Is it when:

Drive it for the first time? Its not a car with out a driver?
You pay for it? Thats when you own it?
It arrives at the dealer? Its like born.
Its on the boat?
It gets a VIN?
It finishes being built?
It gets paint?
They start production?

Or is it when you sit down with the MA and place the order. The moment of conception.

I don't know the right answer and I never will. But I'm sure there will be a lotta debate.

 

I'll say at the beginning of production. At concept/order it's just a sparkle in it's owner's eye. At the end of production it's actually born, of course, but to me it's a MINI way before that.

 

A MINI becomes a MINI when YOU do something personal to it.

-Cody

 

It's the moment you order....

 

Not until the vehicle transport driver smokes the tires goin up the ramp.

Thats when the MINI says "ahh, finally. I can streatch my legs."

 

I'd say when it rolls of the 'assembly line,' a completed vehicle. That's the closest comparsion to a biological birth, imho.

 

Whether its the first time you see it. The first time you sit in it. The first time you drive it. Or what have you. It is truly a MINI when you first smile from it.

 

when... the MINI badges are applied to the bonnet and boot

 

When you kick the tire and nothing falls off. It's a MINI.

 

I think it's a MINI when when the VIN is put in place in Oxford. It's YOUR MINI when you sit down in it the first time.
Ahhhhh, the memories. :-)

 

That's it

The first time it makes you smile.

 

Kinda like a house vs. a home. It's a house till you buy it and move in then its a home.

It's a car till you start it up and drive it and that smile takes over ever fiber of your being, then it's a Mini

 

I agree. The "Production Complete" date, August 26th 2006, is when we will celebrate Gertrude's Birthday every year. Maybe with a loving wax and a new twisty!