For a motoring writer based in Oxford, the Mini has naturally played a major part in life on the road.
I owned a classic Mini, have driven the first Mini to ever come off the production line in May 1959 and was with Lulu when she drove the last classic Mini, a red Cooper Sport, off the production line in Longbridge in October 2000.
I was also one of the first journalists to drive BMW’s new Mini before its showroom launch in July 2001.
The original was a brilliantly designed, ground-breaking vehicle that was priced to give many people their first taste of motoring. It was universally popular and driven by everyone from postmen to pop stars and with more than five million sold, it was questioned if BMW’s 21st-century version could ever prove such a worldwide success.
My first drive in BMW’s Mini into the centre of Oxford was an eye-opener. No sooner had we parked up for some pictures than it was surrounded by tourists taking snaps. Few cars that I have driven sparked such instant interest.
Since then the Mini’s blend of style, quality workmanship and luxury has proved an international triumph. But like its predecessor, it is the little car’s go-kart ride and handling and sheer sense of fun that makes it a winner.
However back in the 1980s, the first car that I ever road tested though built in Cowley, was big, luxurious – and had a Honda badge on the bonnet.
That badge was an early indicator of the complex changes of ownership of car factories and motor manufacturers that lay ahead in the following decades.
The major changes over those decades have been improvements in quality, safety and technology.
Much as I loved the quirky charm of cars like the Russian military-style Lada Niva Cossack 4x4, which broke down on me three times in a week, and an Austin Montego Estate that needed to take a little rest after overheating while climbing a hill in Gloucestershire, I do not miss the unreliability.
Nor do I miss the squeaks and rattles that used to come as near standard equipment on cars in the 1980s and 1990s.
Contrast the build quality of the rugged and robust but painfully functional 1988 Skoda Favorit with that of the sophisticated modern city hatchback, the Citigo.
Contrast too the equipment packed into the smallest of Skodas with its five-star safety rating – electronic stability control, tyre-pressure monitoring system and automatic braking that senses vehicles, pedestrians and other hazards in front of the car when you're travelling at town speeds and automatically hits the brakes if you fail to do so.
Those improvements in quality and technology over the past 30 years are mirrored in the constantly-improving quality of the cars that have come out of the Cowley car plant.
In 1986, the factory was re-privatised and renamed once again from BL to the Rover Group. Production of the Austin Maestro and Montego continued there until late 1994, though production was gradually cut back after 1989, following the launch of the Longbridge-built Rover 200 and 400 series models.
The owner of Rover Group, British Aerospace, agreed a partnership with Honda, in return for joint development of the new Rover 800 and 600, both produced at Cowley. The 800 Series had been launched in mid-1986 and facelifted at the start of 1992, a year before the launch of the 600 Series.
Then in 1994, BAe announced the sale of its 80% majority share of Rover Group to BMW and Honda parted with its 20% share.
BMW started heavy investment in Rover, particularly in Cowley, which became the production centre for the Rover 75 in late 1998 continuing until the BMW sell-off in 2000, when the German carmaker got rid of the Solihull and Longbridge plants, but retained Cowley for production of the new Mini.
That first car I ever road tested, though built in Cowley, was no Mini. It was the Honda Legend, the result of a joint venture between Honda and the Austin Rover Group, to produce a luxury car for the UK market. It eventually turned out to be a less-than-happy affair, as few UK-built Legends passed Honda's stringent quality control standards and in the end, only about 4,000 were built.
Compare that figure with the quarter of a million top-quality Minis now pouring annually out of the Cowley plant that is working flat-out. Long may it continue.