This is the third iteration of the modern Mini. It’s styled with the same retro chic as ever, but these days it has a greater sophistication to it – making it altogether more civilised to travel in.

This Mini is a premium vehicle whose interior feels classy even before you’ve started getting into the endless options for personalising it. Material quality is generally good, with touchy-feely plastics and sturdy switchgear, and by the standards of its class there’s plenty of room in both rows of seats.

There’s enough space in the boot for it to be useful, too. It’s not the biggest in its class, but it can be enlarged by dropping the 60:40 split rear bench.

Stowage space up front is kind of limited, however, and though the controls are generally easy to find and reach there’s a somewhat untidy look to the dash layout. The orange glow behind the instrument panel could be considered a little tacky, too, and while you can adjust the driver’s seat to your heart’s content it’s not all that easy to get at the levers with which to do so.

Once sorted, you’ll find that the Mini provides an excellent view of the road all around you. So it’s easy to park even without the various options which can help with this, or even do it for you.

On the subject of options, it’s worth adding the Pepper Pack – which includes a multifunction steering wheel, height-adjustable boot floor and auto wipers and headlamps, as well as mood lighting for the dash and an upgrade to climate control from the standard air-con. We’d recommend stumping up for lumbar adjustment, too, as well as for one of the colour media displays.

As standard, a colour screen is a bit of a hole in the Mini’s kit list. You do at least get Bluetooth, DAB and a USB jack, however, and whether or not you pay for an upgrade you’ll find it an easy system to use.

The Mini is a generally easy car to drive, too, with a range of petrol and diesel engines whose smooth power delivery marks them out from the crowd. We’d recommend the 1.5-litre petrol unit in the Cooper or the similarly sized diesel in the Cooper D, but unless you’re a real speed freak the Cooper S isn’t worth the extra money.

What is worth it are the optional adaptive shocks, which improve a ride that can be rather fussy around town. Refinement is generally good, though, with wind noise at speed the main interruption.

We’ve not been blown away by the Mini’s handling, however. It does turn in eagerly, and with plenty of grip, but if you really give it the beans in a corner you might find yourself running wide more easily than you expect.

Talking of expectations, don’t go to a dealer assuming he’ll knock off a king’s ransom. The Mini range is already keenly priced, which is enough for it to make good sense as a purchase. Running costs are suitably modest, too, while retained values are strong – and you can pay for all your servicing up-front at a bargain price. Mini’s overall reliability record is only so-on, though.

With a four-star EuroNCAP crash test rating, the Mini is good but not brilliant if the worst comes to the worst. It’s one of the best cars in its class at preventing that from happening in the first place, though, with plenty of standard and optional kit – the latter including adaptive cruise and autonomous emergency braking.

So there’s plenty of substance to the Mini to go with its evident style. With the excellent Audi A1 and Volkswagen Polo among its rivals, it doesn’t have the premium end of the small hatchback market all to itself – but it certainly does enough to be worthy of consideration alongside anything else.