Mini Cooper

Like the puppy that pees on your carpet before having a go at your best friend's ankle, one glance at the latest Mini's lengthy nose, soppy smirk and drooping headlamps may persuade you to forgive it anything.

Perhaps even the continued existence of the huge speedo at the centre of its dashboard, now even closer in diameter to the steering wheel, and still positioned two feet from the driver's line of vision up the road ahead.

Be strong. Try to stare beyond such distracting, self-consciously cute details; gimmicks that now include ventilation controls that follow the form of a winged Mini badge, and the option of an interior illumination pack with a switchable choice of orange, red, blue or pink 'mood' lighting. This new-generation Cooper still has lots of substance to recommend it; in fact, the 'S' version won our Small Car of the Year gong.

You'll be glad to know that the one aspect of the old new Mini that came in for real criticism has now hit the can: the engine. Instead, a more sophisticated, UK-built, 1.6-litre, four-cylinder unit with BMW's Valvetronic tech has been bolted in. This squeezes out more power than the previous Cooper, matched to a useful 19 per cent improvement in economy.

Also new for the Cooper is a six-speed manual gearbox, boasting a perfectly quick, direct shift action. The even spread of ratios matches the engine's flat torque curve well, with more urgent responses, yet still an eagerness to rev.

Meanwhile, at just the point that the valves sounded as if they were about to slam up against the pistons in the previous Cooper, no coarse edge intrudes here, a tall sixth gear helping to add calmer freeway cruising to the list of improvements.

So, yes, the middle-ranking Mini is conspicuously easier to live with, but no less entertaining, either. Alongside the all-new exterior (honest) and the all-new (no really) roomier, better-made interior, the suspension set-up has come in for a complete rethink, too.

The harsh excesses once blamed on the stiff side-walls of run-flat tyres have been smoothed over by a mix of spring and damper rates better suited to the characteristics of run-flats, and also by advances in the design of the tyres themselves.

The result is less bouncing about over rough roads and more tightly tied down contact with the tarmac. Balance, sharpness of turn-in, quickness of steering and feedback through the brakes all meld so well that the Cooper rarely seems the poor cousin of the faster, pricier and newly turbocharged Cooper S.

Peter Grunert