Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £13,290 to £17,530
Great fun to drive; looks good; fuel-saving tech; it's the latest must-have Mini.
Not particularly practical; expensive; poor rearward visibility; hard ride.
Form over function. Flawed - but immensely desirable.
The BMW Group's Efficient Dynamics fuel-saving technology is now fitted to Minis. It includes stop-start and a brake energy regeneration function that recaptures power to run auxilliary functions. It's helped get consumption down to 44.8mpg (Cooper S), 51.4mpg (Cooper) and 68.9mpg (Cooper D). With the gear-indicator dashboard display suggesting the ideal shift points for economy driving, you might just get near to these figures in real life.
Carbon dioxide outputs are 150g/km for the Cooper S, 132g/km for the Cooper and an excellent 109g/km for the Cooper D, giving low tax bandings. As a band B car, the Cooper D will also be exempt from the London congestion charge when the new graduated-charging criteria come in next year.
