History
In September 1971 Nick Spanaikis enrolled in Chelsea College of Automobile and Aeronautical Engineering. In May 1972 he befriended George Demitroiu who was also at the same college. They graduated in the summer of 1975.
During the summer of 1975 Nick fancied a Frogeye Sprite to drive around in for the summer months, but because he is 6feet 2 inches he can’t really get into one properly let alone drive it! So he settles for a Minor Traveller instead, with much more room!
By the Autumn of 1975 he’d acquired another Traveller. By Winter of 1980 his friend George buys a Minor saloon and opens a small electrical repair garage, after that Minors come and go so fast, that both Nick and George lose count! Sometimes they had 7 or 8 Minors, most of them outside the garage in North London. At this stage word got around that there is a small garage in Finchley, that must fix Minors because there were always 2 or 3 outside! People asked if they fixed Minors but they declined, until the penny dropped and dropped and Minor Mania was born.
Trade is brisk and more space is needed. A move to the present address in Mill Hill, NW7 gives that space. By the Winter of 1982 George feels that he needs to spend more time back in Cyprus due to family commitments and takes a backseat. Alex, who was a customer, and Nick continue with Minor Mania up to present day. Still offering the same personal service to customers, our specialty is offering updated parts for your Minor so that it can be used everyday in modern traffic conditions. We hope you find our website interesting. If you feel it can be enhanced in anyway, please let us know.
Around 1996 we were called Morris Minor Mania Ltd and were asked by BMW who had then taken over Rover to change our name and drop the Morris part of our name as it was their intellectual property. Many of the other people in the Minor world who had Morris in their name were also asked to drop it under the threat of legal action. Now that BMW have disposed of Rover I’m willing to bet that the word Morris will start to creep back in. What is also interesting is the fact that 2 of the local Rover dealers use us for parts that they can’t get through their own sources. Often because they are no longer made by the original manufacturers they come to us for parts for their cars.
As well as offering a full range of spare parts, we have a well equipped garage that services a wide range of cars, not just Morris Minors. We have a large local customer base, and many of our Morris Minor customers have other cars that we look after, as well as some classic cars too. We look after a lot of Volvo cars locally and as I (Alex) was trained on Volvo’s its not surprising. We also have quite a lot used Volvo spares for 240+740/760 models. We offer MOT’s, tyres, and all the normal services from a good local garage that you’d expect from a good local garage.