It seems there’s some compensatin’ going on here. Take Mini Chief Engineer Gert Hildebrand’s comments, for example: “Looking at the interior, we decided to revolutionize the design of the Mini inside the car in order to give greater emphasis to the Mini’s strong and masculine character.” There’s that masculine thing again. Maybe we’re missing something, yet despite attractive updating, we just can’t put our minds around a Mini Cooper being a manly car. And revolutionize? That’s hard to rationalize when the before and after pics exhibit a large speedometer smack dab in the middle of the dash.

Maybe a better approach is to guess what the 2007 Mini Cooper is saying to potential buyers. Our guess goes something like this: “I’m still possibly the cutest car you can buy, only now I’m a little bigger, kind of like the back side of the North American buyer I’m trying to lure into showrooms. Plus, I’ve got more available power under my bonnet, and added interior features to make day-to-day life a bit more pleasant and safe.” And in an effort to support Mini officials’ whole masculine push, make sure to read the Cooper’s comments in your best Dirty Harry voice.

Photos courtesy of Mini