In what year did BMW acquire the MINI brand?

BMW acquired the MINI brand in 1994.

The acquisition happened when BMW bought the Rover Group from British Aerospace in early 1994. Rover Group owned several marques, including Rover, Land Rover, MG and Mini, so Mini came under BMW ownership as part of that larger corporate purchase rather than through a standalone transaction.

The original Mini had become a marque in its own right in 1969, after earlier cars had been sold under Austin and Morris names. BMW saw the small British brand as a way to enter the premium compact-car market and began developing a modern successor while retaining the Mini identity and its British design heritage.

The date 2000 is a frequent alternative because BMW reorganised the former Rover businesses that year and separated Mini into a new BMW subsidiary. The modern BMW MINI was then launched in 2001, with production centred at Plant Oxford. Those dates describe restructuring and the new car’s launch—not BMW’s original acquisition of the brand.