Not only has adding rear doors to the Mini opened up sales to fleets, it has also made the hatch much more practical.

There is only 72mm difference in wheelbase from the three-door to the five-door, but Mini has packaged the car in a way where the extra space is notable. There’s more headroom in the cabin due to an 11mm increase in height, and the extra length means even with the driver’s seat back far enough to accommodate someone 6ft tall, there’s still enough room in the rear to sit comfortably (see image, top right). This wasn’t really possible before on the three-door as the rear seats were very much for occasional use. The larger body style also makes room for a proper central seat, so you could fit in five people without feeling like sardines.

The boot space on the five-door has also increased by 67 litres to 278 litres with the seats up and by 210 litres to 941 litres with the seats down. It means the five-door Mini is more practical than its closest rival the Audi A1 Sportback, which offers 270 litres and a maximum of 920 litres.

A long weekend break to the coast gave me the chance to cram as much into the boot with the seats up as possible. While we don’t have any little’uns to test out how the rear seats are on a long journey, the Mini five-door is the only car I’ve had so far where our dog Molly will actually settle down to sleep. Comfy!