With the previous MINI Hatch, Cooper was the middle-ranking performance and trim combination, sandwiched between the humbler One and faster Cooper S. Leaving the rapid John Cooper Works version aside, this new-era MINI Cooper now has just two levels of petrol-powered urgency — C with 156PS and S packing...

The entry-level MINI Cooper E comes with a relatively small battery and 190-mile official range, but many buyers are expected to go for the MINI Cooper SE. This comes with a bigger battery pack and an official range of up to 249 miles. Now that's the ‘head’ stuff out of the way, does the new MINI...

MINI has been very good at filling niches, even ones we never knew existed until it launched a model. It’s surprising, then, this company took as long to offer a five-door version of the popular hatch. Amazingly, it took until 2014 for the five-door hatch to arrive, some 13 years after the first of...

The extra pair of doors significantly improved the A1’s versatility as it was now a whole load easier for rear seat occupants to get in and out. For a car that is often used to carry kids, this is a big bonus and it also made it simpler when fitting or removing a child seat. Another plus point was the...

Remember when small Peugeots had a touch of style about them? The 205 still looks pretty sharp today, but later cars (in particular the lacklustre 207 ) lost that joie de vivre that helped them stand out from the usual small car tedium. We're happy to report that the latest generation Peugeot 208...

Audi’s A1 rival for the MINI, DS3 and Alfa Romeo MiTo may have been a while in coming to replace the ground-breaking A1, but it more than made up for it in the quality it offered buyers. Rather than simply lift parts from the existing A3 small hatch or elsewhere in the Volkswagen parts bin, Audi looked...