Is there anything more British than a Mini? Well, if I’m being pedantic, then, yes, there probably is: emotional insecurity, fear of public embarrassment, the bad teeth thing that Americans always go on about, the expectation of failure in any big sporting event. Also, the Mini is now made by BMW — which I think stands for Bavarian Mini Workshop. So the Mini isn’t really British at all. It certainly used to be, back in the Sixties, when all of them had Union Jacks painted on the roof and were used for raiding banks in Turin, driving miniskirted Twiggys about and other high-spirited japes.

Source: The Times March 26, 2017 00:00 UTC