I voted that Mini = BMW. We, too, have both in our household. Mini is a way for the marketing gurus to attract a younger audience without "tarnishing" the value of the brand for the elite who think price = quality. It also gives BMW a chance to play with FWD. We have a variety of "low-powered" BMWs in the house, including a Z3 1.9, E46 323, '07 Cooper and E82 128. I have to say that the Mini holds its own against the rest of the fleet. It's built solidly, handles brilliantly, has a quality interior (though in a different vein than the typical German car… it's more like the Japanese version of "built well, big gaps") and, to me, is an exceptional driving machine. Ultimate? Maybe not, but certainly more-so than the AWD 3-series slushboxes. (And no, I'm not ragging on them as they serve their purpose; but I do believe they are farther from BMW tradition than the Mini.)
