1998 Rover Mini Cooper

Highlights

• Lovely Rover Mini Cooper

• Only two previous owners

• Fully documented history with over £24,500 spent

• Partial restoration to remove corrosion in 2017

• Completely unmodified and standard throughout

Overview

There are few things more British than a Mini. After all, it enjoyed a 41-year production run, which puts it up there with red pillar-boxes and roast beef dinners in our national iconography. 

 Like the best of us, the Mini also enjoyed a new lease of life in its later years, its second youth coming more or less by accident as a skunkworks project carried out at Rover Group’s Gaydon test facility, where several cars were cooked up in a Portakabin. 

On the back of the Rover 220 Turbo Coupé, the MG RV8, the original Land Rover Discovery, The MG Maestro Turbo and the Rover 820 Tickford Turbo came a revitalised Mini Cooper, sanctioned by none other than John Cooper himself.

The rebirth of the Cooper could have gone one way or another – a reborn legend, or a cynical marketing exercise to extract more life out of an ancient design that should long have been put out to pasture. It says a lot about the adulation applied to the Mini that it immediately achieved the status of the former. 

Those early Rover Coopers had carburettors and manual chokes, but even with the Mini some things are best left forgotten, so it evolved throughout the nineties.  

The 1,275cc A-Plus Series engine gained fuel injection, the body gained side-impact bars and airbags and it even got an electronic immobiliser, while various special editions appeared, once Rover realised that a lot of people buying Minis were collectors and not those who used them every day. 

This is a fairly late Rover Cooper from August 1998, and which was owned by its second keeper for 26 years, during which it was diligently maintained and treated to a corrosion-led body restoration in 2017, detailed below. 

Finished in gorgeous pearlescent Tahiti Blue, the Mini is in fabulous condition inside and out and has covered just 37,000 miles from new. 

History and documentation

• First registered in the UK on 27 August 1998 by Douglas Grahams Rover of Windsor, Berks

• Sold to its first private owner in November 1998 and retained by them until 2024

• UK V5C in the name of the vendor

• Only three owners from new

• Current mileage of around 37k

• Two keys

• Full service history, early maintenance records from main dealership and then with specialist garages ever since – service folder is almost two inches thick

• The seller advises that more than £24,500 has been spent on maintenance, showing that the car has wanted for nothing

• Every MOT and receipt from new

• Original salesman’s business card

• Original purchase invoice showing a purchase price of £9,044.65

• Documented body restoration in 2017

• Will come with MOT until February 2027

Interior 

• Two tone black and cream upholstery

• Cream leather highlights on gear surround and steering wheel

• Matching black vinyl door cards

• Walnut dash and lower gear surround

• Airbag

• Central locking

• Immobiliser

• Rear seat belts

• Carpets in great condition, protected by genuine Cooper accessory floor mats with black and red leather edging

• Headlining in good condition

• Original spare wheel, jack and tools

Exterior

• Pearlescent Tahiti Blue paint in superb overall order

• No evidence of external corrosion and all the common Mini rust areas, such as body seams and flitch panels, are in sound order – this largely a result of a corrosion-led restoration in 2017, in which the front wings, front panel, A-panels, door skins, sills, gussets, wheel arch sections and floor edge were replaced or repaired, followed by panel alignment and a full repaint in the original colour

• Some very minor marks and flaws, but nothing of any note

• Boot floor, inner arches and sills all appear solid

• Underside and sills appear to be in excellent order 

• Cooper bonnet stripes and decals

• Wide arch Sport pack

• Four Lucas driving lamps

• 13x6 inch Minilite-style Cooper Sport wheels with nearly-new Yokohama A539 tyres 

• Original dealer-branded number plates 

Mechanical

• 1,275cc A-Plus engine

• Multi-point injection

• 68bhp

• 0-60mph in 12.0secs

• 95mph top speed

• Four-speed manual gearbox in sump

• Recent new battery

• Diligently serviced and maintained

• The vendor tells us “The engine pulls cleanly, the gearbox shifts well, and the car tracks straight, despite the slightly off centre wheel renowned of Minis of this era. Braking performance is strong and reassuring, with no pulling or vibration. There are no untoward noises from the suspension or drivetrain, and it sounds exactly as a standard Cooper should”.

Summary

The last-of-the-line Minis are just as collectable as the early models, and this one is a fabulous example – a highly original, beautifully documented late Cooper in excellent condition. It feels like a car that has been loved, maintained and restored properly, rather than simply prepared for sale. 

 It’s both a fabulous investment for the future and an absolute hoot to drive – one of the all-time icons and in a great colour and specification.

 To arrange a viewing, click the 'Book Viewing' button located under the 'Place Bid' button. Viewings can be booked up until the day before the auction ends, after which the option will change to 'Contact Seller' for further enquiries. This seller is located in Bedfordshire and the car will be available for collection from 16 Feb.