entitled "British Design Classics", featuring an original, egg-shell blue, MK1 Mini, registration XAA 274.