The Mini D is much better now BMW have dropped the hopeless Toyota diesel they once used. Twas gutless rubbish. The 1.6PSA engine is a bute, not the fastest but a nice drive. (Drove a 1.6HDI 308 two weeks ago)

This 1.6L Mini D diesel is also shared with the Peugeot 207 and 308 (although Peugeot won’t have the stop-start function in production until 2011 even though they launched it in 2004).

If the majority of people in Australia and America began driving small cars like this instead of large (high embodied energy and resources) gas guslers a couple of decades ago then there would be more oil and slightly less climate change, duh.

Alex – Thanks for your suggestion. I will be getting the manual Mini D.

I’ve got one of these back home. Fantastic little car that I bought for the city basically because it’s got class leading economy. It’s also absolutely great fun to drive, as fun as the Cooper and almost as fun as the Cooper S. The highest MPG I have gotten out of it was when I was in the UK a few weeks back, on the motorway, I got 91 MPG. I think that’s the highest I’ve gotten anyway. To be fair, I was right behind a truck so the car had no air to push against but still, 91 MPG. Very happy with it and I keep taking it on long trips because although I have so many bigger cars to choose from, I keep wanting to beat my economy! It gets addictive but I actually drive carefully and economically because you would have no idea how good it feels to go over 80 MPG, let alone 90! I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this car to anybody. Just make sure you get a manual; I was going to get an automatic because I mainly wanted it for town but I think you lose about 20 MPG off the quoted economy if you get an automatic. Mini should really get it’s act together and bring us a double clutch gearbox.