1983 Mini Sprite - knocks spots off BMW (Mini in general)

Member Name: Yvie

Product:	Mini in general
Date:	30/12/03 (856 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smal and perfectly formed, Cute, Attracts attention

Disadvantages: Attracts derision from those who have never driven one, A bit of a bumpy ride

I used to have a Mini, in around 1993. It was around 15 years old, cost me sixty quid and kept on going. Well OK, things fell off from time to time, but I had a Haynes manual and knew plenty of people handy with a spanner so it was always fixed in a jiffy.

Then I got a job in the motor trade and got laughed at, so I decided that it was time to trade it in for a Micra. Now I love Micras - I've had three now - but on the way to the garage to swap this old Mini for my first Micra, I wondered what on earth I was doing. As I went round the roundabouts I realised that nothing corners like a Mini. I realised that the fuel consumption was second to none and that the thing was just so lovely.

But traded it in I did - partly because I had no choice since my mates had taken the best bits off it to put on their cars, swapping them with worn out bits, so it was by this time something of a perambulated scrap heap. I took it in, put the whole thing behind me and over the years went through a selection of other vehicles.

Until earlier this year. I started to get all misty-eyed over old Minis, and I just had to have one again. I scoured the local free-ads, which turned up a surprising number of them, and I rushed off there and then to see a 1983 primrose yellow Mini Sprite. Well, this was truly a thing of beauty. 950 quid of well-restored well-loved car, with a 1000cc engine and all the right smells. I got in to test drive it, and it was like the trip to the trade-in, but in reverse. Of course, no car I'd had since the first Mini cornered like a this one. No car could get through teeny lane gaps, nor could park in tiny spaces without the drama of fifteen forward/reverse moves.

I snapped it up immediately. And still it keeps going - after 9 months of ownership there have been no problems and the Haynes manual continues to gather dust. The car is much admired, 'though I can't take the credit for the restoration work
of course.

Now as I said, I've worked in the motor trade and I can get a bit sniffy about cars. Earlier this year I sat in - not drove please note - a new BMW Mini. Do you know what? All the things that to me are the essence of the Mini had been eradicated: the spacious dashboard, the toy-car size, the cute face, the personality - all gone away.

So I'm sticking with my Sprite for as long as it sticks with me.

Summary: