Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £13,715 to £17,660
Strong image, excellent TLC service package, good drive, impressive diesel.
Limited practicality, not exactly quick, pricey.
Not as impressive as the original 'new' Mini, but still a strong choice.
It may not look like it in the photos, but this is the second-generation new Mini, replacing the car launched to much acclaim in 2001. Since then, more than 1,000,000 Minis have been sold worldwide - over 200,000 in the UK alone - all of which are built at the Mini factory in Oxford.
Although it shares no body panels with the 2001 model, this remains very much a Mini. The interior has been overhauled and everything on the outside has grown a little.
The old Chrysler-sourced Brazilian-built petrol engine has been replaced by Peugeot-BMW-developed British-built 1.6-litre engine, which is also found in the Peugeot 207. The Cooper range now includes the diesel, badged Cooper D and powered by a much more efficient engine developed with Peugeot-Citroen.
Latest Readers' Drives About the MINI Mini
wrote on 12 08 2007