Bosses at the Cowley Mini plant have confirmed they are confident of making as many cars as last year, despite the downturn in sales.

Spokesman Rebecca Baxter said: “We made 237,500 cars last year and we are expecting to build about the same number.”

That target is likely to be hit this weekend as final cars of the year leave the production line before the month-long extended Christmas shutdown begins on Sunday.

Latest figures show worldwide Mini sales have grown by 7.6 per cent between January and November with a total of 217,405 cars delivered to customers, compared to 202,075 in the same period last year.

But in November alone, sales dropped by 20.8 per cent to 15,103 as the full impact of the downturn kicked in.

That follows the news revealed in today's Oxford Mail that UK sales fell by 58 per cent in November.

However, Ms Baxter pointed out that the company’s biggest market, the United States, has seen sales soar by 43.1 per cent as Americans trade in their gas guzzlers for smaller cars.

BMW is also hopeful sales will pick up in December after the 2.5 per cent in VAT comes into force, while a further boost should come at the end of March when the new Convertible is launched.

Meanwhile, the last shift will finish tomorrow and workers will not return until January 5.

A total of 290 agency staff will also have worked their last shift after being laid off. Ms Baxter stressed there were “no current plans” to make further redundancies.