Dr Alex Moulton considers the new MINI to be much too heavy, stiffly sprung and huge with about the same interior space of the much lighter more maneuverable Alec Issigonis designed Mini.. There is no reason I can think of to ever own a German made version mainly because the wheels are too damned big in diameter taking up too much room and requiring much larger suspension components that take up even more room from the interior of the car.

 

the R56 (current MINI chassis code) i test drove years ago when they first came out drove like the current honda's (civic si, etc) imho S2K was the last 'performance oriented' car hey released to the public. the others all kind of feel heavy, soft, and not the sharpness old honda's use to have. even the GE feels over sprung, heavy vs the GD's.