ALL (mostly, sorta, hard to tell) New!(News)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

They say it's all-new, and if you look really closely at the spec sheet and all the changes, you see what they mean. But just by looking at or even driving the new 2007 Mini, there isn't any one thing that leaps out as being revolutionary.

Take the new, lighter, more efficient, VANOS- and Valvetronic-equipped engines. Yes they're "all-new,'' a result of a four-year-old collaboration with PSA Peugeot-Citroen, which manufactures it, and BMW, which designed it. But the new engines make only 5 more horsepower in normally aspirated trim and only 7 more in turbo. Now, no Mini enthusiast is going to say nein danke to 5 or 7 more hp; heck, half the Mini aftermarket has built business cases on stuff that claims 5 to 7 hp boosts. But it ain't like they strapped a Saturn 5 rocket underneath it and lit the fuse.

Then there's the body, also "new.'' Quick, look at two Minis side by side, one old and one new, and try to tell them apart. Uh-huh. It's like the Pepsi Challenge.

The new car is almost three inches longer in front with a slightly higher hood. This was done to accommodate the new European pedestrian-whacking regulations, which demand that the front ends of all cars have to have upright bulging snouts to more comfortably collect jaywalkers.

The grille and headlights are different if you look closely at them. Every body panel has been changed, too, but not by much.

The roof and floor are the same, the side frame is new, and the complete front end is new, though the track is the same. Torsional rigidity is up 5 percent.