To make up for the larger and heavier body, Volvo bolts on a big engine to compensate. The thirstier engine pulling heavier load makes fuel economy go way down.

I have no doubt, on paper and from the numbers, Volvo has done a fine job in creating a car capable of competing against MINI. However, BMW is known for building driver-oriented, high performance cars in the same way that Volvo is known for building safety-conscious, practical cars. These differences shows up both in the design of the cars, as well as during driving — where MINI is IMO by far more enthusiastic and more fun to drive and Volvo calmer and practical.

Gabe, none of the C1 cars are “based on” any of the others. They all originated from a common, jointly designed platform.

Right – that’s a better way to phrase it.

Gabe, none of the C1 cars are “based on” any of the others. They all originated from a common, jointly designed platform.

Volvo seems to be trying to tout mini-like customization with the C30, but I just went through their configurator, and It’s no where close to the mini’s level of options.

Definatly an argument we’ve heard before. The MINI has been put up against several cars that would fall more into the “sportwagon” category. My favorites have been seeing it in comparos with four other 4-door cars and dinging it significantly for lack of rear doors and trunk space.

The C-30 is 20″ longer & 4″ wider than the MINI; 575 lbs heavier; & sports a roughly 50 HP/60 lb-ft torque advantage. I think the size differential puts the C-30 in the NHSTA midsize category–along with the S40. (This info is not on the NHSTA website yet.) The 2007 MINI remains in the compact category. So we’re not looking at a true apples to apples comparison.

On top of it, the MINI was tooling around on $%^#@ runflats, while the C30 gets around on P Zero’s. No wonder the C30 did so well in the handling & braking tests. Real world, the cost of shifting the MCS to a set of decent tires would still have the MCS coming in cheaper than the C30–and would most likely change the results of the test.

Still, I’ve always been a fan of the old 1800. The Volvo’s a damn fine looking car–much like the MINI it evokes the predecessor, while not falling too hard on the cliched. But it’s too damn big for my tastes, even if it is a “small” Volvo.

Not that I’m biased or anything, but I’d still take the MINI.

every single one i saw on the dealer lot had panels the did not line up right. and almost every change screams either cheaper or softer

Where small cars really need to go in the US is diesel, though. The BMW 1-Series has a 50 mpg diesel available in the UK that gets the car to 60 in around 7 seconds. That is about the only thing that conceivably could get me out of my MINI.