| << 1983 |
The End of the Road for the “Brick”
In January, all four of the 1983 models w ere available to t he South African public namely the Leyland Mini “E”, the HLE, the Rebel and the Panda models. According to NAAMSA figures, 308 Minis were sold in 1984 of which 191 were Mini 1275 E units and 117 Mini 1275 HLE units. Mini sales represented 0,1% of the market.
In CAR’s March 1984 edition the sad news came that “after a model run of nearly 25 years and the production of 77 686 vehicles in that time, Leyland built the last Mini during October 1983.” Although this is a wonderful piece of Mini history recorded, I cannot figure out how production could be reported as 77686. The total from NAAMSA figures from 1959 to 1984 came to 93 342 units – excluding the Minivan and Pick-up numbers sold/manufactured. I verified these figures with the figures reported in CAR’s best seller lists over the years as well as the Auto Data Digest for the period they covered, and only a few small deviations were picked up (these sources of course used the official NAAMSA figures in the first place). I’ve tried to manipulate this 77 686 figure in many ways, for example by just calculating the sedans manufactured or by excluding the Cooper models which were only assembled and not manufactured in South Africa, yet could not get to this figure. I therefor can only assume that this small article and picture in CAR in March 1984, contained a typing error or that Leyland provided wrong information to CAR.
Statistics on the Mini Panel Van and Pick-up production/sales were less readily available and published and mainly came from CAR’s once-a-year commercial supplements. Numbers could not so far been obtained for 1967, 1963, 1962 and some must have been sold/manufactured in the second part of 1961. Reliable information could however, be obtained for the period 1964 to 1979 (excluding 1967) during which time a total of 8544 Minivans and Mini Pick-ups were sold (sales figures were always reported as a combined total for these two models). Notwithstanding these gaps in the commercial production/sales figures, it appears that at least 101 886 Minis were manufactured and sold in South Africa. One would have suspected that Leyland’s Public Relations people would have made more of a meal of the fact that the magical 100 000 mark was exceeded when they gave the information to the Press.
It took a while to sell the cars in stock after production ceased in October 1983. In the CAR’s price lists, the Leyland Mini HLE was discontinued in March 1984 at a price of R6445, giving it a production span of 12 months during which time some 621 units were sold according to the NAAMSA figures. By September 1984, all Mini models were gone from the CAR’s price list. The die-hard models were therefor the Leyland Mini 1275 E at a final price of R 5995, the Leyland Mini Rebel at R6695 and the Leyland Mini Panda at R6295. Separate figures on the sales/production of the Rebel, Panda and Special versions were never published, only for the 1275 E and HLE separately. Since the Mini made its come back in 1980, 10 495 units were sold (9874 Mini 1275 E and 621 HLE units)
And so the Mini “Brick” production era ended……at least in South Africa.
| << 1983 |