When you think about it, the 60's Mini Cooper was probably the original hot hatch type vehicle. (Now before you all write in telling me that the Mini wasn't a hatch, and harangue me about VW GTI's and Peugeot's, let me explain).

The famous comedy actor Peter Sellers owned a Mini Cooper in the 60's. It was a special hatchback model built specifically for him by Mini conversion specialists, Radford. As for being a hot hatch, Peter was married to the famous Swedish actress Britt Ekland, so with her seated in it...it was a real "hot, hot hatch"!!!

That's the strange thing about Mini's, they've never really fallen into the typical class structure of cars. In fact, numerous famous and wealthy people have owned and driven Mini's over the years, including several members of the British Royal Family.

They have a certain panache that is hard to find in most other small cars. Nobody looks at a Mini Cooper and says "what, you couldn't afford the 3 series BMW"! Yet that seems to be the way with most other small vehicles on the road today.

No, the Mini Cooper has always been a true driver's car, and fortunately BMW understands this. That is why the Mini Cooper S will always be a car purchased for sheer owner enjoyment, rather than the size of the purchaser's wallet.

However, price always rears its ugly head somewhere nowadays, and several people, including some of my learned journalistic colleagues, have suggested that the new Mini Cooper is a tad on the expensive side.

Well, I beg to differ on that one. I think that when you look at what is actually included in the price on the new Mini Cooper range, it is more than fair.

To explain this further, in the same week that I was testing the 08 Cooper S, my wife's friend, a lady in her early 60's, was looking to purchase a new vehicle. Having offered to chauffeur her around a few dealerships and help with her selection, I arrived in my cute little Mini Cooper S.

After going starry-eyed and telling me that a Mini was the very first vehicle that she ever owned, we were off to...yes, you've guessed it, straight to the Mini dealer.

We looked at all the models and she fell into Mini-love all over again. We then traveled around most of the other small-car manufacturers' showrooms to make comparisons.

It didn't take long for me to realize that certain models, whilst comparing favorably in price, just didn't have all the features of the Mini's. On many, you had to pay extra for things like the fog lights, the multi-function leather steering wheel, and very few came with things like tilt and telescopic steering.

You also have to look at the fact that even though the Mini's come extremely well equipped as standard, you also get the opportunity to upgrade things like the stereo system to a premium unit typically found only in high-end BMW type vehicles.

Worth mentioning, as well, is that all Mini models come with a 6 speed gearbox as standard, as opposed to the other manufacturers who only offer a 5 speed on their similarly priced vehicles.

Speaking of gearboxes, the Mini also comes as standard with a very clever hill-start feature, which basically holds the brakes for you until you pull away. That could be very useful for someone new to standard transmissions, or anyone slightly out of practice.

To cut a long story short, the lady ended up purchasing a new Mazda 3 which came very well equipped, if not quite up to the standard of the Mini Classic. It was a brand new but 07 model, and so it did save her few dollars compared to the Mini.

However, the price was not the main reason for the purchase of the Mazda. In fact, in the end, we both agreed that the Mini was in many ways a much better deal. It was purely a matter of practicality. The lady in question lives in the countryside north of the city and servicing of the Mini would have been difficult for her due to the sparseness of BMW dealerships in her area.

So there you have it, one Mini lover is now in a Mazda 3, and me? Well, I live closer to the city, so watch this space!!!