I am admittedly biased toward the mini since I have one. They are a few more thousand to buy. I have not
driven one but have seen them up close. My clubs have many reviews of people that have driven them (CRX I have one
I bought new, plus my daugher's that I am fixing up, as well as the mini). For the few thousand more you get a lot more car.
Also proven reliability (do not get the turbo model. Also if you get the automatic it is a japanese transmission). BMW
has never entirely pulled out of the USA. Fiat did. Maybe they will stay this time. I doubt it. There is too much competition
now in the small car market, even very good ones from Ford (possibly others too). I did the price configure thing on
New Cars, Used Cars, Car Reviews and Pricing - Edmunds.com . By the time you upscale the fiat just a little, you can get the mini, which is simply put a much better car.
It seems time is on your side. You should go test drive both the fiat and the mini. (BASE, meaning non-turbo)
Must haves in my opinion are the sport package (you get much better seats), shift paddles for the automatic (I think these
are free but you have to order them) and the front and rear fog light. DO NOT test drive a model that has the run flat tires.
It will leave you with the impression that the mini has the same suspension as an army truck. 90 percent of mini owners
get rid of the run flat tires. Mine came with run flats the ride was bone-jarring. I replaced them with regular tires
and the difference was literally night and day.
Also, you can now get a kit on ebay to change the mini dash console that allows the addition of a DVD player.
(I have a baby and this is important). But the point is that for $100 on that you can put in a super nice radio and
have it with GPS and all the goodstuff (I don't care about all that I just got the DVD).
I could go on and on.
For a couple thousand more you get BMW handling and safety as well as (in my opinion) reliability and longevity.
I do like the style of the fiat though. But really not as much as the scion IQ. Although I would get the fiat I think before the IQ.