I’d go for the 4 cylinder petrol engine in either 3 or 5 door

From memory the 4 cylinder engines are either the Chrysler one in the early ones or the Peugeot in the later ones. After that its the 3 cylinder.

We had a Chrysler engined one, disappointing. It was plagued with oil leaks and drove nowhere near as nicely as the Puma we had before it, did not keep it long. Test drove the Peugeot engined one and that drove better but then read about the dreadful reliability issues, binned the idea.

So if you must have a Mini I would go for a 3 cylinder one since that generally gets good press.

Thank you very much. Problem is procrastinating too much as don't need a car for my job. Bus stop is outside. Will keep your suggestion in mind. Very kind of you!