Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £12,220 to £12,385
Untouchable image, brilliant design, good fit and finish, strong residual values, great to drive.
A bit sluggish, cramped in the back, expensive options, cheap seat-folding mechanism, poor ride .
Has its downsides, but still brilliant.
The first Minis are holding their value very well - even the earliest cars are still fetching £6000-plus - but beware of specifying too many options, as the spend on these will not be recouped come resale time. The average Mini has £2000-worth of extra options, but alloys, a CD player and air conditioning are the only truly desirable extras for used buyers; avoid outlandish colours, too. Servicing and insurance costs are competitive, the petrol One returning more than 40mpg and the turbodiesel nearly 60mpg. The £100 TLC packages gives you five years or 50,000miles (whichever comes first) of servicing making the trips to your local BMW garage not as heart-stopping as you may have thought.
Latest Readers' Drives About the MINI One
wrote on 24 03 2007
wrote on 28 08 2006