My family had a series of (about five?) Minis across about twenty-five years, and starting with a very early model - about when I was a baby.
I learned to drive and passed my test on one of these - a mid 1970s model.
I always enjoyed driving the Mini.
Road-holding was good; engine-braking was so marked that you hardly needed to use the foot-brake; it was good in the snow; and I found it quite acceptable even on long journeys (e.g. Edinburgh to Bristol, about 400 miles).
The seating was comfortable - or at least did not give me a backache (as so many car seats did), despite me being 6ft tall.
(And Mini's were small - only about 10 ft long, with tiny wheels - taking up less space with wheel arches; but a miraculously clever maximization of internal space, that owners other similar-external-sized cars could only envy.)
Early Minis had more and better design features such as sliding windows allowing large door pockets; a boot lid that opened with a hinge at the bottom, to make a shelf for extra luggage (number-plate was hinged to remain vertical and legal!); hydrolastic suspension would stick the car to the road.
I later inherited a late 70s/ early 1980s model that was the only car I've owned with which I had a kind of personal relationship.
I still miss the Mini - the only care I ever owned who I feel this way about.
See what I did then? I said "who" about a car. That's it, really.
