I'm not sure I could silence my inner brand snob enough to buy a Kia over a Subaru. Even a Subaru styled by Toyota and sold as a Scion.

I don't fully understand the fetishization of the R50/3.

Also, it's perhaps worth noting that the Focus ST is 21.7 inches longer than this car, 12 inches wider, 3.4 inches taller and weighs...well, no one is quite sure what this new MINI weighs. But Ford claims the Focus ST weighs 3223lbs and I can pretty much guarantee that this JCW isn't going to hit that number.

Those are the numbers for the S (as stated in the article). the JCW is expected to be higher. No one has said how much higher, though. The last gen version was, iirc, just a hair under 210, so I'd be surprised to see this one at less than 225. 250 would be lovely, though at that point you really start to get into…

That would be a tough call for me. It would be close. the Fiesta ST is a little bit generic boy racer for my tastes, but the new MINI is a visual clusterfuck up front.

Almost as big as a Mk3 Golf? Holy Crap, that's HUUUGGGG....waitasec...a Mk 3? That's actually still really small. How many cars in 2014 AREN'T as big as a compact from 1991?

I very much like the look of the 500L. Much moreso than the Countryman. A fair bit more than the Soul. The Cube and the Juke give it a run for its visual money, for my tastes.

Not bigger, really. Just taller.

Huh? I feel like I'm pretty up to date on the Cooper's problems and I can't recall ever hearing much about electrical gremlins.

I've bought two cars in the last 3 years, of similar MSRP. I ended up negotiating pretty similar deals for each of them, one using TrueCar and the other without. The negotiation using TrueCar was much quicker and easier, though.

This just doesn't make me upset. I like small cars, but I' not in a competition to prove that I have the smallEST car...