Mini 5dr Cooper Sport

The Mini hatchback may still have its flaws, but its considerable charms have won us over

- Chris Haining

THE MINI FACTORY in Cowley, near Oxford, has a long and storied history. Last year, my five-door Mini Cooper Sport rolled off the production line there, but cars have been built on the site for almost a century, wearing Mini, Austin, Morris, Triumph and even Honda badges. Rover badges, too. In fact, the silver 800 pictured above emerged from the same facility 24 years before my Mini. It once belonged to my grandfather, and I now cherish it myself.

The Rover is here because the more I drive the Mini, the more I think about my Rover. That’s not because the two are in any way similar – they really aren’t – but because of how I connected with the Mini. It got beneath my skin in a way that few cars manage to.

I initially chose the Mini because I fondly remembered the fun I’d had in previous versions, and it didn’t take long for it to live up to those memories. For at least part of every trip I made in it, the Mini had me grinning. Indeed, while it doesn’t corner with quite the enthusiasm of the Seat Ibiza I ran previously, it has a more easygoing feel that brought me joy even when I wasn’t pushing it hard.