MiniCoop, You're absolutely right, beauty is in the eye's of the beholder. And that's the reason I've NEVER heard ANYBODY, ANYWHERE, ever call a MiniCooper "beautiful". Cute, yes. Beautiful...nada. If you consider a "2-box" design beautiful...then more power to ya, most people wouldn't.

If you don't believe how many g's a car pulls on a skid pad, or how fast a car runs a slalom course has anything to do with determining how well a car handles, then there is no use discussing this any further.

I wasn't knocking the MiniCooper, I actually think it's a pretty neat car. It's performance capabilities using a Turbocharged 4 cyl. are so frighteningly close to those of a Limited XF, that "seat-of-the-pants" measurements would never be able to tell a difference. That's why I had to resort to checking magazine road tests for the answer. On any given day, on a tight twisty track (where H.P. wouldn't be as much of a deciding factor) it would probably be a "drivers" race.