Secret plans to relaunch Morris Minor two decades ago revealed: How iconic British car almost made a comeback in 2005

The Morris Minor – a true classic of British 20th century car manufacturing – very nearly made an unlikely comeback in the early 2000s.

Thanks to a source with unique inside access at the time, Autocar has revealed a bold top secret plan by Anglo-Chinese MG Rover to bring back the iconic vintage car.

In a what-could-have-been moment, if a Chinese-led consortium with big ideas had successfully taken over failing MG Rover, the much-loved motor could have returned to our roads in 2005.

The Morris Minor is one of the most successful British made cars in history and an icon of UK car manufacturing. A convoy of Minors drove down the Mall for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee

This would have been the third resurrection of the Morris Minor over the years. 

The first Minor – a small 4-seater car with an 850cc engine – was manufactured by Morris Motors Limited between 1928 and 1934. 

The second-life Minor went on to become one of the most famous classic cars in British history. Between 1948 and 1971 the new Minor was a sales triumph – it was the first British car to surpass a million sales.

In a recent poll of Britons, the Morris Minor was voted the fifth most iconic British-made car of all time – with the Mini coming out on top. 

Autocar described the Minor as ‘a primary way Britain got back on the road after the Second World War’. 

As well as the best-selling tow-and-four door saloon versions, the Minor was available as a convertible (Tourer), estate (Traveller) as well as van and pick-up variations. 

There was a Minor for everyone. 

But now a never realised third resurrection has only just come to light. 

This 1967 Minor (pictured in 1977) was passed through every generation of one family, and shows the capable  nature of the British car. Autocar called the Minor ‘a primary way Britain got back on the road after the Second World War’

Mechanically, Morris Minors have always been simple and easy to run and repair making it a cheap and reliable to own. These days Minors tend to go for between £10,000 and £20,000 depending on the condition and year

In 2005 MG Rover – a British car manufacture that existed in the first five years of the 21st century – was facing bankruptcy.

Two joint bidders for the remains of the company were China’s Shanghai Automotive Corporation (SAIC) and Magma Holdings consultancy, which was headed up by the late Martin Leach, former Ford of Europe and Maserati boss.

This consortium was one of three competing bids for the remains of MG Rover.

The winning bidder would receive the hardware to manufacture the Rover 25, 45 and 75 models. The K Series engine was also up for grabs.

At the time, The Guardian reported Magma’s plans ‘to form a new company to restart production of the Rover 75 saloon at MG Rover’s car production plant in Longbridge in Birmingham’.

Even more enticing, the successful bidder stood to gain rights to the Morris and Austin names as well as MG and Rover.

But what the press didn’t know was the secret plan by Magma to bring back the Morris Minor. 

Only Autocar’s Richard Bremner was privy to the wish to revive Morris – thanks to a phone call from Martin Leach himself.

MG Rover Group was a British carmaker that existed between 2000 and 2005. It went into administration in 2005, and was purchased by Nanjing Automobile Group

MG Rover manufactured the MG TF from 2002, updating the popular 2000 MG F model. When MG went into administration in 2005, production of the TF was halted

Bound by confidentiality at the time, Bremner has now reported in Autocar that he received a call ‘a couple of months’ after the company [MG Rover] collapsed in April 2005.

‘Martin Leach, one-time boss of Ford of Europe and subsequently Maserati, explained to me that he was putting a bid together for the MG Rover operation,’ he said.

The crux of the plan was the re-introduction of the Morris Minor. It wasn’t detailed in the bid, with Autocar reporting this was likely due to Leach wanting to make sure competitors didn’t get wind of the idea.

Steve Young of Indego Consulting, then a key collaborator with Leach, told the motoring magazine even he had no idea about it: It ‘was something Martin came up with – I wasn’t aware of it,’ he said.

Richard Bremner from Autocar was privy to Leach’s and Magma-SAIC’s plan to re-launch the Morris Minor in 2005 after Leach called him to tell him the scoop

The Minor project never became reality because Leach’s Magma lost the bid to Nanjing Automobile Group. Bremner believes it was a lost opportunity

Martin Leach was the former boss of Ford Europe and Maserati who put together the Magma consortium that wanted to take over MG Rover

Autocar believes the Minor would have been built onto the smallest Morris platform as part of the SAIC plan to ‘include new monospace mini, medium and large platforms’. 

It would likely have been powered by the K Series engine.

In the early 2000s, retro cars were having a moment, with the now-BMW-owned Mini, Volkswagen Beetle, Fiat 500 and Ford Mustang all surging in popularity. 

Dubbed the ‘retro wave of the early 2000s’, nostalgia was sweeping through the UK and US, with manufacturers starting to give new cars a retro look, taking inspiration from the last 30 to 40 years.

Leach’s idea with bringing back the Minor was to tap into this sentiment and fashion, to help catalyse the rebirth of Morris.

It wasn’t to be though, because Magma-SAIC lost out to Nanjing Automobile Corporation, who eventually won the bid and merged with SAIC.

The Minor project never came to fruition, but Bremner believes it was a lost opportunity: ‘I thought was brilliant and surely the best chance this troubled business had of reinvigorating itself. 

‘Leach had overseen the birth of many Ford and Mazda models in his senior roles, which all added considerable credibility to the plan’.