The Mini Suitcase – Awaytravel

The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, from 1959 until 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, Minis were built for four decades over a single generation, as fastbacks, estates, and convertibles. Initially, the Mini was marketed under the Austin and Morris names, as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor; the Austin Seven was renamed Austin Mini in 1962 and Mini became a marque in its own right in 1969. Retrospectively, the car is known as the "Classic Mini" to distinguish it from the modern MINI family of vehicles produced since 2000 by BMW, who took ownership of the Mini name following their acquisition of Rover Group.

This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis. Its space-saving transverse engine and front-wheel drive layout – allowing 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage – influenced a generation of car makers. The front-wheel-drive, transverse-engine layout were used in many other "supermini" style car designs such as Honda N360 (1967), Nissan Cherry (1970), and Fiat 127 (1971). The layout was also adapted for larger subcompact designs. In 1999, the Mini was voted the second-most influential car of the 20th century, behind the Ford Model T, and ahead of the Citroën DS and Volkswagen Beetle. It is also considered an icon of 1960s British popular culture.

The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates: the Mark II, the Clubman, and the Mark III. Within these was a series of variations, including an estate car, a pick-up, a van, and the Mini Moke, a jeep-like buggy. The performance versions, the Mini Cooper and Cooper "S", were successful as both race and rally cars, winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965, and 1967. The Mini was manufactured in England at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham located next to BMC's headquarters and at the former Morris Motors plant at Cowley, as well as in Australia (Victoria Park/Zetland BMC Australia factory) and later also in Spain (Authi), Belgium, Italy (Innocenti, as the Innocenti Mini), Chile, Malta, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia (IMV). In 1980, British Leyland launched the Mini's follow-up, the Austin Metro, however the Mini outlasted it and continued to be produced at Longbridge until October 2000.

A suitcase is a form of baggage. It is a rectangular container with a handle and is typically used to carry one's clothes and other belongings while traveling. The first suitcases appeared in the late 19th century due to the increased popularity of mass tourism at the time and were meant to hold dress suits. They were originally made using heavier materials such as leather or steel, but, beginning in the 1930s, were constructed with more lightweight materials like plastic and cardboard.

Before the 1970s, the idea of rolling luggage was shunned by the travel industry, who viewed it as much less masculine than traditional luggage. American entrepreneur Bernard Sadow pitched his version of the wheeled suitcase, for which he was granted a patent in 1972, to various department stores before it was picked up and sold at Macy's stores starting in 1970. It took several years to become the predominant form of suitcase, and Sadow's version was soon superseded by the Rollaboard, a type of wheeled suitcase that was upright rather than flat like Sadow's model and invented in 1987 by American pilot Robert Plath. The addition of wheels to the suitcase has since been called one of the most significant innovations in travel.

Smart suitcases with enhanced capabilities such as GPS tracking and device charging were popularized in the 2010s, though explosions of their lithium ion batteries in cargo holds caused them to be banned from being checked by many major airlines in the late 2010s.

The is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. The is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers.