A Car Tale - The Hillman Minx Affair
Published on June 12, 2025
The Hillman Minx Affair
A CarTale
The Hillman Minx was a midsized family car that British car maker Hillman produced from 1931 to 1970. There were many versions of the Minx over that period. The photo is of an Estate model.
As a high school senior in the early 1960s I was shopping for a small, affordable used car to use as a daily driver, with an occasional trip to the beachesvof Lake Erie.
While I liked the hotter American cars, they were out of my price range. The foreign-car options were pretty much limited to England and a few other European countries. I was a fan of Austin Healys and MGs but they were harder to find in Western New York. And a low sports car wouldn’t be practical in the snow.
One day, most likely in 1962, my bother Mark came home after his deliveries and told me that my uncle’s friend, a professor at the University of Buffalo, had a car for sale. And, Brother Mark said, the friend also had a pretty daughter.
My chum Walter and I went to check out the car, which was a used Hillman Minx Estate, a brand unfamiliar to me. I learned than an “Estate” was a station wagon.
We were greeted by the eldest daughter, Elyse, who was very pretty.
Elyse backed the other family car into the street, so I could take the Hillman Minx for a spin. Before the test drive Walter and I inspected the Hillman Minx. (It wasn't my idea of a great ride.)
During our inspection (of the car, of course) Walter put his foot on the rear bumper to test the suspension. Bouncing a car is up there with checking the tires when pretending to know all about cars. The bumper fell off and clanged to the pavement. Bumpers were chrome steel back then. They clanged when they hit stuff. Bumpers were not supposed to clang to the pavement. I was sure of that fact.
I did not buy the Hillman Minx. I didn’t even take if for a test drive. Other things might have fallen off.
So the search for my first car was to go on. A story for another Car Tale.
I did work up the courage to ask Elyse out. We dated for about a year until she went with her family to Israel for her father’s sabbatical year. We wrote a great many aerograms that year.
Four years later, we were married,
Writing this Car Tale of the Hillman Minx Affair on June 12, 2025, marks our 59th anniversary.
She is still very pretty
