As of late, workers at the Mini assembly plant have their hands full building every car they can, but they took time to celebrate the last of the first:  the final Mini Cooper Convertible, still built from the first-generation platform, rolled off the assembly line this morning.

Yes, folks, it is something to celebrate.  Rather than tearing up over fears that the convertible is dead (does anyone remember the 1976 Eldorado?), take heart that a new drop-top Mini is on its way.

The pause in production allows BMW to engineer a convertible based off the second-generation Mini, which, according to our calculations, is already two years old.  Sure, it's odd a convertible wasn't engineered from day one, but Mini has its own priorities - and apparently, the Clubman and JCW models came first.

We'll expect to see the re-worked ragtop Mini sometime in the spring of 2009.  Until then, expect workers at the Oxford, England factory to keep plenty busy.  Capacity normally reserved for the convertible will be, for the time being, shifted to the normal coupe and Clubman models.