Me and Mini have both grown up

A selection of Minis - just make sure parking is secure. Picture / Ted Baghurst

One of my first cars was an orange 1976 Mini that was stolen - twice - by a 14-year-old fanatic of the British car.

The first time the underage driver stole it from outside my garage-less Auckland flat one night, he put a new stereo in it, upgraded my tyres and spray painted the sides of it with Michael Jackson song titles.

A police patrol found it, as well as a near car yard of stolen Minis outside the teen's home, and reunited me with my car - only to have the Mini fanatic steal it again that night ... and write it off in a joy ride alongside a railway track.

Over the years when I've tested Minis - including a 1993 Cooper and the second generation new-look Mini at its Spain launch - I've been wary of where I park it.

So with the gen-three Mini Cooper in my possession this week there was only place for it - doors locked inside my bolted double garage. I wasn't taking any chances.

My entry-level Cooper came with a new 1.5-litre, three-cylinder engine, paired with a six-speed manual gearbox and was priced from $36,200 (add $3000 for the auto).

Being the third manual I'd tested in about a year, which says a lot about Kiwi buying habits, it took me a couple of chunky starts at traffic lights to remember the finesse of changing gears.

To help with the gear change, there was a digital read-out below the speedo that told you when to move from fourth to fifth gear to give the engine optimum output.

Image 1 of 14: Mini Cooper. Photo / Ted Baghurst.

On the motorway, the car sat comfortably in fifth gear with sixth only required when I needed to overtake.

The entry-level Cooper came with 16in alloys plus fuel-saving stop-start technology, with the central dial illuminated around the edge green when it was in action or red when accelerating.

The engine gets a 10kW, 60Nm increase over the previous petrol version, while externally the bonnet and grille gets a hefty liftup over gen two to give it a prominent appearance.

While initially the larger front headlights appear animal-like, with the daytime running lights on the Mini had a more grown-up look.