Talk:Hillman Minx

Mark vs Phase (1945-57)
Assuming that both terms have valid currency in different places, the article needs to have some consistency. At present it's a mess with first 'Mark' and then 'Phase' being used from one section to another. My suggestion is that we use the official UK 'Mark', in line with terminology applied to Humbers and other Rootes cars. Alternatively, we standardise on a construction like 'Mark/Phase' throughout and/or have a prominent statement that in certain markets, the term 'Phase' was used instead of 'Mark'. I would, though, first like to see an authoritative source for use of 'Phase'. Cheers, Bjenks (talk) 15:28, 21 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Mark is the term used by Culshaw and Horrobin "The Complete Catalogue of British Cars 1895 - 1975"  Let me quote a bit:


 * "From 1945 a one-model policy dictated production, and the natural choice fell upon the Minx, which had emerged from war service with flying colours.....The tables [in the book on pages 154 - 157] outline the metamorphosis of the Minx through Mk I to Mk VIIIA versions.   Changes were considerable...."


 * (Though you did not really enter the post 1956 arena) "In 1956 the Minx was completely restyled....Again the tables [in the book] trace the car's development, this time labelled by the factory (my italics) as 'Series' instead of 'Marks' "


 * So if your vote is for consistency, then I agree, and if for now you are looking only at the Minxes between 1945 and 1956 (which may well still have been sold as new cars in 1957 in Aus and indeed in remoter parts of the UK) then my vote, like yours, is for "Mark", using Culshaw and Horribin (who says he is quoting "the factory") as my authority and source.


 * (I can't help with a source for "phase".  Without such a source from somewhere it's hard to come up with an authoritative explanation for the term in the text of the article.)


 * Regards Charles01 (talk) 16:42, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Graham Robson (A-Z British Cars 1945-80) uses Phase. The Motor magazine road tests use Mark. Michael Sedgwick (British Cars 1945-70) uses Phase, the Hillman Owners Club seem to use Mark. Michael Allen (British Family Cars of the Fifties) uses Mark. Messrs Robson and Sedgwick are rarely wrong so my guess, and it is a guess, is that originally the factory used the word Phase but to avoid confusion both then and now Mark has taken over. I suggest a change to Mark to avoid confusion but leave the existing note after the first use of Mark I referring to Phase I. Malcolma (talk) 17:13, 21 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Change to "Mark" supported and implemented. GTHO (talk) 02:38, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

Why Minx?
Perhaps I missed it in the article, but I wonder about the choice of the name Minx. Does it have another meaning in the UK apart from, well, a wench? The Wolseley Wench? Sounds just as appropriate as Hillman Minx to Yank ears. 96.237.184.133 (talk) 14:16, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Wiktionary has an etymology of "obsolete spelling of mink (“any of various semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals in the Mustelinae subfamily”)". HiLo48 (talk) 22:59, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Yeah, something more like that. 96.237.184.133 (talk) 17:29, 14 April 2024 (UTC)