I've always liked hot hatchbacks, and have owned an '86 Civic Si, '98 VW GTI, and a 2010 Cooper S. I also have a '78 MG Midget that I've owned for 20 years, so I definitely enjoy enthusiastic driving.
I'd owned the Cooper for about 5-1/2 years, and got to doing some thinking regarding my upcoming retirement; although my MINI was quite reliable, they don't have much of a reputation for staying that way. Plus, doing without a spare tire never seemed like a good idea, and frankly I'd pretty much gotten over the MINI thing. So I started researching the FiST, and liked everything I saw about it. It had more power, two extra doors, a much better infotainment package, a spare tire... Plus, there's a Ford dealership three miles from our home, compared to thirty miles for the MINI. My dear wife was actually amenable to the idea, and the final result was the Oxford White FiST out in our garage. Note that it ended up costing about $4,000 less than the MINI did originally, even with Recaros and the moonroof - and even costs less to insure new than the five-year old MINI. Actually, one of the main selling points was that I watched umpteen different FiST review videos on YouTube, and every one of them was not only very positive, but involved lots of giggling. That's all I needed to know.
FieSTa Blanca