Build your own MINI Countryman.. from 29,762 individual parts

Here’s an old-media prank from MINI Australia that had their antipodean readers hopping around and getting all excited. Imagine building your own MINI Countryman from 29,762 individual parts.

If you look closely you’ll spot a copywriting error (or at least it looks that way to me) – the headline says “One New Part Every Month!”, whereas the body copy refers to Week 1’s part: Screw A-76-FD-1, with next week’s part: Screw A-76-FD-2.

The ad says, “Zippy go-kart handling (sic) is brought to life in this unique 29,762 part series. Capture the joy of MINI, collect one new part every month and enjoy years of fun for the whole family.”

If it were indeed a ‘monthly’ collectible series then by my estimates it would take just over 2,480 years (not including build time) to create your own MINI Countryman, although if weekly it would still take just over 572 years to assemble.

We’ve put an enquiry into MINI HQ in Cowley to find out about their stock retention policies, before we advocate this as a good way of spreading payments on a new Countryman..