MINI has shown us what happens when you redesign what was originally a retro car: You don’t. What you do is refine and enhance the qualities of the original without losing touch, and that’s precisely the story with the new Mini, which appears five years after the old (new) Mini’s launch here in 2002 and makes no doubt of the previous model’s having got the formula pretty right. But despite the look-closer styling, there’s a lot of new stuff in the R56 Mini, from the all-new body panels to a new front suspension, new six-speed auto and manual transmissions, and brand-new 1.6-litre engines. The claim is there’s more room in the new car (you’d need a micrometer to find it), but the interior is a tangibly better place than before and there’s a whole heap of new options that make it possible to spend even more of a fortune on a car that starts at little more than $30,000.