Justin Webb test drives the Mini

BMW's new Mini - looking to the future with a taste of the past.

By the BBC's Justin Webb.

It is fabarooney.

And I use that word in its widest sense.

The new Mini - or MINI as I think it wants to be called - is a little bubble of retro style, rooted in the sixties, but with a pleasing tincture of modernity.

It drives like a ... well, like a Mini. In other words you're sitting low, as if on a go-cart. And if you hit a bump you feel it.

But it's a pretty fast go-cart these days and a pretty luxurious one.

BMW plainly want to impress drivers of the top of the range models with the pokiness of the their efforts under the bonnet. These cars will go fast - and surely we'll see them rallying before long.

Justin Webb - took the new car for a spin

But it's the "girlie" stuff inside that catches the eye.

There are drinks holders! Imagine that in your Uncle Dick's Mini Traveller, and airconditioning and electric mirrors.

Now some will say this is all wrong. A mini - even a MINI - with a drinks holder is not playing the game.

Certainly when I test drove the car with a group of motoring correspondents a few weeks ago there was a lively debate on the subject of interior features.

There is a strongly held view among some that the girlie stuff will present the this car with a potential problem.

Chaps from Essex - the thinking goes - will not want to seen dead in something an Essex girl might drive.

Me, I didn't mind a bit. In fact I used one of the drinks holders. But then what do I know; in real life I drive a people carrier...