This BBC Two mini-series is actually called "Building Cars: Secrets of the Assembly Line," but the three episodes now available on Amazon Prime focus on building MINI Coopers. It gives an amazing view of what goes on inside Plant Oxford where they turn out a new MINI Cooper every 68 seconds. One of the hosts is "Ant" Anstead, the skilled mechanic formerly on the Motor Trend Channel show, "Wheeler Dealers." I've watched only the first episode, but it appears to have been made a few years ago, before the full-halo running-light/turn-signals were added to the F-56. So don't expect to see a MINI Cooper SE on the assembly line. I considered posting the info about this show in the rattles-and-squeaks thread to emphasize how hard MINI works to build quality cars, but I didn't want anyone who's ignoring that thread to miss the chance to see this MINI-series.
Thanks for the heads up. I was able to tour the Oxford factory in 2010 and it was really cool. Highly recommended if you're ever in the area.
Here's a couple videos of SEs being built. My favorite is in the second video, when they drive it off the line and test the handling in the same process.
Great video series! So the Oxford factory shut down for 3 weeks recently (but who knows why). Based on the video, that means Mini is 21,000 behind existing orders (at least), could be more. So order received to scheduled is probably 3 weeks+ now. We’ll see. My order was accepted last week. I’ll post here as an update when scheduled…
There was a stated BMW system-wide shutdown in July due to chip supply issues. That shutdown coincided with the annual, yes annual summer holiday. The Sales Manager at my dealer confirmed the builds in the factory stop every summer. He's worked for MINI for 11 years.
