Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by petrol engines and utilizing the 5-door suv body style within the same 'SUV' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Mini and rear in the case of the BMW). The first one has a Peugeot-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 95hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 150hp engine designed by BMW.

The fact that the Mini got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, puts it sky-high safety-wise, in my eyes at least. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the suv segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? On the other hand, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the German car offers a considerable difference of 13% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Mini does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Mini, as well as BMW, with the same average rating of 4.1 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Countryman as average reliability-wise, and X1 is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as the British car rank it on average as 4.6, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.3 out of 5.

BMW is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2.2 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 202 kilometers per hour, 29km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the British car, averaging around 6 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (47 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 37% difference compared to the German car!

Mini appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the British car beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. From there things take a different direction, with BMW outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but Mini. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.