AN auction of inventor Dr Alex Moulton’s cars has reunited a 32-year-old Mini Metro with the mechanic who worked on it over the years.

Guy Vincent, from Frome, and brother Paul, from Leicestershire, went to the auction in Oxford last month and bought the 1981 Austin Mini Metro 1.35 Saloon for £1,062.

Guy Vincent was an apprentice at the family garage E.W. Stone Ltd, in Bradford on Avon, when it sold the car to Moulton Developments in 1981 for £4,304.

He said: “We both knew the car since it was new. It used to come back to us for bits and pieces to be done.

“We decided to go for the Metro because it is the car we thought would be bought for the cheapest and broken up for spares. We wanted to see it preserved and now it will be.”

Mr Vincent, a train guard at Westbury, worked at the garage from 1980-2006. His grandfather Jim King ran it from 1941-1965, and his parents, Brian and Valerie Vincent, took it over before retiring in 1995. The garage maintained many of Dr Moulton’s vehicles, several of which were purchased new from the garage.

Mr Vincent said: “We got it running and it is in quite good condition, which is remarkable for a 32-year-old car.”

The Mini Metro lives in Leicestershire with Paul but will make frequent trips to Wiltshire for shows, including the Pride of Longbridge and the Moulton Weekend at the late Dr Moulton’s Bradford on Avon home, The Hall.

Other cars auctioned included a 2000 Rover Mini 1.3i Saloon, a 1964 Morris Mini Moke, a 1997 Bentley Brook-lands Saloon, and a 1966 Mini Cooper S Saloon.