A little red 1989 Austin Mini, whose one lady owner had driven a mere 6500km in her whole 29 years of ownership, has just fetched £13,000 (AU$22,654) at auction in the UK.
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The mileage equates to a miniscule average of four kilometres a week.
The lady had paid a touch over just £1,900 (AU$3,361) when she’d bought her little Mini new in 1989.
The concept of the Mini actually goes back a further 30-odd years before, that to 1957 when head of the Morris Car Company, Sir Leonard Lord foreshadowed a place for a small, fuel-efficient and budget-priced family car in view of a looming world fuel crisis.
He tasked his top engineer, Alec Issigonis, with heading up a team of designers to bring about just such a vehicle.
Among ideas that team conceived was a boxy little auto into which four people could be shoe-horned, and which had a transverse engine and gearbox that allowed for a revolutionary, fuel-efficient front-wheel drive.
It was something drivers around the world instantly took to, and which is still as in-vogue today as all those decades ago.
And that little red 1989 Austin Mini that’s just sold in the UK still had its original sale contract in the glovebox, original handbook and keys and supplier company’s windscreen sticker. It also came with the original 1980’s style registration disc holder.
While he’s paid around a third more than the £10,000 pounds the car was expected to sell for at auction, its new owner says he bought it both to enjoy driving, and as an investment.